• TIME TO 2024 UK RANKINGS

  • C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Graduate School (or Not) Advice

rskowro

Joined
2/26/10
Messages
2
Points
11
I am currently a junior majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Physics, Business and possibly Stats at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I would like to pursue a career in quantitative finance/quantitative analysis after I graduate. My question is this: What is the best path to take if I want to pursue a career in this field? Do I need to pursue a MSFE or something similar directly out of undergraduate or is it something that can wait?

I have a very strong background in mathematics and have already begun graduate courses in PDEs and functional analysis. I have one year left which as of now will be dedicated to finance, stats, and grad math courses (any recommendations to courses are welcome as well). I also have done research in modeling stocks and an internship in modeling large losses.

Any insight is appreciated. Thanks all.
 
For a quant career, you will probably want to pursue either a Masters or PhD but not necessarily straight away. Digressing shortly, how are your programming skills? With as many minors you have listed, I would recommend studying some computer science.

If you could get a job in finance, at a bank for example, you could get some good experience there for a few years and then go complete a MFE (or other Masters).

If you can't get a decent job, you can just go straight into a Masters.

If you really wanted a PhD, I would probably recommend for you to go straight into that and maybe try to get a finance internship for some exposure.
 
Connor, thanks for the response. I would consider myself to have a solid background in programming. A majority of my experience is in MATLAB and Excel, but I am also learning SAS now. I have taken courses in Java and C++ and taught myself SQL and R. I'm only 3 classes away from a CS minor, but the remaining required courses are more theoretical CS as opposed to programming, so I figured those classes wouldn't be as useful.
 
Back
Top