A Bunch of General Questions

[ToddGaugler]

Before I begin, let me introduce myself. I am entering into the Queens College honors math and science research program this year. I have every intention to major in mathematics, and to do my graduate work at Columbia ( as my father did ). I was originally interested in the field of actuarial science, however after speaking to a couple actuaries i was told that working in that field is painstakingly boring. So, I stumbled upon this field ( i understand that the concept of risk management is somewhat similar, is that generally correct?), and now i have a couple of questions for the people in this forum:
(disclaimer: i HAVE used the search function in an attempt to answer my own questions, and the remaining questions I have are just ones that haven't been fully answered in my mind.)
1. Is it true that employers on wall street like quants to come from schools in NYC (specifically thinking of nyu stern or columbia).
2. What are some of the more famous schools for quantitative finance?
3. How realistic is it for a quant to advance in rank in his company? Like to portfolio manager or something similar? I understand that there is a huge advance in salary (before you assume that my motivation for this field is the money, understand I've loved math since i was little, my father is an engineer, and my grandfather was a mathematical engineer. I love math.) but how realistic is the thought of advancing to those highly paid positions?
4. I've seen a lot of adds from companies looking for quants with years of experience. I haven't really seen any jobs for quants WITHOUT experience. What have you guys done to gain experience? Are there entry level jobs that I just haven't found? Or do you guys do internships?

thanks for any help with my questions in advance.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

1) NYU Stern is MBA which has nothing to do with quant. Each firm has each own targeted schools, programs and this is more towards undergrad, MBA. MFE is a more level playing field where schools in the west (UCB, Stanford) have placed students on Wall Street
2) There are established programs like CMU, NYU, UCB, Chicago, Columbia and there are newer programs like Baruch, Rutgers. And very new comers like UCLA, Fordham. You will have to do research to learn about each program.
3) It has been done.
4) That's the reason why people do MFE, to gain an entry to this field.

 

[ToddGaugler]

Thank you for responding so fast.
Correct me if I'm wrong- an MFE is a masters in financial engineering, and takes 2 years to achieve?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Most takes 1.5 years (Baruch, NYU). Some takes one year (UCB, Columbia), others two.