About Quant Programs Preparation

[breakingQuant]

Hi everyone,

I've noticed from older posts that it's often advised to dedicate about a year to improve one's resume and preparations before aiming for top quant programs. What I'm trying to figure out is what exactly people do during this crucial year.

• Are most people working or still in school during this time? How is this balanced with preparation for a quant transition?
• If people are not working or going to school during the one-year period, will it hurt the job hunting process later on since it will be a gap in one's resume?
• How significant are projects or extra work during this period?

Looking forward to understanding the practical steps taken during this year.

Thanks!

 

[latus_rectum]

Hey,

Here is what I did, not necessarily the ideal way, just sharing my experience. I decided to apply for quant programs in the month of May last year. I had around 6 months before submitting the application for quant programs. I was working full time as a swe during this time.
A good foundation in three key subjects would help you - mathematics, programming and finance. (in that order)

I spent 2 months - June and July - for GRE and TOEFL. If you are international applicant, toefl is a must. And most of the top programs have gre either as a mandatory or optional. And in my opinion, it's better to submit a good gre score when they say it's optional.

After this, I spent 2 months - Aug and Sept - studying for gre maths subject test. I appeared for this exam and scored decent (86%). Though in hindsight, I feel it is not needed. Very few programs will even allow you to submit your subject test score, only courant and uchicago.

Next 2.5 months, I enrolled into Baruch's pre-mfe courses in Probability and Advanced Calc. Note that probability theory is a pre-requisite for almost all top programs. And it was missing in my transcript. Passing both the courses with distinction, I feel helped my application.

Apart from this, I also self studied several maths topics - ode, pde, analysis, linear algebra.

I went overboard with maths preparation mainly because I was insecure about my maths courses grades in undergrad. (I had B+, B- in most courses).

For programming and finance, I didn't do anything since I already had extensive work ex as a programmer in financial industry. In case if you feel the need to strengthen your programming skills, you can do that through courses, books etc.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

For those needing to get their programming skill refreshed for interview and ready to contribute on day one, I highly recommend the Quantnet C++ courses and Python course. They are time tested and I haven’t seen anything come close to their quality and ROI.

 

[breakingQuant]

Hey,

Here is what I did, not necessarily the ideal way, just sharing my experience. I decided to apply for quant programs in the month of May last year. I had around 6 months before submitting the application for quant programs. I was working full time as a swe during this time.
A good foundation in three key subjects would help you - mathematics, programming and finance. (in that order)

I spent 2 months - June and July - for GRE and TOEFL. If you are international applicant, toefl is a must. And most of the top programs have gre either as a mandatory or optional. And in my opinion, it's better to submit a good gre score when they say it's optional.

After this, I spent 2 months - Aug and Sept - studying for gre maths subject test. I appeared for this exam and scored decent (86%). Though in hindsight, I feel it is not needed. Very few programs will even allow you to submit your subject test score, only courant and uchicago.

Next 2.5 months, I enrolled into Baruch's pre-mfe courses in Probability and Advanced Calc. Note that probability theory is a pre-requisite for almost all top programs. And it was missing in my transcript. Passing both the courses with distinction, I feel helped my application.

Apart from this, I also self studied several maths topics - ode, pde, analysis, linear algebra.

I went overboard with maths preparation mainly because I was insecure about my maths courses grades in undergrad. (I had B+, B- in most courses).

For programming and finance, I didn't do anything since I already had extensive work ex as a programmer in financial industry. In case if you feel the need to strengthen your programming skills, you can do that through courses, books etc.

Thanks for sharing. I think your perspective is very much helpful because I am somewhat lacking the same thing as you did.
For some context, I am going to be a fresh graduate this July with a major in Computer Science and minor in Finance. My biggest weakness right now is math. I only had B or B+ for my calc and statistics courses.

I actually already applied for some programs (Chicago MSFM, Columbia MFE, and CMU MSCF), but I am just not confident my stats and application overall. I took GMAT focus instead of GRE, because I saw many programs actually accept GMAT. I scored well enough on the GMAT focus which translates to around 700-710 to the old GMAT with my quantitative reasoning being on the 94th percentile, but I realized that opting for GMAT was somewhat a mistake now that I think of it.

On self-studying some math topics like ODE, PDE, lin alg, etc, do you mean learning through textbooks by yourself? If so to what extent do you study each subject?

 

[latus_rectum]

On self-studying some math topics like ODE, PDE, lin alg, etc, do you mean learning through textbooks by yourself? If so to what extent do you study each subject?

While preparing for gre maths subject test, topics like ode, pde and linear algebra got covered. I studied it from Leduc's Princeton Review book. There are many additional topics too like Number Theory, Abstract Algebra and Point set topology which one needs to cover for gre maths.
I delved deeply into the topics which piqued my interest, for instance abstract algebra for me. I studied it then from Herstein's Topic in Algebra. And covered pde from Sneddon's pde book. From there on, it's up to you how deep you want to go.

However, please keep in mind that self study won't help you much in your quant program application if it doesn't result into a score or a deemed certification.

 

[breakingQuant]

While preparing for gre maths subject test, topics like ode, pde and linear algebra got covered. I studied it from Leduc's Princeton Review book. There are many additional topics too like Number Theory, Abstract Algebra and Point set topology which one needs to cover for gre maths.
I delved deeply into the topics which piqued my interest, for instance abstract algebra for me. I studied it then from Herstein's Topic in Algebra. And covered pde from Sneddon's pde book. From there on, it's up to you how deep you want to go.

However, please keep in mind that self study won't help you much in your quant program application if it doesn't result into a score or a deemed certification.

Understood. Thank you very much for sharing your insightful experience.