Wall Street Financier looking to transition to MS in Statistics at Stanford or UC Berkeley

[Khaball]

Hi all,

 

I'm thinking about applying for Masters for Fall 2014. 

 

My profile: 

 

Work Experience: 1.5 Years as of now at a top shop (like GS, MS, BlackRock, Pimco). Two projects were statistics/scripting focused:

• Built an R model to forecast loan default rates for a foreign central bank client using a logistic regression
• Designed a process for emulating insurance liabilities using a portfolio of financial securities (basically a regression with the liabilities as the dependent variable iterated over different security types as predictors)

 

GRE: 167 for both Quant and Verbal

 

UG GPA: 3.5 at a well-reputed business school (like Wharton/Stern/Haas/Sloan)

Coursework includes: 

• Regression/Forecasting Models: A
• Financial Engineering: B+ 
• Forecasting Time Series: A
• Multivariate Regression: A- 
• Calc I Honors: A-
• Calc II: B+ 

I suspect my academic background is my weakness (I have a 3.5 and the average at Stanford is 3.9), but I hope that my work experience compensates for it.

 

Not sure how much the personal statement matters, but I do believe I have a decent reason: did statistics-focused projects at work, grew more interested in statistics, and sometimes wondered what else I could have done better if I had more education in statistics. 

 

I plan on fortifying my academic background with Linear Algebra in the summer and Real Analysis in the fall. Does the prestige of the school I take these at matter? I would prefer to get this done cheaply.

 

Should I get 2 academic recommendations and 1 professional one, or 1 academic and 2 professional ones? My professional references know me better and are more familiar with what I can do.

 

Should I send 4 LoRs to Stanford (2 and 2)? They say they do take 4, but prefer 3. 

 

I will be applying to other schools as well, but Stanford and UC Berkeley are my top choices. Do I have a realistic shot?

 

Lastly, does actually visiting the department matter?

 

Thanks in advance for any responses. 

Edited April 14, 2013 by Kabal

[creed_the_third]

As far as I know most masters programmes are mostly interested in if the potential student has the mathematical skills to succeed. I think your work experience is good in that it puts your application in perspective and that you might write an interesting SoP, but I'm unsure how much of a merit it will be in its own right. 

 

I do not think it will matter what school you take analysis and linear algebra at, as long as it has a decent math department. You really should also try to take a calculus based mathematical statistics and probability course.

Edited April 15, 2013 by creed_the_third

[biostat_prof]

First, I don't know about Stanford and Berkeley specifically, but MS programs at many (most?) schools are just "cash cows." Usually the bar to admissions isn't very high. And your work experience is likely to help you quite a bit, since you are likely to have a good chance of getting another job on Wall Street when you are done, and pointing to alumni working on Wall Street is a great way to sell your department to prospective students. So I definitely think you should be competitive.

 

That said, I would definitely favor academic recommendations if you think you can get strong ones. What we mainly want to see in recommendation letters is a comparison between you and your classmates; are you in the top 25% or top 5% or whatever? A letter from an employer that says that you are an outstanding employee is much harder to evaluate. That said, if you are working with other "quants" and you can get a supervisor to say that you are better than many of the other quants from prestigious schools, that will definitely help. Taking linear algebra and real analysis will help, too. (And if there is any benefit to taking them at a "higher-ranked" school, it almost certainly isn't enough of a benefit to justify paying drastically higher tuition. The only real reason to attend a "higher ranked" school is if you are worried about your recommendations and you want to try to cultivate a relationship with a well-known faculty member, but that is going to be awfully tough to do in a few months before applications are due.) And I doubt visiting either department will help unless you are an extremely borderline case (and probably not even then). Good luck.

[creed_the_third]

First, I don't know about Stanford and Berkeley specifically, but MS programs at many (most?) schools are just "cash cows." Usually the bar to admissions isn't very high.

According to Stanfords website only 14% of applicants get admitted to their masters, so it's not that easy . Though I assume that the applicant pool isn't as strong as for a phd program.

Edited April 15, 2013 by creed_the_third

[biostat_prof]

According to Stanfords website only 14% of applicants get admitted to their masters, so it's not that easy . Though I assume that the applicant pool isn't as strong as for a phd program.

 

Interesting. I guess it's more competitive than I thought. In general, though, MS admissions are usually far less competitive than PhD admissions, since MS students aren't funded at most schools.

[Khaball]

Interesting. I guess it's more competitive than I thought. In general, though, MS admissions are usually far less competitive than PhD admissions, since MS students aren't funded at most schools.

 

I imagine the separation is mostly between the depth of mathematics background and research experience. It seems that, at least for Stanford, the GPAs are similar (listed on their site as 3.9 for Master's and 3.94 for PhD). Although the lack of a third digit on the former perhaps boasts what it is intended to obscure...

 

Couldn't tell from poking around a few department sites if there was a GRE Q difference between Master's and PhD students. 

 

Thank you creed, and biostat_prof, for the feedback thus far. 

 

I have another concern: Would Calc III or a Probability Class be more beneficial to my ventures?

[cyberwulf]

I have another concern: Would Calc III or a Probability Class be more beneficial to my ventures?

You're going to need both, big-time. Also you'll probably want to add on a mathematical statistics course.

[DMX]

berkeley and stanford are the more "choosier" of the MS programs, but i think you will have a solid shot at both. any reason why you are focusing on only those two?

Edited April 16, 2013 by DMX

[Khaball]

berkeley and stanford are the more "choosier" of the MS programs, but i think you will have a solid shot at both. any reason why you are focusing on only those two?

 

I have family in the greater SF area. 

 

Thanks cyberwulf for the suggestion, and DMX for your thoughts. 

Edited April 20, 2013 by Kabal