"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -Mahatma Gandhi
I chose to include the quote above in my first post because three quarters of it speaks to the insecurities I had before making my decision to begin the newest chapter in my life, my road to receiving an admission letter from an MFE program. In a little less than two months I will be quitting my extremely secure job, in sunny South Florida, and moving my wife and two year old son to Ruston, Louisiana where I will begin my studies in order to obtain a second Bachelors Degree with a major in Math and minor in Computer Science. I will be posting several pieces which will chronicle my transition from full time work back to a full time undergraduate student while being a parent of a toddler, the classes I take to prepare for my intended graduate studies and everything in between. My intention of writing this blog is to provide an insight to undergraduate students who are considering future MFE studies and readers who have to take a longer path to the MFE, such as myself, and are trying to make that final decision, to be or not to be a quant.
My Background:
First and foremost I'm a father of an incredible two year old boy, who is my inspiration for taking this journey. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank both my son and my wife for being my rocks and support system through these next few years.
I graduated from Florida International University (FIU) in 2006 with a degree in Finance. Most readers on this site probably have never heard of the school and the same goes for employers on Wall Street, I understood that when I graduated so I cold called potential employers and after the millionth hang up I landed an interview and subsequently a job at a small Investor Relations firm marketing small to mid-cap metals and mining companies. This was definitely not a Bulge Bracket I-Bank but it was definitely my way in, after working there for a little over a year, I felt I was missing something from my job and realized it was the lack of quantitative work. In turn of that realization I applied for another position in Miami, my hometown, working at a Fortune 500 regulated utility, managing one of its cost recovery mechanisms and performing heat rate analyses, which measure plant efficiencies, in order to assist upper management in the decision of building new plants around the state or modifying existing plants to burn more efficient and cleaner fuels for the production of electricity. The latter further pushed my interest in becoming a quant. A few major realizations came about at this point.
Being that our situation is a bit different than most students, we wanted to make sure that our costs were low for the undergraduate portion of my studies. Our initial thought was to go back to New York, but due to the high costs of the city it would put us too far in debt for a second undergrad degree, staying in Miami would put us in the same boat. So with a large chunk of my wife's family residing in Louisiana I applied to Louisiana Tech where I was accepted and given an in-state tuition scholarship which drastically reduced the costs and made our decision a lot easier.
This first post is intended to provide readers an opportunity to get to know me and my goals for this blog. Any comments or suggestions for future posts are greatly welcomed.
I chose to include the quote above in my first post because three quarters of it speaks to the insecurities I had before making my decision to begin the newest chapter in my life, my road to receiving an admission letter from an MFE program. In a little less than two months I will be quitting my extremely secure job, in sunny South Florida, and moving my wife and two year old son to Ruston, Louisiana where I will begin my studies in order to obtain a second Bachelors Degree with a major in Math and minor in Computer Science. I will be posting several pieces which will chronicle my transition from full time work back to a full time undergraduate student while being a parent of a toddler, the classes I take to prepare for my intended graduate studies and everything in between. My intention of writing this blog is to provide an insight to undergraduate students who are considering future MFE studies and readers who have to take a longer path to the MFE, such as myself, and are trying to make that final decision, to be or not to be a quant.
My Background:
First and foremost I'm a father of an incredible two year old boy, who is my inspiration for taking this journey. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank both my son and my wife for being my rocks and support system through these next few years.
I graduated from Florida International University (FIU) in 2006 with a degree in Finance. Most readers on this site probably have never heard of the school and the same goes for employers on Wall Street, I understood that when I graduated so I cold called potential employers and after the millionth hang up I landed an interview and subsequently a job at a small Investor Relations firm marketing small to mid-cap metals and mining companies. This was definitely not a Bulge Bracket I-Bank but it was definitely my way in, after working there for a little over a year, I felt I was missing something from my job and realized it was the lack of quantitative work. In turn of that realization I applied for another position in Miami, my hometown, working at a Fortune 500 regulated utility, managing one of its cost recovery mechanisms and performing heat rate analyses, which measure plant efficiencies, in order to assist upper management in the decision of building new plants around the state or modifying existing plants to burn more efficient and cleaner fuels for the production of electricity. The latter further pushed my interest in becoming a quant. A few major realizations came about at this point.
- My Finance degree alone will not cut it in this world and
- due to my work schedule and my parental duties combined, it would be impossible to juggle a full time Math curriculum. After the latter realization I came home and told my wife I was quitting my job and I was going back to school. If you have a mirror while your reading this and look in to it as you read the previous sentence you will probably make the same facial expression my wife gave me when I told her this, but after a few glasses of wine and the promise to take her to watch Sex and The City 2 she was fully behind me.
Being that our situation is a bit different than most students, we wanted to make sure that our costs were low for the undergraduate portion of my studies. Our initial thought was to go back to New York, but due to the high costs of the city it would put us too far in debt for a second undergrad degree, staying in Miami would put us in the same boat. So with a large chunk of my wife's family residing in Louisiana I applied to Louisiana Tech where I was accepted and given an in-state tuition scholarship which drastically reduced the costs and made our decision a lot easier.
This first post is intended to provide readers an opportunity to get to know me and my goals for this blog. Any comments or suggestions for future posts are greatly welcomed.
