Admission chance at Imperial Msc in Maths & Finance vs Msc in Statistics (Statistical Finance)

[haruharu]

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone has insights on whether recruiters exclusively prefer the renowned MSc in Mathematics & Finance for quant trading roles, or if having the Imperial College brand name combined with a quantitative discipline (such as Statistics, as mentioned above) would still be enough to get my foot in the door?

For context, I consider myself an average candidate. I completed my undergraduate degree in Finance and Accounting at a mid-tier university in Japan, with a CGPA of 3.4/4.0. While my academic record isn’t particularly strong, I do have solid internship experiences with strong brand names that heavily involved programming - specifically, Sales and Trading at Nomura, and Analytics and Modelling at BlackRock.

Additionally, I’ve taken multiple programming and machine learning courses; however, my degree isn’t officially STEM-related, and the course names on my transcript don’t fully reflect my programming or math abilities (most of my learning came through self-study or MOOCs). My thought is that if I can get into a quantitative discipline at Imperial, I could still leverage networking opportunities to work my way up with the brand name.

Any advice or perspectives would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Imperial is a great name and well-known among UK employers. That's how many graduates of Imperial Math Finance got in the door.
It's unclear to me if the Stats course enjoys the same benefit. You may have to do the heavy work yourself to get in the doors.
Getting excellent programming skill, interview well, etc are mandatory.
What do recent graduates of the Stats course say about it? Have you reached out to them?
Maybe this guy

Joe Marks - Quantbot Technologies LP | LinkedIn

Quantitative analyst with experience in machine learning and finance. Technical… · Experience: Quantbot Technologies LP · Education: Imperial College London · Location: London · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Joe Marks’ profile on LinkedIn, a professional community of 1 billion members.

www.linkedin.com

 

[matthieu_fisher]

@haruharu , my experience (being in the Imp. Math+Fin) is that you are able to get Online Assessments for most large banks and for very few hedge funds that are in strong expansion. Getting an interview/passing rounds after this is a real crapshoot.