how to get into masters in financial engineering

[george]

hey!
i am an undergraduate in my 3rd year, pursuing a degree in comp science and engineering.
i like mathematics and computer programming... and i am good at it...at least, thats what i think.

1.
how should i prepare myself to get into a good masters program?i understand that one should have a strong mathematical background and good programming skills. what should be the extent of my knowledge... is there any benchmark that can tell me if i am upto it or not?

which c++ libraries should i invest my time in?..

more importantly, should i concentrate on windows programming or linux?

2.
i am supposed to write a thesis and make a project for my final year.
i was thinking about writing web services for financial computation working on large amount of data(I have no clue as to what the application is going to do... im just planning in advance)
do you think looking into web services in visual c++ is worthwhile?
problem is that the de facto language for financial engineering is c++(isn't it?) and that for writing web services is java or c#.

3.
if you guys think i have gone crazy and not making sense, then please let me know.

:tiphat:

 

[Andy Nguyen]

if you guys think i have gone crazy and not making sense, then please let me know

I think you have gone crazy and not making sense

which c++ libraries should i invest my time in?..

Learn the standard, basic first. You can always try to play with Boost, Quantlib

more importantly, should i concentrate on windows programming or linux?

Do the standard things well i.e Visual Studio. Linux is minority.

i am supposed to write a thesis and make a project for my final year.

I remember this question was asked during one of the chats with Prof. Stefanica. He suggested a project you can do. Go through that thread again Chat with Director of Baruch MFE program - QuantNetwork - Financial Engineering Forum

do you think looking into web services in visual c++ is worthwhile?

Unless you end up in an IT shop, you are not likely to be asked to do web service. And C# is a good choice for that.

 

[alain]

hey!
i am an undergraduate in my 3rd year, pursuing a degree in comp science and engineering.
i like mathematics and computer programming... and i am good at it...at least, thats what i think.

1.
how should i prepare myself to get into a good masters program?i understand that one should have a strong mathematical background and good programming skills. what should be the extent of my knowledge... is there any benchmark that can tell me if i am upto it or not?

which c++ libraries should i invest my time in?..

more importantly, should i concentrate on windows programming or linux?

2.
i am supposed to write a thesis and make a project for my final year.
i was thinking about writing web services for financial computation working on large amount of data(I have no clue as to what the application is going to do... im just planning in advance)
do you think looking into web services in visual c++ is worthwhile?
problem is that the de facto language for financial engineering is c++(isn't it?) and that for writing web services is java or c#.

3.
if you guys think i have gone crazy and not making sense, then please let me know.

:tiphat:

Ans:
1) Math, math and more math since the CS part you have it cover. Forget about libraries, that's the list of your worries. You want to be a Financial Eng not a code monkey, right?

2) Don't worry about web services. If that is what you want to do, Financial Engineering might not be for you. Try to do a project that would allow to apply financial knowlegde. Read the Hull book and try to apply what you learn from it in code.

 

[george]

hey!
thanks for replying..

"2) Don't worry about web services. If that is what you want to do, Financial Engineering might not be for you."

um.. actually i am not interested in web services.. what i am interested in though.. is how to handle large amount of computation. this is a requirement in financial engineering right?..
or are all the computations handled by single computers?

 

[alain]

hey!
thanks for replying..

"2) Don't worry about web services. If that is what you want to do, Financial Engineering might not be for you."

um.. actually i am not interested in web services.. what i am interested in though.. is how to handle large amount of computation. this is a requirement in financial engineering right?..
or are all the computations handled by single computers?

handling large amounts of data is a problem in itself but it is not a financial engineering problem per se. I think you are still looking at FE from the CS mentality. You just need to change the perspective a little