Is a double major worth the time and effort?

H

Harish Kumar

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12/30/12
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Hello guys, I am an undergraduate at UC Berkeley doing a Computer Science B.A. and I was wondering if doing another major(most probably Stats or maybe Applied Math) is worth my time?

Basically, I am wondering whether doing a double major make me more valuable in the eyes of quant firms/financial industry in general? I have heard that most quant firms look for a masters anyway but I heard some hire undergrads as well.

FYI, these are some of the topics covered in the stats major:

1.Stochastic Processes
2.Linear Modelling: Theory and Applications
3.Introduction to Time Series
4.Modern Statistical Prediction and Machine Learning
5. Game Theory

Any advice is sincerely appreciated. Thanks guys.
 
If you want to do an mfe then yes a double major would be ideal. I'm a bit biased since I did my undergrad in pure math but I think the applied math degree would be a better choice than stats. Just make sure your GPA doesn't suffer, as this is one of the most important factors when applying to top mfe programs.
 
Hello Michael, thanks for the advice. Is there any reason an applied math degree would be better than a Statistics one? As far as I understand, topics like stochastic processes, time series seem far more applicable to finance and are covered in greater detail in Stats courses(in Berkeley, at least). Is it because applied math is seen as a harder major?
 
Hi again,
First please note that my experience with stats courses is a canadian one, so I might be comparing apples to oranges here.

Either way a stats major from Berkeley is great, I've heard it's an ok school, :p.
 
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I did a double Math/CS. If you can manage your schedule well, it's a great way to load up on main courses, get 2 degrees with very little extra tuition. Some universities would have a max tuition cap so you pay the same whether you take 4 or 6 courses a semester. If you can manage the time and do well in all of them. It worked out well for me.
 
I am MBA fin. from a tier 1 Bschool in India. Currently working as a business analyst in an IT company. I Did Mechanical Engineering from reputed institute. I was good in Maths from early days (Represented state in country level Maths Olympiad twice). Curriculum of MFE feels truly enriching. But looking the risk return perspective what will be your take in applying for course. Kindly advice.
 
While a double major especially in two related challenging majors looks impressive, I personally doubt that it is necessary. Your CS major is ideal personally. All the statistics and probability theory you need to know will be covered in the basic Math courses you will take and in classes like Analysis of Algorithms, Theory of Computation etc. If your Math is good enough to master these subjects, your math is good enough for MFE since the math involved here is fairly deep.

If you were to do an additional major in Stat/Applied Math, you most likely will have a more rigorous background in PDE/ODEs , functional analysis, tensor calculus, Brownian motion and theory of simulation, statistical inference and testing depending upon the courses you take.

Also, in my personal opinion a Stat major over an Applied Math major is the way to go with an MFE in mind. This is because you will be spending a hell lot of time validating models by testing it against market data as a Quant or as a Quantitative Analyst if you will (at least that's what I did !). You will be using advanced hypothesis testing including f,t,z tests and other mean variance tests, ANOVA, ARIMA, other auto correlation models, normalized correlation testing etc. Generally most BBs have a huge C++ library making it easy to implement these since you need to just call functions and throw in parameters but knowing the concepts and limitations of the model is absolutely critical.

If you want to become a Quant that primarily deals with creating new models to predict patterns in financial asset prices, you should go for an Applied Math major but you will most likely have to top it up with an Applied Math PhD. Just a UG degree in Applied Math won't cut you out for it!

For other roles such as S&T that MFE and other quant roles feed into, I do not think it makes much of a difference if you were to pursue a double major or not and if you were to pursue one, whether it be Stat or Applied Math. In fact, for almost all of these "other" roles you'd be better of majoring in Finance (Business Administration at Haas) if you can.

Good Luck!
 
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