finance89

I'm in Arizona now... trust me, you shouldn't be afraid of August. Instead, be afraid of June and July lol

bump?

Like the previous poster said, math, math, and more math! Especially a proof based course... Also, try to post here and you might get more advice

Take a look at these lectures before you take a course.. you will do fantstic if you can understand the lectures! Good luck!

You should ask your question here or here instead

You definitely shouldn't wait, applying several months before graduation is very common. In these cases, the graduate school gives the applicant a "conditional offer." The main condition is usually meeting a specific CGPA requirement at graduation. Best of luck to you!

Anyone here starting (or currently enrolled) at The University of Cambridge in 2012?

Hello, and thank you in advance for helping me out! I went to school at a top 20 undergrad business school. Just finished four majors (Finance, Mathematics, Accounting, Business Economics; CGPA 3.95) in five years including each summer and winter term (and many sleepless nights ). I now hold an offer to the Financial Engineering track of MPhil in Finance 2012-2013. Here are the core courses, and here are the electives for this specific track. This degree is 9 months, and I am hoping to start a Finance PhD in the US in 2013. This summer I will take Advanced Econometrics at LSE. About me: Some general resume/interesting highlights:Attended Harvard's SVMP program Passed first level of CFA Gates Scholarship finalist Accounting Honors Thesis on Stock Options/Disclosure Policy (40 pages, lacking strong results, and not good enough to publish) Russian immigrant (came to US at 11..will probably include some of the hardship stories in my PS) Professional table tennis player Aside from a bunch of general education courses, I have taken the following: Finance: Quant. Financial Mgmt., Bloomberg Certification (Equities, Fixed Income, and Foreign Exchange), Corporate Finance, Investments, Real Estate Finance, Applied Investment Management (2 semester course, managing $1m) Mathematics: Calculus (1,2,3), Linear Algebra, Matrix Analysis, Analysis of Ordinary Differential Equations, Intro to Mathematics of Investing, Introduction to Proof, Real Analysis (Audit), Theory of Probability, Theory of Statistics, Mathematical Modeling, Advanced Applied Analysis Business Economics: Int. Micro, Int. Macro, Game Theory, Experimental Economics, Economics of Strategy, Quantitative Methods in Economics, Intro to Econometrics (and will take advanced at LSE this summer) Accounting: Intro to Financial Acct, Intro to Managerial Acct, Intermediate Financial Acct (all 3 semesters, one of which was applied to Finance), Intermediate Cost & Managerial Acct., Analysis of Financial Statements, Accounting Information Systems, Audit, Federal Taxation Other: Python Programming, C Programming, Stat. Inference in Mgmt., Organizational Behavior, Intro to Marketing, Business Communication, Management Information Systems, Basic Operations Management My list of schools (in a rough order of preference):MIT Stanford HBS (Business Economics with Finance track) Chicago Princeton (ORFE) Columbia (IOR) UPenn UCLA Yale Potential Problems/Questions: [*]I am very interested in asset pricing, but still not set on anything more specific (this will probably make my Personal Statement less impressive). [*]Haven't taken GRE yet, but I am pretty sure 800Q won't be a problem (but verbal will lower since I'm not a native speaker). [*]My LORs aren't excellent (very strong, but not from top professors). Would it be risky to ask for a letter from a well known professor at Cambridge even though they will only know me for a several months before I apply (course starts in September, applications due December) [*]Am I crazy for applying to these top schools? Do I have a decent chance for the more quant programs such as Princeton's ORFE, Columbia IOR, CMU Math Finance? [*]Do I need more research experience? [*]Any advice on what I can do at Cambridge to improve my chances of admission? [*]Any general advice as far as applications go? Thank you all very much!