4 Rejections, 2 Interview to Rejection, 1 wait list, 7 Pending - MFE

chenzefu

2月收到UIUC MSF的拒信，好吧，自己安慰自己说是因为没有 full-time experience~3月至今收到Stanford MSE&Cornell MFE的拒信，另外为什么BU & WUSTL interview 完还是据了我啊。。。
还有6所学校pending...
Carnegie Mellon
GIT
NYU
University of Chicago
University of Toronto
USC

今天10分钟之前又收到了umich的rejection letter, 看来我是不可能继续留在Ann Arbor 学习了，再见了my school...

本人background:4-years undergraduate study at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Major: Industrial & Operations Engineering, Economics
Minor: Mathematics
GPA: 3.40
GRE: 600 + 800 + 3.5
TOEFL: waived
没有美国的实习经验，只有国内的两个暑假internship experience
Recommender： 2 IOE professors + 1 professor teaching Mathematics of Finance



P.S: 有筒子们关心WUSTL MSF面经的with Laura, 请参见那些旧的帖子。她确实喜欢问computer skills & mathematics courses,其他比较random    BU的面试只有15分钟，就是先常规的问题，非技术面

drdr0131

楼主这么强的背景，结果如此不尽如人意，是非常惋惜。但是也不可能全是因为你运气差吧？比如申请太晚了？面试没准备好？ps写好了，简历写得如何呢？
还是要加油，一般来说，这时候就要看人品了，置之死地而后生也~

rebecw

while I am only minoring statistics, but I still have like 36,39 credits every semester (39 is the upper limit we can take in HKU per semester), if you wanna compare the difficulty of my classes, I can only say that I have met the requirements for a MFE, not  phD. What I wanna demonstate here is that in US, A is easy to get. The only possibility you think A is hard is because you did not put effort in it or not smart enough and there's no point in defending such a thing. Also, It depends on whether the school curves or not, in HKU, we do curve for some course while not for others. (Math we usually do not curve) You think Stern is networking, well I cannot say no, yet I took Strategic Decision theory in NYU and I don't think that's a easy course with so many math proofs (we usually proved one theorem and that finished a two hour course), and we have only 6 student in the class. Anyway, I am not trying to be rude here but want to express my feelings.

-- by 会员 catheme (2011/4/22 8:19:26)

请允许这个世界上不是每个人都as smart as you或者 as 努力 as you。如果每个人都是拿A的15%，谁去垫底?你让论坛上gpa 3.5一下甚至3.0以下的童鞋情何以堪？还有多少人gmat考了一遍又一遍最后针扎着来个IIT UIC UTD的offer就好的童鞋情何以堪？
you are representing the top 15% of the pyramid, but do not assume everyone else can view the same landscape as what you saw at the top of the pyramid.
就像电影 <<social network>>里mark对 erica说的那句："you don't have to study, coz you go to BU."

rebecw

我觉得楼主你的GRE还有作为应届的两个实习是ok的 我也不觉得3.4的gpa问题非常大 虽然说上了3.5可能会更好 是不是 ps出了问题 还有interview没有充分准备

-- by 会员 rebecw (2011/4/21 9:27:06)

我还一个致命问题，最后2学期gpa很低，只有3.0出头。。。P.S应该没有问题了，我找学校的career center改了不下5遍，自己改了至少10遍。BU的Interview确实准备不足，被发现了。。。

-- by 会员 chenzefu (2011/4/22 6:55:28)

The gpa of last two semesters is extremely important.

jz8845

发现原来今年很悲剧的不只我一个.....
晚交application,不好好写ps....哎....
我连收了7个rejections....
被bu waitlist的时候瞬间觉得这么多年在美国这么努力真的都是白费掉了....
现在只有columbia的msor....还在等nyu.....

-- by 会员 jz8845 (2011/4/22 4:28:49)

columbia OR你是直接申请的，还是从MFE转的？我是直接申请的，结果悲剧了。。。
同等NYU,还有Gatech, USC, CMU。。。我的哥大financial mathematics wait list...哎，你本科major是什么啊？

-- by 会员 chenzefu (2011/4/22 6:57:17)

