- Joined
- 11/2/16
- Messages
- 2
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- 11
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.
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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