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Options for recent graduate

Joined
11/2/16
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Here's the short version of my story: I had a brain tumor, and it really screwed up my grades in my final years of undergrad. Is my only real option for starting a quant career to go to graduate school?

Here's the long version: I attended the University of Alabama on some scholarship money for the first two years of undergraduate beginning in Fall of 2011, and got decent grades ~3.5 GPA. In Feb. 2014, I was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease (A brain tumor on my pituitary gland that produced unhealthy amounts of stress hormone). I came home to Columbus, Ohio, and had the tumor removed in March 2014. I transferred to Ohio State, and began there in Fall 2014 with OKish health. Around October, I began showing symptoms again, by about April 2015, the tumor had recurred entirely. I was operated on twice more in the beginning of August 2015, and then began school two weeks later in terrible condition because I really wanted to get my degree.

My grades my entire time at Ohio State were Bs and Cs with the occasional A. Hindsight's great for acknowledging that I should have just been patient, waited until I was in good health, and then continued with my schoolwork, but it doesn't help much. My question is: how can I move past this onto a successful quant career?

I can't blame any companies for recoiling at my bad grades, and moving onto a candidate that they can be more certain is a quality student of finance/mathematics. I don't want to sweep my tumor experience under the rug because it had a huge effect on my life in the last few years, and I personally think it does me a great deal of credit to have accomplished what I did while having the tumor, but I understand that not a lot of people will share my view.

Should I consider applying to an MFE program? I'm still local to Ohio State, and was wondering if getting involved as a research assistant in the statistics, or finance departments would be of any help. I'm really open to any suggestions.

Thanks for any help offered in advance.

Edit: I forgot to include that I graduated in May 2016 with my BSc in Applied Mathematics.
 
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Sorry to hear all this. Are you working now? Where? What are you doing currently to "market" yourself as a "quant"? What can you offer to a possible hiring company?
 
I'm unemployed currently. Basically what I've been doing since graduation is just trying to learn mathematical finance from the ground up. I've read Joshi's "The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance", and "Financial Calculus: An Introduction to Derivative Pricing" from cover to cover, and have become comfortable with a lot of the material.

I spent most of my undergraduate career focusing on mathematical biology. I gained some experience with C, C++, MATLAB, and Python throughout, but I wouldn't call myself an expert at any of them. I was involved in undergraduate research while at the University of Alabama in molecular modeling, but didn't get the opportunity to get involved again at Ohio State because of everything that was going on personally.

Right now, I'm working on becoming a stronger programmer because it's my weakest aspect by far.

If I'm being honest, I can't offer concrete skills like deep financial knowledge, or expert programming. I think my strongest points by far are my work ethic, discipline, and problem-solving ability, but I don't know how to leverage those into a job offer.

Please be as honest as you like about what you think I'm lacking in terms of being hire-able. I know full well that I'm going to have one of the weaker applications in the pile, but I really want to fix that.
 
You should apply @ quant programs and see your luck. No point in waiting out if you can't plug into a meaningful job...loitering around would exhibit you as an unmarketable person. If you get a relevant job then differ your admissions to the next cycle and aim for a higher ranked program. You need to play the game of optionality to improve your odds.

If you state your medical history as a backdrop of your academic journey the admissions can be sympathetic however the story need to revolve around how best you tried despite of the challenges than ....I had a tumor in the brain so give me a chance card. It's a fin balance you would need to tread.


I'm unemployed currently. Basically what I've been doing since graduation is just trying to learn mathematical finance from the ground up. I've read Joshi's "The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance", and "Financial Calculus: An Introduction to Derivative Pricing" from cover to cover, and have become comfortable with a lot of the material.

I spent most of my undergraduate career focusing on mathematical biology. I gained some experience with C, C++, MATLAB, and Python throughout, but I wouldn't call myself an expert at any of them. I was involved in undergraduate research while at the University of Alabama in molecular modeling, but didn't get the opportunity to get involved again at Ohio State because of everything that was going on personally.

Right now, I'm working on becoming a stronger programmer because it's my weakest aspect by far.

If I'm being honest, I can't offer concrete skills like deep financial knowledge, or expert programming. I think my strongest points by far are my work ethic, discipline, and problem-solving ability, but I don't know how to leverage those into a job offer.

Please be as honest as you like about what you think I'm lacking in terms of being hire-able. I know full well that I'm going to have one of the weaker applications in the pile, but I really want to fix that.
 
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