- Joined
- 6/12/11
- Messages
- 82
- Points
- 268
Background
I am from Sydney, Australia and have just completed my first semester of a bachelor's degree in commerce with a major in finance. Prior to enrolling in university, I was completely ignorant to the existence of quantitative analysis and the fact that financial organisations were even interested in people with technical backgrounds in maths, CS, engineering, physics etc. It wasn’t until midway through the semester that a family friend, who works in IB, mentioned to me that I could indeed gain entry to the financial world with a degree heavy in mathematics or even computer science. This came as a revelation to me as I had always been interested in mathematics–even before I knew that a proficiency in it could potentially be lucrative–and more recently I had been getting into programming. I was also finding that the level of maths required to complete my finance degree was well below what I had anticipated. Although I enjoyed all of my subjects on some level, the only unit that really held my interest was an elective called “quant methods in economics and finance” where we covered binomial, linear algebra, Lagrange, pricing using integrals etc. and worked with octave, gnuplot, maple etc.
At this stage, I was still unaware of quant analysis; however, I was beginning to think about restructuring my degree to include more quantitative subjects as I had a strong interest in them. I had also been learning C++ in my spare time for fun and had decided that I should get some of my study recognised. I began looking for online certificates in C++ and it was during this time that I happened upon Quantnet and discovered quantitative analysis–I was amazed to find a job description so germane to my personal interests. It didn't take much reading to become aware of the assertion that a more quantitative degree could potentially benefit me in a number of ways.
Conclusion
The events described above culminated in me reassessing my current situation and led to a number of preliminary conclusions about which path I should take with my degree. I figured the best way to enable this forum to assist me would be to present my own thoughts on the matter to provide a base that can be built upon/rebuilt. So, with reference to the above situation and by acknowledging the possibility that I could potentially change my mind and decide that quant is not for me in the future, I have deduced the following:
Restructuring my degree to be more quantitative/computer science based creates a situation where I am afforded the opportunity to study something that I am more interested in, i.e., not accounting (/wrists), while also minimising my exposure to changes in the labour market.
I say this because, if we take the scenario where I continue on with BCOM (Finance), I effectively rule out–or severely limit–any prospect of moving into a quant type field by limiting my chances of being admitted to an MFE; I am also left with a cookie cutter degree that could potentially be useless in a number of situations. On the other hand, if I was to change my degree, I can move towards getting into an MFE program without closing any doors that my finance degree would have opened.
Additional Questions
-Exactly how would you suggest I go about restructuring my degree? I am currently enrolled in a statistics unit, micro econ unit, business management unit and an accounting unit (all core units of BCOM); however, I have approx 5 weeks before I need to finalise anything. Should I just go to the maths department and talk to them about my options? If so, what kind of questions should I be asking them? or can I somehow complete the core unit requirements of a BCOM and allocate my elective units appropriately?
-I should probably preface this next question by saying my intention is not to cut corners; I am good at developing an interest in things that I need to be interested in; e.g. I managed to achieve the highest possible grade even in marketing this semester. That being said, when applying for masters programs and job positions in the future, is the content of your degree reviewed in order to determine the quality of your GPA? In other words, what is to stop someone from picking subjects that they might already be proficient in to service a perfect GPA?
Thanks.
I am from Sydney, Australia and have just completed my first semester of a bachelor's degree in commerce with a major in finance. Prior to enrolling in university, I was completely ignorant to the existence of quantitative analysis and the fact that financial organisations were even interested in people with technical backgrounds in maths, CS, engineering, physics etc. It wasn’t until midway through the semester that a family friend, who works in IB, mentioned to me that I could indeed gain entry to the financial world with a degree heavy in mathematics or even computer science. This came as a revelation to me as I had always been interested in mathematics–even before I knew that a proficiency in it could potentially be lucrative–and more recently I had been getting into programming. I was also finding that the level of maths required to complete my finance degree was well below what I had anticipated. Although I enjoyed all of my subjects on some level, the only unit that really held my interest was an elective called “quant methods in economics and finance” where we covered binomial, linear algebra, Lagrange, pricing using integrals etc. and worked with octave, gnuplot, maple etc.
At this stage, I was still unaware of quant analysis; however, I was beginning to think about restructuring my degree to include more quantitative subjects as I had a strong interest in them. I had also been learning C++ in my spare time for fun and had decided that I should get some of my study recognised. I began looking for online certificates in C++ and it was during this time that I happened upon Quantnet and discovered quantitative analysis–I was amazed to find a job description so germane to my personal interests. It didn't take much reading to become aware of the assertion that a more quantitative degree could potentially benefit me in a number of ways.
Conclusion
The events described above culminated in me reassessing my current situation and led to a number of preliminary conclusions about which path I should take with my degree. I figured the best way to enable this forum to assist me would be to present my own thoughts on the matter to provide a base that can be built upon/rebuilt. So, with reference to the above situation and by acknowledging the possibility that I could potentially change my mind and decide that quant is not for me in the future, I have deduced the following:
Restructuring my degree to be more quantitative/computer science based creates a situation where I am afforded the opportunity to study something that I am more interested in, i.e., not accounting (/wrists), while also minimising my exposure to changes in the labour market.
I say this because, if we take the scenario where I continue on with BCOM (Finance), I effectively rule out–or severely limit–any prospect of moving into a quant type field by limiting my chances of being admitted to an MFE; I am also left with a cookie cutter degree that could potentially be useless in a number of situations. On the other hand, if I was to change my degree, I can move towards getting into an MFE program without closing any doors that my finance degree would have opened.
Additional Questions
-Exactly how would you suggest I go about restructuring my degree? I am currently enrolled in a statistics unit, micro econ unit, business management unit and an accounting unit (all core units of BCOM); however, I have approx 5 weeks before I need to finalise anything. Should I just go to the maths department and talk to them about my options? If so, what kind of questions should I be asking them? or can I somehow complete the core unit requirements of a BCOM and allocate my elective units appropriately?
-I should probably preface this next question by saying my intention is not to cut corners; I am good at developing an interest in things that I need to be interested in; e.g. I managed to achieve the highest possible grade even in marketing this semester. That being said, when applying for masters programs and job positions in the future, is the content of your degree reviewed in order to determine the quality of your GPA? In other words, what is to stop someone from picking subjects that they might already be proficient in to service a perfect GPA?
Thanks.