HELP with Courses - FE

[Joy Pathak]

Hey guys, So I have admission to the MFE program at CGU(CLAREMONT GRADUATE U). I am still waiting for MF at Purdue and Vanderbilt. I will be starting in Fall 2010 regardless of where I go. Now, my final goal is to build a strong application to acheive a PhD in Finance admission at top school. I currently have a low undergraduate GPA (2.5-3.0 in USA standards). I did my undergrad in Canada in Mechanical Engineering. I have extensive research experience with one of my papers being selected as top 5 by young engineers in the world by the largest professional society (American Society of Mech Engineers). I have many additional qualities that have got me in so don't go off my GPA right away. I hope to get MFE degree to offset my undergrad GPA.

The reason CGU attracts me is although I get to classify myself a graduate of rigorous FE program, I have the opportunity to take courses to my liking than a fixed quant curriculum.

Now, I am currently a Direct-PhD in Engineering student at Wisconsin-Madison but i am leaving after this semester. I am going back to Canada till I start in Fall 2010. I don't want to sit around and shoot the ****. What should I do? I have absolutely no finance experience or courses. I went through the course outline at my undergrad school where my parents live and thought I would do some finance and statistics courses.

I was thinking of doing Derivatives & RisK management a 400 level course. Corporate Finance a 300 level. And Advanced Statistics a 200 level. I would do these from January to April, and then for Summer semester prolly take some programming course and maybe do some Independent Research Study under some prof for 4 months before I start MFE or MF?

I am interested in pursuing Empirical Finance related research. I am not 100% sure on topic yet obviously, but I like derivatives, trading, pricing, etc. Anything Empircal Finance related would be good. I would love to work as a trader for a year between applying to PhD finance and finishing MFE/MF.

What do you guys suggest? What courses should I take? Should I take more Math courses or more Finance courses? I was thinking of auditing Financial Accounting 1. What else should I possibly think about? Should I take more Programming? I want to look appealing to PhD Finance programs in addition to looking appealing to entry level trader positions after my MFE. If both are not possible if you could suggest for each that would be helpfull.

Any help or direction would help. Any form of help or information is greatly appreciated

 

[AlexandreB]

I'm currently right in the middle of final exams of the 1st semester of my MFE, from an undergrad in science. If I could go back in time and say something to my self of a year ago, I guess I'd have the following two advices (in chronological order, if time permits):

1- Read Hull's Options, Futures & other Derivatives from cover to cover. Although it's simpler than the stuff you'll see at the MFE level, it's an excellent introduction and you'll have a point of reference to hang on to when you're taught harder stuff.

2- Get a head start in Stochastic Calculus. I did a stochastic processes class in my last year of undergrad and I thought I was golden for the stochastic calculus course taught this semester, boy I was wrong. Plus it is the base material for a good chunk of the other classes. I'm rather lukewarm towards the textbook we used so I'm sure someone here could suggest a good one. Maybe 'Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time' by Bjork.

Another clever thing you could do (and perhaps more useful) is to access the curriculum of one or two classes you'll attend next fall, this stuff is openly accessible online usually. Check which textbook they use, if any, and go through the first handful of chapters in those. I've done that 4 or 5 times in my life, and believe me you'll be thankful to yourself you did once you begin your MFE.

Finally I suggest you give a strong consideration to writing the CFA level I exam in June. Although the stuff covered is finance instead of quantitative stuff and almost too easy to help you in your MFE in any way, it would be a clever decision careerwise. Depending on what you want to do later, it's likely you'll have to write it at one point, and you'll see a good fraction of your classmates write it in june 2011. Since you want to get a headstart... It's rather pricey though, both moneywise and timewise.

Good luck!
P.S. I'm from Montreal, what about you, eh?

 

[Joy Pathak]

Thanks for the info. I will do so as you suggested. I was planning on getting a head start on some of the courses after looking at the curriculum. As I mentioned , I am interested in PhD Finance, I don't see how CFA 1 would help me much in my application. I could be wrong. I have been looking at the sample questions for the Level 1 exam.

I am from Ontario-Windsor. 4 hours below toronto on the border of Detroit eh. lol

 

[AlexandreB]

I would love to work as a trader for a year between applying to PhD finance and finishing MFE/MF. I want to look appealing [...] to entry level trader positions after my MFE.

