Hi everyone,
Looking for a reality check on my profile and a plan to work on technical gaps before the December application deadlines for the 2027 intake.
Profile:
• Demographics: 24M, in Canada
• Work Exp: Currently a S&T Associate at a Top 5 Canadian Bank.
• Full-time experience in a Sales & Trading, covering multiple asset classes (Credit, Equities, and Funding/Repo).
• Significant experience (~3yrs by the time I apply) building Python dashboards/ Bloomberg-integrated tools for relative value screening/ option greek exposures/ other stat related portfolio visualizations & general trading workflow automation using VBA/SQL.
• Moving into a fixed-income-focused funding role full-time (will have 1yr full time trading experience by the time I start)
• Internship: 16-month S&T internship at the same bank, focused on repo/funding and risk functions.
• Undergrad: Engineering at a top-tier Canadian engineering program (UofT/Waterloo/McGill tier).
• GPA: 3.7/4.0 (Dean’s List, graduated with Honours).
• Awards: Departmental Senior Project Award for a thesis on Applied Machine Learning
My Concern:
My transcript is heavy on applied engineering math (A+ in DiffEq, A in FinEng, A- in Numerical Methods), but I don’t have any formal math courses. I have Calc 1 & 2 and extensive stats/probability, but no formal Calc 3 or Real Analysis.
My Target Strategy (Target Completion by November):
GRE: Targeting a 170 Quant (330+ total).
Coding: Completing the Baruch/QuantNet C++ for Financial Engineering Certificate.
Math: UChicago "Quant Foundation Series" Advanced Linear Algebra to bridge the theoretical gap.
Target Schools:
Princeton MFin, MIT MFin, CMU MSCF, UC Berkeley MFE, Columbia MFE.
Questions:
Does the combination of the UChicago Advanced LinAlg + Baruch C++ suffice to offset the lack of theoretical math on an engineering transcript?
For programs like MIT and CMU, how is 2+ years of total S&T experience (including internship) valued compared to candidates coming from more "Quant" backgrounds?
Are there any other certifications/ coureses I should consider to maximize my chances at the Dec/Jan deadlines?
Appreciate any insights!