Community College to top MFE program to become a wall street quant trader?

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Vlad S

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Hello I am starting my higher education at a community college in PA. I will maintain a high GPA and join the Phi Tetta Kappa honors society. I'm also looking at starting a trading club. I'm from Russia which would add diversity to any school(University of Illinois favors this). My goal is to transfer to University of Illinois or Depaul University. During my first 2 years I will take math classes every semester and take up to calc 1 or 2, calc for business, and intro to statistics. My CC dosen't offer linear algebra or finite math. I will take a few computer science classes and economics/business courses.I'm also learning Russian/French. Then when I transfer I will double major in finance/math or should I do finance/computer science? I will be minoring in economics/math or computer science. Then while at the university I plan on interning at a proprietary trading firm. My goal is to become a trader at a prop firm or hedge fund. After getting some work experience I want to apply to a top MFE program. Will going to a community college affect me in anyway? If this dosen't work out I would go to work in F500, private equity, investment banking, or corperate finance. I just want to have a good paying job that way I will have consistent income for my personal early retirement stock trading portfolio.

Thank you for your time.
 
Why should CC affect you in anyway? It's not like you are trying to become a Wall Street trader with your associate degree from a two year CC. You are taking courses from CC, then transfer to a four-year college and then eventually do an MFE degree.
If you want to become a trader, start building some unique talents, be it top coder, deep knowledge of the product you want to trade on, instead of worrying about your credentials.
 
Going to a CC doesn't matter, it's your time at a 4-year university that is important.

What major combination you should do depends on your strengths and interests. If you hate your programming classes then don't double major in computer science. I like your plan of taking as much math as you can at the CC and also exploring other areas (business, economics, computer science, etc). You should also try to get some of the core stuff taken care of while there (history, government, art, etc).
 
thank you for the answers. So you guys are saying it dosen't matter where I go for my undergrad as long as I do very well? I want to work in NYC or Chicago. What about MFE admissions? Will the name of the school I transfer too matter? If I can't get into DePaul ro Illinois. I will probably go to an instate public school such as University of Pittsburgh or a top 50.
 
What would be some unique talents? I'm a consistently profitable trader. I like to play poker and chess. In poker I always make it to top 100 out of thousands of players maybe one day I will place top 3 and win thousands of dollars.
 
Unique talent is something that you are better than most people around you, wherever you are, at school, work or online playing poker.
Either you have good idea, or can implement them or can provide some kind of service that people will depend and pay good money for.

Stop being insecure about the CC thing. If you consider yourself average, everyone else will sense it and treat you as such.
 
Vlad, no reason to be worried or concerned with a CC past.

I went to Community College, followed by a less than elite State schools for my undergrad and grad work. I ended up going to CMU MSCF and was even waitlisted at Cal.

I'm not a quant trader though, but that was never my interest.

The admissions team are more concern with quality than prestige.
 
Awesome, Carnegie Mellon is a dream school. What was your major though? What state school did you go too for your undergrad and grad? What work experience did you land out of undergrad to get you into grad school? What grad program did you pursue?

thanks very inspiring...

and to the other poster i dont think of myself as average. Deep down I know ill become very successful when I get my foot in the door. However, competition is fierce in todays financial world (hedge funds,IBanking, PE, and prop trading). Getting your foot in the door is the hard part.
 
We had a debate before about the value of brand name universities... My advice is to go to the "best" university that you can get into and afford. That may mean Harvard or it may mean the top public state school.

What's more important than the university you go to are the classes you take and how well you do.
 
thank you. What exact internships should I look for when i transfer in as a junior? That I will actually be able to land. Also what type of career right out of college should I pursue to best prepare myself to work for a hedge fund and grad school? Trading assistant? analyst? I've done alot of reading on trading and I actually trade already specifically stocks, but also options and forex. I wouldn't mind working overseas in the hedge fund industry such as Russia or France since i'm learning those languages, but London is also an option.
 
I had to read your post twice. Did you say that you were starting Community College and already planning for early retirement?
 
yeah because if I start planning for retirement later on it won't be early retirement would it? Im a good trader I know this ive spent ALOT of time making sure of this. Compound interest + good trading skills = early retirement... more often than not.


To Ken,

What type of work experience though? For non target students? Do you work in hedge funds?


and thanks for the link Andy.
 
@Vladimir: anything finance-related that will give you a chance to show your work ethic and your effectiveness. "Brand-name" education is neither necessary nor sufficient. We have plenty of people in my group (at a big bank) without Ivy degrees.
 
Do you have people from schools no one has heard of? Or are they mostly top 30-50? I have work ethic and ambition/passion for trading. So I have nothing to worry about?


thank you.
 
I have work ethic and ambition/passion for trading. So I have nothing to worry about?
Click to expand...

Don't kid yourself - it's going to be a rough ride. It's just that it's not downright impossible to land a coveted finance job.
 
Vladimir Safronov said:
Im a good trader I know this ive spent ALOT of time making sure of this. Compound interest + good trading skills = early retirement... more often than not.


and thanks for the link Andy.
Click to expand...

I had a question...

What would you do if you lost 10 million dollars prop trading in a matter of minutes. e.g huge bond position and everything defaults.
 

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