Name: Megan Mingqi Pu
Hometown: Hefei, Anhui
Program: NYU Shanghai - NYU Stern joint Master of Science in Quantitative Finance program
Undergraduate Program: BS in Business Administration, Babson College (USA)
Megan Pu is this year’s winner of the academic excellence award for the NYU Shanghai-NYU Stern MS Quantitative Finance (MSQF) program. She joined the program with the goal of working in finance in China, and her logic, ambition and drive allowed her to navigate and thrive in the intensive one year Master’s program.
Prior to enrolling in NYU’s MSQF program, Megan earned her BS in Business Administration with a Concentration in Accounting from Babson College. Accounting was always her passion during her undergraduate career: “I spent a lot of time taking courses and immersing myself in relevant school activities,” she said. “I also became the Co-President of the Accounting Club at Babson”. However, after working as an audit intern at Deloitte during her junior year, she realized that she didn’t want to pursue a career in accounting. “I like accounting and treat it as a beautiful language to clearly state a company’s financial position. However, I wish I could use it to analyze a company and I think auditing is not what I am looking for. ''
After completing an internship at Fosun International during her senior year, she then switched her focus to the financial industry. While exploring the car market, generation Z, and automated vehicles through extensive research, she realized that she needed to pursue a master of finance degree to dive deeper into this sector. “I only applied to one graduate program. I chose NYU Shanghai – NYU Stern MS in Quantitative Finance because it teaches broader topics and greater technical skills in the finance field. The focus on China was also a perfect fit for me as I planned to return to my home country after earning my master’s degree to work.”
And the MSQF program has delivered. The program has helped her on her path by teaching her how to communicate effectively with different audiences; her favorite class has been Business Communication. “Although I did my undergraduate studies in the US, I feel the course is extremely helpful in improving my presentation skills. I appreciated my instructor’s valuable feedback on our group presentation regarding our body language, facial expression, message construction and delivery.”
Megan also highlighted her experience in the capstone project, which is a key experiential component of the program aimed to enable students to apply their analytical techniques learned in class to solve a real challenge for a corporate client. Her group project was to identify potential insurance offerings that align with China’s ESG carbon neutrality goals. “We built a regression model and learned more about the insurance industry which none of us had previous experience in,” she said, “Our mentor also provided valuable insights throughout the process, from narrowing down our project scope to determining presentation strategies.”
Outside of the classroom, Megan has been working in GF Securities as a research intern in the food and beverage department since July 2021. “A lot of our program learning is very hands-on that I can immediately apply to my internship work,” she said. “The corporate finance course, for example, taught me various valuation techniques like discounted cash flow model, which I found extremely useful when doing forecasts and valuations for stocks under our coverage.”
After finishing her degree, Megan plans on working in the equity research field for a few years. She’s currently in the interview process for a few different positions. “The mock interview sessions offered by the Career Development Center are really helpful. I will continue applying to similar roles until I receive my dream offer,” she said. “The MSQF program has been such a worthwhile experience.”