There is a HUGE competition for trader positions, especially at the moment. A classmate of mine just secured one, there was 60 interviewees for that single post, so imagine how many applications that means. There is a substantial number of people in the industry that will tell you to forget getting a trader job on wallstreet if you're not from the top 10 schools. I think this is wrong and there's surely highly successful non-top-10 alumni traders out there, but since your target school is not in the list (hey neither is mine), the CFA cert may hedge a little part of this prestige deficit. AFAIK, trader jobs are harder to secure than finance phds, of course it depends which company is the trader job and which school is the phd.

 

[Joy Pathak]

There is a HUGE competition for trader positions, especially at the moment. A classmate of mine just secured one, there was 60 interviewees for that single post, so imagine how many applications that means. There is a substantial number of people in the industry that will tell you to forget getting a trader job on wallstreet if you're not from the top 10 schools. I think this is wrong and there's surely highly successful non-top-10 alumni traders out there, but since your target school is not in the list (hey neither is mine), the CFA cert may hedge a little part of this prestige deficit. AFAIK, trader jobs are harder to secure than finance phds, of course it depends which company is the trader job and which school is the phd.

Lol , I think 1 in 60 applications(trader) is a lot different than 2 in 700 (Chicago) for PhD Fin. But your last statement ofcourse is the clutch one about the company and school. It would be nice to get a trader job, but I would suffice with anything as it would merely be to fill the gap between MFE and PhD Finance.

All I can do is apply apply apply and hope for the best!

I just registered in Derivatives & Risk management, Advanced Statistics, & Corporate Finance. I might try to do the First Level of CFA this June. 250 study hours , wow. Seems real intensive. Downloaded some MIT Operncourseware too.

---------- Post added at 07:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------

Mathematical Economics 1
Economic applications of differential calculus and linear algebra, with an emphasis on problem solving and employing software used widely by economists. Topics include input-output analysis, optimization of linear microeconomic models, and unconstrained and constrained optimization of non-linear microeconomic models.

Should I take this course? Seems like it would be Very helpful? I should take Statistics in Summer and take this instead in Winter? I don't want to overdo it and take more than 3 courses. I want to focus on getting A's in all 3.

 

[financeguy]

joyryde, read closer. there were 60 interviewees from that school. that means more interviewees from other schools. that means there's no telling how many people applied and didnt land an interview from even that school as well as from other schools. you can't interview everyone, obviously. there very well could have been far more than 700 apps. the BB where i'm at now in the NYC area literally received over 10,000 apps, interviewed about 250, and ultimately hired 10 new traders (reports with these stats are emailed internally by HR graduate recruiting team... i imagine other BBs will have similar stats). my BB has hired MORE traders than most BBs this year, keep in mind as well

good trading positions right now are at least just as hard to land as phd finance slots my man

Lol , I think 1 in 60 applications(trader) is a lot different than 2 in 700 (Chicago) for PhD Fin. But your last statement ofcourse is the clutch one about the company and school. It would be nice to get a trader job, but I would suffice with anything as it would merely be to fill the gap between MFE and PhD Finance.

All I can do is apply apply apply and hope for the best!

I just registered in Derivatives & Risk management, Advanced Statistics, & Corporate Finance. I might try to do the First Level of CFA this June. 250 study hours , wow. Seems real intensive. Downloaded some MIT Operncourseware too.

---------- Post added at 07:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:13 PM ----------

Mathematical Economics 1
Economic applications of differential calculus and linear algebra, with an emphasis on problem solving and employing software used widely by economists. Topics include input-output analysis, optimization of linear microeconomic models, and unconstrained and constrained optimization of non-linear microeconomic models.

Should I take this course? Seems like it would be Very helpful? I should take Statistics in Summer and take this instead in Winter? I don't want to overdo it and take more than 3 courses. I want to focus on getting A's in all 3.

 

[Joy Pathak]

joyryde, read closer. there were 60 interviewees from that school. that means more interviewees from other schools. that means there's no telling how many people applied and didnt land an interview from even that school as well as from other schools. you can't interview everyone, obviously. there very well could have been far more than 700 apps. the BB where i'm at now in the NYC area literally received over 10,000 apps, interviewed about 250, and ultimately hired 10 new traders (reports with these stats are emailed internally by HR graduate recruiting team... i imagine other BBs will have similar stats). my BB has hired MORE traders than most BBs this year, keep in mind as well

good trading positions right now are at least just as hard to land as phd finance slots my man

Ooooh. haha, Sorry, I misunderstood. Gotcha. You're definitely right in that sense then!