Courses to take prior to finishing bachelor’s degree

[farbodmalayeri]

Hi everyone,

I’m a sophomore at USC. I wish to apply to all the MFE/Quant master’s programs (the well known ones like CMU, Baruch, NYU,U Chicago, etc.). I wanted some advice on the courses I should take prior to graduation and applying for Master’s. I also don’t plan on working as a quant trader or quant dev.
I’m majoring in Applied and Computational math (bs).
So far I have finished:
-Calc 1-3
-Linear algebra and Diff. Eq. (Offered in the same course)
-intro to python
Here are the courses I plan on taking and feel free to tell me to swap any one of them for something else:
Math courses:
Math 407 (probability theory)
Math 408 (mathematical statistics)
Math 446 (data science with python)
Math 447 (mathematics of machine learning)
Math 425a (first semester Real analysis)
Math 458 (numerical methods)
Math 530a (Master’s level stochastic calculus)
Math 501 (Master’s level numerical analysis)
AME 526 (Master’s level, PDEs and their applications in engineering)

Econ class:
Econ 318 (econometrics) idk if this one adds much value I’m open to changing this to something else.

Finance and Business Economics:
BUAD 308 (advanced business finance)
FBE 441 (investments)
FBE 459 (financial derivatives)

Computer sci:
TAC 216 (applied python)
CSCI 103L: programming in C/C++

What do you guys think if this plan is there any class I should change/add/drop? I do have the freedom to take certain master’s classes here.
I plan on doing the quant net c++ course over summer.
Thanks!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Looks solid. Good that you are going to tackle the Python and C++ courses seriously.
Not sure what the Con and Finance courses entail. Maybe reading John Hull book would be more beneficial.
Instead of those finance course, see if you can take some CS courses.
See if any course that would expose you with a project using real financial data + coding.
Get an internship in a financial firm during your undergrad would go a long way. The sooner the better. This is when you get a clearer direction of what you want to do.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Math 458 and 501 are good skills to have.

 

[Zhirun]

I would suggest you start an internship ASAP to focus more on your interests.