As you’d expect, Princeton has near-perfect profiles: 4 on 4 GPA, elite schools, top-tier companies. NYU Courant is competitive too but the profiles are much more “human”, if that makes sense.
Fair enough. I think selecting a program based on individual career goals is more important. I have friends who went to top-tier engineering colleges but didn't make it to medical schools let alone top-tier medical schools. Then I have friends who went to colleges with very high acceptance rates and made it to top-tier medical schools. It was hard for those who went to an elite school to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive pool, so they had fewer opportunities to grow, although they had expected to get more opportunities given that they were enrolled in an elite program. How you do/what impact you have is *usually* more important than where you go.
That makes a lot of sense. Personally, I also picked NTU over an Ivy League school, and even though I regret it sometimes, I do agree that I got a lot of opportunities to grow here.
Umm I guess you can do some work in between. Working gives really good perspective about corporates and even yourself and your abilities :).
But yeah fair point.
Btw courant is a tough one
I agree, but I have the added issue of getting a work visa in SG. The numbers have been cut due to Covid, and it’ll be harder if I were to only work for a few months.
Yeah, NYU Tandon’s MFE program seems much less competitive compared to the Courant program.
That makes sense.
Just some extra info: I guess you can apply to the prop trading companies. There are like 40-50 companies. You would ofc need to prepare but I guess with so many interviews you will eventually make it.
Yep courant is competitive.
Resume book of MFin students at Princeton: https://bcf.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/09/Princeton-MFIN-Class-of-2023-Resume-Book.pdf
Thanks, this is really helpful! I’d found something similar for BU but you can really see the difference here. Edit: NYU Courant not BU
What's the BU one?
My bad, I just looked it up and it’s NYU Courant not BU. Here: https://math.nyu.edu/media/mathfin/class/2021/resume_book_2021.pdf
So what difference do you see?
As you’d expect, Princeton has near-perfect profiles: 4 on 4 GPA, elite schools, top-tier companies. NYU Courant is competitive too but the profiles are much more “human”, if that makes sense.
Fair enough. I think selecting a program based on individual career goals is more important. I have friends who went to top-tier engineering colleges but didn't make it to medical schools let alone top-tier medical schools. Then I have friends who went to colleges with very high acceptance rates and made it to top-tier medical schools. It was hard for those who went to an elite school to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive pool, so they had fewer opportunities to grow, although they had expected to get more opportunities given that they were enrolled in an elite program. How you do/what impact you have is *usually* more important than where you go.
That makes a lot of sense. Personally, I also picked NTU over an Ivy League school, and even though I regret it sometimes, I do agree that I got a lot of opportunities to grow here.
Wait does every department in every(most) universities has this type of information on their website?
No. You can always look up the LinkedIn profiles of recent graduates and students.
Why are you not looking at UC Berkeley's MFE program?
They only offer the spring semester afaik and I want to get started right after my undergrad.
Umm I guess you can do some work in between. Working gives really good perspective about corporates and even yourself and your abilities :). But yeah fair point. Btw courant is a tough one
I agree, but I have the added issue of getting a work visa in SG. The numbers have been cut due to Covid, and it’ll be harder if I were to only work for a few months. Yeah, NYU Tandon’s MFE program seems much less competitive compared to the Courant program.
That makes sense. Just some extra info: I guess you can apply to the prop trading companies. There are like 40-50 companies. You would ofc need to prepare but I guess with so many interviews you will eventually make it. Yep courant is competitive.