STATEMENT‌‌OF‌‌PURPOSE‌‌

Shubham‌‌Agrawal‌ ‌Columbia‌U
‌ niversity,‌‌MSFE

I am applying for MS in Financial Engineering at Columbia University as my aspiration is to

pursue a career in Quantitative Finance. I did my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from
the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and became part of Goldman Sachs as a full-time
Quantitative Strategist in the Alternate Investment and Manager Selection (AIMS) team. My
core areas of interest are algorithmic trading, quantitative strategy, and quantitative research.

Being raised in a family of entrepreneurs and traders with a finance background, I developed
a keen interest in the world of finance at a very early age. During junior high school, I got
fascinated with Mathematics the most among all subjects. I won gold medals in regional
mathematics and science competitions which further motivated me to learn more about it. In
Xth grade, I got selected for the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO) after
performing well in the Regional Mathematics Olympiad which is mostly dominated by High
School Students. After that, I decided to take Mathematics and Science as subjects for my
High School studies. Later on for Undergraduate studies, I got selected in the Electrical
Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), which
embarked on my journey of using Mathematics to solve real-world problems.

During my first year at IITK, I studied Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Fundamentals of
Programming that laid the foundation of my journey in Finance. To dive deeper into the field
of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science which are integral pillars of Quantitative
Finance, I took various fundamental courses throughout my undergrad like Probability and
Statistics, Ordinary Differential Equation, Complex Variables, Data Structures, and
Algorithms, Natural Language Processing, and Introduction to Stochastic Processes. I also
completed my minor in Industrial and Management Engineering to enhance my
understanding of the aspects related to finance.

In the fall semester of 2016, I participated in various college events and competitions related
to Finance and Entrepreneurship. I worked on my startup idea “GPS Gaddi” for the
advancement of the Indian Logistics ecosystem through GPS technology which got selected
for the Institute alumni startup team. I also got an opportunity to be mentored by IITK alumni
and serial entrepreneur, Mr. Sanchit Mallik (Co-Founder, TownScript). I also came third in
the StockSIM competition of Techkriti (IITK Tech Fest.) in which I did virtual day trading in
the US equity market. Later on, I became IITK Business Club secretary and helped in
organizing finance and entrepreneurship seminars.

However, my first professional experience in the world of finance came in May 2017 when I
got selected to work in the compliance division at Citi Corp Pune, India. During the
internship, I worked on developing a utility that helps in creating a backup of investment
banking data related to contracts with institutional clients. As the data is highly confidential,
it needs to be safely backed up for ensuring disaster recovery. But at that time, the database
that we used i.e. ElasticSearch did not provide any inbuilt functionality to achieve the
snapshot process which was the major challenge.

Shubham Agrawal Columbia University, MSFE

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To solve this, I created a robust prototype using python and shell scripting. It has very low
latency and can be used for any other elasticsearch database. The project turned out to be
very successful and used by compliance and other teams across the division. I also presented
it in the town hall meeting and got selected in the “Tech for Integrity” competition.
Eventually, I received a Pre-Placement Offer for my exceptional performance during the
internship.

Although I had an offer from Citi Corp, I decided to sit for campus placement in December
2017 as I was more interested in the quantitative finance role. Because of my experience in
finance and good mathematical and computer science background, I got selected after a series
of interviews by Dr. Eric Ryckman (MD, Goldman Sachs) to join his AIMS Quant Strategists
team as an Analyst. It is a core pillar of the investment management division and helps in
developing tools and reports necessary for carrying out different aspects of alternate
investment businesses. Our team members identify high-quality funds and managers and
create portfolios based on market research and using data from third parties like Bloomberg,
HFR, eVestment, MorningStar, etc. I have also worked on developing automated reporting
tools that help in monitoring the performance of funds and portfolios in accordance with
client deliverables. I also had two months of training at the New York headquarters of
Goldman Sachs in which I gained knowledge on various aspects of the alternate investment
business. My work experience has taught me collaborating with peers and different elements
of building professional relationships. In addition, I also learned to work on an extensive
codebase and using important coding practices.

While working at Goldman Sachs, I got my first hands-on experience in quantitative

research. I identified asset weights by optimizing the current portfolio of clients to maximize
IR (Information Ratio) using linear programming. I further rebalanced the weights by using
max weight constraints on different asset classes. To explore further, I started to study other
quantitative fields as well. At that time I got inclined towards cryptocurrency and worked on
an automated trading system for personal use. I have done extensive research on major crypto
assets and worked on market-making and arbitrage strategies over different cryptocurrency
exchanges. By that time, I was certain that I wanted to explore the field of algorithmic trading
and quantitative research further.

As I am advancing in my professional career and to accelerate it further, I believe it is

important to gain advanced knowledge and training from subject matter experts in
Quantitative Finance. A Master’s degree in Financial Engineering will not only give me the
theoretical and practical knowledge to be ready for the quantitative finance jobs but also help
me in researching further the relationship between applied mathematics and the ever-
evolving world of finance.

I am highly motivated to expand my horizons by working under professors like Prof. Jay
Sethuraman, Prof. Emanuel Derman, Prof. Shipra Agrawal, and others. I believe that
Quantitative Finance is an evolving field with a lot of potential in the future. I want to
research and explore this further as a graduate student. My interests along with the teaching
and research methodology of Columbia University will definitely help me in shaping my
career in this field.

Thank you for reviewing my application.