Help choosing major. High School senior interested in Quantitative Finance

[euroazn]

I feel as a finnance degree is way to specific to major in. I think i saw CMU has a dual degree finnancial engineering/business admin. If i could get accepted into their program i think that would be the route i would go

CMU has a Business Administration Degree (your run-of-the-mill business degree) and also a computational finance degree, but you apply to that at the end of your second year and is highly competitive. It's more of a math majors (as MFEs really are)

 

[MRoss]

To be fair, the "C++ courses" we took in high school are bullocks.
e.g. pointers aren't covered

Edit: really

Lol! I took C++ in Brooklyn College and we didn't cover pointers either.

Edit: Really!

 

[bansalmohit]

Lol! I took C++ in Brooklyn College and we didn't cover pointers either.

Edit: Really!

i dont think you can do any "meaningful" C++ without the knowledge of pointers.

 

[MRoss]

I know. It should have just been called "Intro to programming".

 

[Cameron Nikroo]

Where did you get the money to start your own business?

 

[C.Y.]

Hi Clayton,

Can you refresh your link for the article which featured your story? It's quite an interesting business. Going back to your choice of major, I would just say in my opinion to try a hard science like computer science, engineering, etc. An undergraduate FE degree might be too specific AND the important finance you will almost certainly learn on the job; most of the successful PMs or derivatives traders I know only did an undergrad in an engineering or comp sci field. In order to double major you REALLY have to like both majors enough to do all the bureaucratic pre-requisites for the double major. Not many people I know truly love 2 different majors that much, many try double majoring, but end up just sticking to the one major they really like and taking a few other classes. I tend to hold the opinion (right or wrong) that you learn so much more outside the classroom. Keep up that business or try to use your spare time to start another business, or trade stocks yourself (all those activities are exponentially more impressive in an interview than a double major in my limited opinion and the opinion of others around me). Volunteer even to work for free at a financial firm part-time.

I know telling you not to do Financing Engineering undergrad or double major sounds like blasphemy in a financial engineering forum filled with many sucessful students and I did Columbia MAFN (a master's program) myself, but alas you have the luxury of being young and it seems you have some great ideas outside of school (that very few college students have accomplished).

Nice site btw [http://claytonstokerdesign.com/about-us/], keep us updated on your venture.