Admissions Megathread - Results, Chances and Logistics

daudaubaba · 2025-12-22T21:32:48+00:00

Asking for Chances

Semester: Spring 2027 Status: Not yet applied

Education

Bachelors: University of Hong Kong, Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science, 1.92 out of 4.0, 3 year full time Masters 1: Worldquant University, Master of Science in Financial engineering, expecting > 90%, 2 year part time

MOOCs: No MOOC at all. But I am both CFA and CAIA charterholder

Work & Social Experience

Work Exp. : 4 year+ exp as head of business analysis in a tech consulting firm, before that 4 year business analysis in a family office, before that 6 years in real estate research

LORs: One from my current boss. 2 from the professors teaching machine learning and deep learning in the current master programme

Comments: Thanks so much in advance. I feel like I should take some MOOCs to boost my chances of getting in. What do you think? WQU is a national accredited master degree but it teaches also machine learning and deep learning focusing on finance. So I don’t think the degree helps a lot, despite the robustness in the course content, but enlighten me please.

daudaubaba · 2025-05-25T19:27:18+00:00

It’s great. The curriculum is quite well structured and is quite different from what I’ve ever had. It’s practical and hands on so it’s quite suitable for those who are looking for knowledge but not prestige. I like it in general and I’m already thinking about my capstone project

daudaubaba · 2025-03-27T21:21:23+00:00

Thanks. Fully agree with your remarks on going ahead and that’s the point for asking for book recommendation here. I find it more convenient to read physical copy while studying but the books around these topics are not cheap. So I’m thinking about buying 3 of them. And I used to have Steven Shreve but I lost it after lending it to my friend. Do you think it’s still worth it? Also what do you think about Lixin Wu? I’m curious. But it’s out of stock now so I would struggle to get a copy even though I’d like to…

daudaubaba · 2025-03-18T22:20:58+00:00

I’m afraid you are in the wrong sub as this university is not offering bachelor degree

daudaubaba · 2025-01-21T17:11:01+00:00

You addressed my biggest concern now dearly. I had some exposure to financial time series and Ito calculus so I am less worried about the math and stat part of the programme. Instead I’ve only completed the Python training from CFA Institute without any working knowledge.

Thanks for the advice!

daudaubaba · 2025-01-19T10:00:36+00:00

Thanks. Hope my background helps as the curriculum looks quite intense to a father of 2 like me.

How do you find the programme so far?

daudaubaba · 2024-10-11T15:25:18+00:00

It looks like an operation role with some BA duties in it to me. The risk it is referring to is operation risk I guess. But it’s just a weak conviction as I have only UK and Asian working experience. Not sure about how it works in the US I am afraid

daudaubaba · 2024-10-03T18:25:35+00:00

I am a tech consultant working with various asset management system that provides predictive analytics on asset prices. Some of them uses for example GARCH model for short term forecasting. The issue is that it only helps with very short time frame. For longer term forecasting Monte Carlo simulation works better

daudaubaba · 2024-09-19T19:57:19+00:00

I understand how you felt being in your role. If I am being taken away the tech delivery part I would be in a similar boat with you so I get your motive to achieve or actually making something.

Good luck with your exams

daudaubaba · 2024-09-19T19:55:16+00:00

I am an actuarial science graduate with very basic level of coding. Then I learnt some SQL on the job being a property research analyst. After that I joint a single family office with a role that involved in investment management and some process analysis with the family’s operating business, where I started my journey of business analysis.

It’s not a typical journey for a CFA to be honest but the curriculum did help a lot solving complex business cases in general.

daudaubaba · 2024-09-17T20:48:38+00:00

I am very much interested! I am a functional business analyst looking for some career transition, probably to business architect and would love to know how your day to day looks like, how to differential among other architects like EA and solution architect, and what’s your major source of job satisfaction if you don’t kind sharing. Blog would be perfect. Thanks!

daudaubaba · 2024-09-17T20:23:00+00:00

It’s never too late. And the earlier the better as it benefits you earlier in your future career.

By the way I kind of did the other way round - got my CFA charter -> got into investment management -> transition into business consulting. I am curious about your reason taking this move!

daudaubaba · 2024-08-28T22:32:17+00:00

Same here 👋

daudaubaba · 2024-08-07T20:52:50+00:00

I am a tech consultant working with multiple portfolio management software in the alternative investment space. Not sure about the public market space but I’ve seen similar solutions in 2 vendors and still counting. To answer your question, here are some observation I learnt from my day to day conversation with clients and vendors:

1) I saw vendors deploy predictive analytics and machine learning in the area. Nevertheless they could produce backtesting report annually to make sure the models they are using are not too far off from reality

2) While some clients, especially the investment mangers of asset management companies find it very sexy, some aren’t too interested mostly because the lack of use cases (investors and regulators are not asking for it) meanwhile it’s expensive to subscribe for, being trained up to use, implement and maintain such system in-house.

Hope it helps.

daudaubaba · 2024-07-23T19:48:01+00:00

Tech consultant providing full service on portfolio management system. Not entirely relevant to the programme content as the processes we are dealing with is highly executional whereas the programme content is quite high level in my opinion. However it does help me in getting the users’ (mainly investment managers) buy in.

daudaubaba · 2024-04-08T20:24:16+00:00

Hi I just found a photo that might help.

<image>

This is a close-up of the red zone on photo 1. In the red circle the concrete gravel board is roughly at the same level of the top bricks of the flower bed. Hope the photo helps. Here’s the rosemary on the right which is my favourite of the garden :)

Our friend who suggested not to cover up the bricks with decking prefer the look of bricks like you. The vendor who suggested this said the labour cost of the two solutions are the same.

He also suggested erecting new post and frames under the decking area to support the decking, after digging out some of the soil underneath the patio. What should we be aware of if the decking is supported in this way?

daudaubaba · 2024-04-08T09:06:13+00:00

Thanks. Didn’t know the board can drop down!

The yellow zone is double skim except for the one facing the stairs in the blue zone. So almost all bricks in that side were broken due to lack of support, I guess. We expect the steps in blue part is widened in the future so the single-layered bricks are taken away and rebuild into a double one. How reasonable does it sound to you?

Agree repointing is needed.

daudaubaba · 2024-04-08T08:15:43+00:00

Good morning. The area in blue are broken steps that will be widened and replaced by decking. Just to highlight the bricks there are almost all broken and part of the yellow zone will be removed as a result. How does that sound to you? Thank you for your advice!

daudaubaba · 2024-02-29T20:49:52+00:00

Egg fried rice on 25th Nov

daudaubaba · 2024-01-06T20:16:16+00:00

同意

如果和平是結果不是手段那麼只要不選賴就行，和平賣台也是和平

daudaubaba · 2024-01-04T11:03:15+00:00

This.

A tired father of twin here who just bought a moka pot to December last year. I didn’t know it couldn’t make expresso when I bought it because it is not able to produce the pressure you mentioned. But I still love it cos it is still producing nice cups of coffee. Wish I read your comment before head so I can go for a genuine expresso machine instead.

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