Hello,
As some basic background, I am a current senior finishing my undergrad at an okay US University (hovers around 30 on top National Universities) who majored in CS and Finance. I have already accepted a position to work as a Software Engineer at Bberg full-time. In short, I've started (as of last year) independently researching and developing different alpha strategies for backtesting. I would like to get a master's degree part-time as I work, for the possibility of becoming a quant developer in the future; I don't want to be a trader or an analyst as I enjoy the development side of things. After reading multiple articles and posts on the subject, I've found it difficult finding info on "good majors" for a quant dev role in particular.
My question ultimately comes down to what master's degree will help me in the future, given my incoming full time role. The three I've been going between includes a more traditional MFE, a Master's in Mathematical Finance (which seems like it's just the MFE with little programming and more math), or a Computer Science MS. For a quant dev role, should I be going for the Math Finance degree (or MFE) given I'll be gaining years of programming experience as a S.E? Or should I go for a more traditional CS degree? Or further, should I just go with the best school I get into, regardless of which degree it's for.
I realize that the more traditional CS degree would also be much more beneficial if I decide I don't want to go down the quant route so that is something to consider. Any insight you could provide into breaking into a quant dev role (and if it's possible) after working full time a few years would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance.
As some basic background, I am a current senior finishing my undergrad at an okay US University (hovers around 30 on top National Universities) who majored in CS and Finance. I have already accepted a position to work as a Software Engineer at Bberg full-time. In short, I've started (as of last year) independently researching and developing different alpha strategies for backtesting. I would like to get a master's degree part-time as I work, for the possibility of becoming a quant developer in the future; I don't want to be a trader or an analyst as I enjoy the development side of things. After reading multiple articles and posts on the subject, I've found it difficult finding info on "good majors" for a quant dev role in particular.
My question ultimately comes down to what master's degree will help me in the future, given my incoming full time role. The three I've been going between includes a more traditional MFE, a Master's in Mathematical Finance (which seems like it's just the MFE with little programming and more math), or a Computer Science MS. For a quant dev role, should I be going for the Math Finance degree (or MFE) given I'll be gaining years of programming experience as a S.E? Or should I go for a more traditional CS degree? Or further, should I just go with the best school I get into, regardless of which degree it's for.
I realize that the more traditional CS degree would also be much more beneficial if I decide I don't want to go down the quant route so that is something to consider. Any insight you could provide into breaking into a quant dev role (and if it's possible) after working full time a few years would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance.
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