How do you increase your odds at getting accepted to a good quantitative finance program? What can I do to get into graduate school?
The answer everyone knows is to study hard for your GRE exam. This is good advice however your Statement of Purpose (SoP) and other qualitative documents is what sets great students apart from good students. If you want to get into a great grad program you need to have a clear story of where you have been, why grad school will help now, and what will you do with it in the future.
Common themes in bad SoP:
1) Explaining how great their program is.
They already know their ranking and probably think they are the best program so it doesn’t help your chances by telling them what they know.
2) Typical expected story.
People know you must do well in high school and college to get into grad school. So why write the generic, I was great in high school and loved math, I was great in college and loved math, and now I want to be a quant. I hate reading these stories. Tell me what your passion is and why quantitative finance. If you loved math so much why aren’t you a theoretical math PhD? There is nothing wrong with a theoretical math PhD but it shows you are wanting a masters in quantitative finance for the wrong reasons. The same advice goes for resumes.
Elevator Pitch/My Story example:
source
Excellent advise Dimitri. I just wished I could back in time and fixed a term that damaged my gpa like 8 years ago, but nevertheless you just have to keep doing your best. I am in junior year in Math degree, what is your take on joining universities’s clubs like investments or finance? I am trying to manage my time as best as possible while at school and my ultimate goal is to be able to join a financial engineering masters in a good school. Do you feel a stron involvement in these clubs will boost up a bit my applications? Thanks again for the advice..!
What’s considered a “good” GPA for top quant programs? I’m currently a sophomore and wanted to know what GPA to aim for.
Hi Dmitri great video! Any advice for being on a waitlist at a good program? They claim to send decisions out July at the latest. May I use other acceptances to my advantage and pressure them for an offer? I also was sure to update them as to my new job positions/transcripts. Anything else I can do besides be patient?
Another great video. Thank you!
Dimitri, I just sent you a LinkedIn connect. I'm ARM, PhD.