Recent content by Ergodic

I have a hard time believing this! Do you have any idea how cheap it is to live in a small town in Indiana? If you've spent most of your adult life in Chicago, the rents here will make you sh*t a brick. They're so low that even Jimmy McMillan wouldn't complain. (Then again, I haven't looked...

Hey Hellas. I go to Purdue and would be willing to give my two cents about your situation. First I'd need some more info about you and where you are in life: 1) What is your educational background? 2) What kind of work do you currently do? 3) What will be the bottom-line price tags for the...

That's too bad. In that case, I'd conjecture that the best way to score well (on top of the aforementioned training) is to simply be good at higher mathematics topics: Analysis, Topology, Algebra, etc. If you know the basic theorems, counterexamples, and proof forms of those, you can knock out...

Extreme pragmatism. There are four real practice tests available. Take all of them under timed conditions (for the experience of pressure), then go over ALL questions, including those omitted. This gives you a practical feel for the types of questions they ask. Then simply design your own...

We're on the same page, then. I just wanted to clarify this point for prospective test-takers who might be reading this.

Not to veer too far off topic, but I disagree. I went through a self-designed training program and improved my percentile from 44th to 88th, and I know at least one other guy who did the same. I know other applicants whose "IQs" were at least as good as mine (whatever that means) who didn't...

From Purdue, eh? Nice. So I guess there is hope for those of us who will finish the program wondering how to overcome the networking disadvantage of attending a program in the middle of nowhere. Given your background, then, I'd definitely advise you to take the Stat route. Unless, of course...

I doubt you really hate them, even though you might feel like that now; I would bet money that you just had a bad experience with a calc 3 or linear algebra professor or textbook. On deeper level: at your age, there's no way you know yourself as well as you currently think you do. You'll do...

All due respect, what's keeping you from pursuing your "true passion" now? Or are you hoping to pull a Kronecker?

Again, my guess would be Stats, but I'll have to let you know what I determine as the story unfolds over the next few years. On thing I can say is that there is a Quantitative Finance club at Purdue. One of their projects involves contacting alums of the CF programs to see where they are now...

Oh, so your question was more than theoretical, then? Which department are you in?

I'm going to join the program in a few weeks, Math-side. Since I'm new I can't say anything with authority for now, although the impression I get is that both routes are viable options and there is a good deal of overlap, so you should be able to get more or less the same education either way...

Well...awkward language aside, I think you would be a good candidate for the "keep your ambitions flexible" advice. For example, if you were to declare "My goal is to be working at Renaissance Technologies within the next 10 years," I think people would be right in telling you to be realistic...

That's not exactly what I said. The book argues that unconditional acceptance of shallow positive thinking has led to problems of varying scope and magnitude (personal, economic) and can be dangerously misleading. My claim, which was really more of a side note and neither contradicts nor agrees...

I agree (in the right contexts), but so is excessive negative thinking without action. I recently checked out Ehrenreich's book. Although she spends most of it trying to dispel illusions (like attempts to explain the Law of Attraction with hard sciences), in the end there actually is a call to...