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Hi all, I am not going to ask you guys to chance me, as I know the application cycle will be an uphill battle for me from a low GPA and non-traditional background. I majored in Economics at an Ivy League with minors in Math and Statistics. I didn't do so well in the Economics with a few C's, a few A's, and mostly B's,(major GPA ~ 3.1) while my Math (mostly A's with an occasional A-), Stat, and other STEM courses such as CompSci and Econometrics was around 3.75. My cumulative GPA including the 'general ed' courses was right below 3.40, with the lowest semester being the first semester of my third year. I finish both my senior semesters with a 3.9. It seems that my GPA progression is hyperbolic and concaved upwards over the semesters. I will have taken up to Real Analysis, scoring A-/A in my math courses from undergrad and graduate institutions. Now, I am enrolled in my final year in a statistics masters program at a mid tier state school (to be specific - mid tier for statistics) and will be expecting a final GPA between 3.8-4.0. I will also be completing a master's paper on the topic comparing multivariate time series models using foreign exchange data (not a publication in a journal). My interest lies in financial engineering and multivariate statistics. My GRE is V:160/Q:166/W:4 (I plan on retaking. Also I am taking the GRE Math subject to hopefully scoring between the 50th to 70th percentile. The higher the better but without the math major, I don't know how feasible it is.) I have around 1 year of work experience in finance and data analytics (business strategy) as I recently finished my undergrad. So my questions for PhD programs are: 1) Besides the big names such as Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, and Berkeley, where else offers such programs with respect to my interest in financial engineering and high dimensional statistics? I'd like to stay on the coasts. 2) Which schools are more reasonable to be set as target schools? 3) Is it worth my while to work towards a post-bac in math to compensate for the GPA and gain the necessary coursework? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi I'm CS undergrad with 1 year industry experience, 1+ years of lab intern experience (machine learning, computational biology). I'm trying to apply at phD programs. I love machine learning but during my internship, I found I'm not that really interested in computational biology as I first thought and I want to search labs where I can research deep learning and trading system such as stock recommendation system, trading agent using RL, stock forecasting with various deep models, interpreting chart etc... I've been told at ML courses RL and machine learning system has been successful at these fields but I couldn't find many papers or labs doing deep learning and financial trading. Is there any university or labs with these research topic? I want to study with researchers with same interest and look for labs, but don't know where to start

I have fortunately gotten the admissions of UChicago Stat MS and Columbia MFE. But I am extremely entangled now. Although I planned to pursue a PhD degree after graduation with a Master's degree, MFE of Columbia is in NY and a good brand for finding a highly-paid work. My problem is that I do not have enough research experience when undergraduating. Can a Master's program remedy this disadvantage? So what do you think of the two programs? Moreover, how much is the difficulty to apply for a PhD program after graduating from UChicago? Thanks a lot!

Hello, I'm interested in Financial Engineering (or computational finance) and Risk Management topics. That's why I'm applying to Imperial College to their Financial Engineering & Risk Management program. But I've seen the acceptance rate might be an issue for me, specially for my GPA (around 70%). I did a Financial Engineering Master degree en Chile and I work as a consultant, mainly in Risk Management topics. I'm searching a program with a fee under 40,000 USD/year. Do you know a good program of a top 100 university where I can get a better chance of being accepted? Thanks in advance.

Hello Everyone! I am a third year Banking and Finance student in one of Turkey's best colleges. I have to decide whether I will apply for Finance or Financial Engineering. If I choose Financial Engineering I have to take some extra courses from Math department and Computer Science department for the rest of my college years. My concern is not getting accepted to MFE programs since there are many Computer Science or Math major people applying. What should my path be now and after graduation?

Hi, I would like to seek your inputs on my profile as below. 1) B.E., MBA from India followed by MSFE (MS in Fin Engg) from S'pore. 2) 10 year of professional experience 3) GMAT - 730, GRE - 325 Any advise on the prospective schools for a PhD in Finance, preferably in HongKong, US would be very much appreciated. Thanks.