Should I be doing an MFE/pre-MFE?

[quantcrank]

My long-term career goals are to work at a Jane Street/Citadel/AQR/Two Sigma/large quant HF

My profile is pretty good, 170Q, 168V, 3.97 GPA (non-target school) (Finance/IS double major, Math Minor), have 18mo in a semi-quantitative role at a buy-side AM firm think large institution in fixed income, some exposure to stochastic calc from the job. CFA Lv 3 Candidate, few actuarial exams passed to stay sharp while out of college.

Given that I went to a well-known, but not so great school, is it worth it to do a pre-MFE before applying to an MFE program to get a better program name on the resume (Baruch/etc?). Also is it worth it do an MFE or would it be better to just study leetcode and apply for a top firm in the same 18-24mo timeframe after sufficient solo work in programming?

I think a large benefit of the MFE programs is you have recruiters actively looking at that pool of people and it would be easier to be recognized.

 

[Onegin]

Jane Street / Hudson / SIG / Citadel Securities seem more on the math olympiad leetcode savant side of the equation.
Two Sigma is ML / Coding / Math Olympiad altogether
AQR is more academic finance - CFA will be appreciated there.

All else equal, I would definitely do the Baruch program if you're considering an MFE. The name probably won't help, but it's a good trial balloon to see what gaps you have. Students out of that program did very well overall in our MFE class. I definitely wish I would have done it instead of working an extra few months before school.

 

[quantcrank]

Thanks for the reply; which MFE class are you referring to? I applied to pre-MFE at Baruch, so thanks we'll see how it goes, then shoot for MFE after and do leetcode on the side.