我本科dual degree: business administration (finance), math
是个30多的liberal arts college....就gpa高点 overall 3.9, fin+math:4.0
然后只有个boutique的wealth management的summer intern
直接申的columbia的or的 想用这个保底的 知道mfe很难进 而且这个跟我的一个summer research topic 很近....结果这个真的保了底....连收7个rejection加1个wl的那3个月没直接崩溃了....
其实我倒是一半都申的stats master然后ps就是照搬了我mfe的ps （我知道我脑残了....）然后全军覆灭
然后princeton, cmu连interview都没拿到....nyu和usc还未知....看到好多人都拿到了usc的....然后我的居然还是在first stage review.....
我觉得今年申太晚是很大一个原因，我朋友很多说bu把3rd round的人基本上都wl或者拒了因为之前招满了....反正很悽惨....
我想这个星期之内就decide要不要去columbia....知道那个项目很烂的....所以很想等nyu的.....然后其他人都直接说我nyu肯定没戏的....anyway...反正就是各种纠结郁闷.....

catheme

I thought I learned something, maybe not a lot from your judgment. I chose classes based on the reputation of professor and the usefulness of courses, not how easy to get As. Getting A, from my point of view, is a reward for my whole semester work, not the only target as you have misjudged. I have taken the course that my professor told me he only gave me A+ out of like 100 studnet in his class. I guess I have to have at least some good point besides the marks to make him thought so. Besides, I had a chance 4 years ago to choose between PKU math and HKU Econ&Fin, the reason I chose HK is because I think I can learn more and interact more here at HK ,which I treasured a lot more and did achieve.

catheme

while I am only minoring statistics, but I still have like 36,39 credits every semester (39 is the upper limit we can take in HKU per semester), if you wanna compare the difficulty of my classes, I can only say that I have met the requirements for a MFE, not  phD. What I wanna demonstate here is that in US, A is easy to get. The only possibility you think A is hard is because you did not put effort in it or not smart enough and there's no point in defending such a thing. Also, It depends on whether the school curves or not, in HKU, we do curve for some course while not for others. (Math we usually do not curve) You think Stern is networking, well I cannot say no, yet I took Strategic Decision theory in NYU and I don't think that's a easy course with so many math proofs (we usually proved one theorem and that finished a two hour course), and we have only 6 student in the class. Anyway, I am not trying to be rude here but want to express my feelings.

chenzefu

I got 3.90 in HKU and 4.0 in my exchange semester in NYU Stern, I dont think its a big deal, many of my friends can get same GPA with me~

-- by 会员 catheme (2011/4/21 14:28:01)

我在stern听过一堂 大三finance的课 2009spring吧 我觉得内容神马的没有很难 但是他们grading比较不同 不是按照95分以上a 85分b这种来的 是全班前15%是A 我觉得这样很好 而且NYU是个network为王的学校


同样的今年3月去umich 感觉那边学术氛围比较压抑 我一个朋友年ee的 说实验室有个学生做实验没日没夜到脑出血死掉（当然本身体质也不好加过劳）。


所以it really depends学校的氛围和个人所学的东西。中国人对于拿4.0的追求这种热情从来没有减少过。我身边也有人为了拿4.0选课之前东问西问希望挑个简单的课和nice的教授。But so what，你学到多少东西？考试100分并不能检验出什么，但等你真正工作了，社会。能检验出你到底值不值4.0. （并无冒犯之意， 我相信straight A student也是付出努力以及有他们过人之处的）

-- by 会员 rebecw (2011/4/22 5:02:37)

哈哈，很同意你的话。rebecw,你的语气很有过来人的感觉啊~~

chenzefu

发现原来今年很悲剧的不只我一个.....
晚交application,不好好写ps....哎....
我连收了7个rejections....
被bu waitlist的时候瞬间觉得这么多年在美国这么努力真的都是白费掉了....
现在只有columbia的msor....还在等nyu.....

-- by 会员 jz8845 (2011/4/22 4:28:49)

columbia OR你是直接申请的，还是从MFE转的？我是直接申请的，结果悲剧了。。。
同等NYU,还有Gatech, USC, CMU。。。我的哥大financial mathematics wait list...哎，你本科major是什么啊？

chenzefu

我觉得楼主你的GRE还有作为应届的两个实习是ok的 我也不觉得3.4的gpa问题非常大 虽然说上了3.5可能会更好 是不是 ps出了问题 还有interview没有充分准备

-- by 会员 rebecw (2011/4/21 9:27:06)

我还一个致命问题，最后2学期gpa很低，只有3.0出头。。。P.S应该没有问题了，我找学校的career center改了不下5遍，自己改了至少10遍。BU的Interview确实准备不足，被发现了。。。