PhD in Information System or Computer Science

[WilfredChai]

Dear all,

I really need some advice from you all.

Currently I am going to apply for PhD to do research in neural network for being a quant in future.

I have found two professors who are interested to accept me to be their students.

One of them is from a top 25 university in worldwide and is from department of information system. Their school have two departments, computer science and information system, and ranked 1 in Asia and 12 in worldwide. The professor suggested me to do my phd in text mining, sentiment analysis about trading in big data. However I haven't seen much quant recruiter is looking for PhD in text mining or NLP.

Another professor is from a university ranked in 71-80 in worldwide and is from school of computer engineering. The school ranked 52-75 worldwide. If I follow him, I will be able to get PhD in Computer Science. He suggested me to do option pricing with neural network as he said in the industry there are still not many option traders as the pricing is challenging than normal securities.

I have surfed a lot of job requirement for quants, most of them are looking for PhD in Computer Science, Statistics, Maths and probably electrical engineering.
However, I have not seen any job requirement is PhD in Information System yet.

May you all give me some advice that which PhD I should go for and I can more easily to be entry level quant after graduation.

I appreciated you all can guide me here.
Thanks a million.
Best regards,
Wilfred Chai

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Can you program (e.g. in C++)?

I get the feeling that CS education places very little emphasis on what software developers do in real life.

 

[WilfredChai]

Yeah, I learnt C++ in my undergraduate studying and were php web developer before.

Currently, I am working as a research officer in a univercity and doing research about seeking patterns in EEG time series for classification with using SVM and C++ in Matlab.

The professor in top 25 university told me that information system focus on accuracy and computer science focus more on efficiency.

He said PhD in information system will easier to find a post-doc position in top tier university and easier to get assisstant professor jobs.

However, my career goal is being a quant in algo trading rather than academician.

So I am very afraid of choosing wrong programme and it will make my dream hardly come true.

May you give me some advice?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

The professor in top 25 university told me that information system focus on accuracy and computer science focus more on efficiency.
I don't know.

I think your question needs to be more focused.

 

[vman]

When you become master in programming (C++), excellent at Statistics and Probability, great experience in PhD research, then your way to quant career is wide open, regardless of which school you graduate.

 

[WilfredChai]

The professor in top 25 university told me that information system focus on accuracy and computer science focus more on efficiency.
I don't know.

I think your question needs to be more focused.

Sorry for confusing you.

Initially there are three factors bothering me in considering my PhD programme. They are ranking of university, programme type(PhD in information system/ PhD in computer science) and topic of my research(Text mining, NLP about trading in big data/Option pricing with neural networks).

I afraid a lot of getting filtered out by recruiters because of lower ranking of university and the programme type which my certificate from when I apply for algo trader jobs in future.

 

[WilfredChai]

When you become master in programming (C++), excellent at Statistics and Probability, great experience in PhD research, then your way to quant career is wide open, regardless of which school you graduate. http://www.ask-car.com

Thanks vman,

So will my topic of research affect my path as well?

As I am trying to seek a good topic to fit the requirements of being quant(algo trader).

I also have my back up plan that, if even those professors would like to accept me, but I failed to be admitted by university. I will apply for all PhD programmes in Math, Statistics, Electrical engineering and Computer science and Master programmes in Financial engineering, Quantitative finance Computer science, Electrical engineering, Maths and Statistics in both schools again and again until I get admitted one day.

Meanwhile, I will be a researcher in university to try to pump more publications in relevant research field(machine learning) to assist my applications of studies too.

Even if I get admitted in one of the PhD programmes, I may apply for Master programme in Financial engineering and Quantitative finance after graduation too.

Do you think this plan is wise?

 

[vman]

Why don't you just apply directly for Master Program in Financial Engineering? If I were you, I would not spend 4-6 years for PhD research.

 

[WilfredChai]

Why don't you just apply directly for Master Program in Financial Engineering? If I were you, I would not spend 4-6 years for PhD research.

I have considered this option and I am preparing for GRE as well; however, my background is BE in Mechanical Engineering, I think the chance to get admitted by MSFE will be much slimmer than be admitted by PhD program(at least my current supervisor have asked me to do part time phd with her while works under her at the same time). So, I am considering to buy this 4 years time to train myself in term of programming skills, quantitative technical skills and language skills(to prepare well for GRE) and to build my network with quants in order to increase my chance to be admitted by good MSFE programme or go into quants world.

By the way, I am wondering whether having phd degree will be better in long run in quants career.

Oh ya, my current project is working on pattern recognition of EEG time series for classification with using SVM. If I pursue Phd studies, I will try to apply neural network optimization, bayesian reasoning, multithreaded, highly distribution programming and any useful technique of algo trading.

That is my plan. How do you think about it?

 

[shivgan joshi]

I am thinking on same lines, although I applied to PhD in Physics (Nano Physics).
But in the mean time a got a moderate job at a top 3 IB in Quant corp fin (IB) so people suggested me that exp in job will work better (and passing CFA and FRM with job) rather than investing 5 years in PhD.

If I think it more: in 4 years I can pass CFA FRM SAS, get 4 years live exp in Financial Engg. I dont know if I will be able to pass CFA L2 due in 1 months time.

vs

PhD in Physics with no CFA/FRM and also no exp in finance?

Please advice

 

[JulianT]

Advice I got from my family (mother, father both have PhDs, and sister currently in PhDprogram) is to not focus as much on which school but more which professor. Is it a big lab or small lab, and will you be meeting much with your advisor? More importantly, which topic interests you more. Both paths can lead to quant positions if you market yourself right. It is tough to know what the demand for PhDs on the street will be in 4 years or even if there will still be HFT permitted due to regulatory changes. If you want to go the phd route, it should be for intellectual curiosity, thirst of knowledge and based on your interests. If not you are setting yourself up for 4 + years of misery.
I am seriously considering the phd partly because of family pressure, but mostly because there is so much I am interested in but I don't have the time to research. That being said, there is the serious opportunity cost of going back to school. I am happy with my current job, and want to have a couple of years of work experience before reevaluating my position.

 

[WilfredChai]

Hi everyone,

I would like to seek for some advice from you all again especially who are working in algorithmic trading field and I have to do the decision by 22/8/2013. I am appreciated that you all can give me some guides in my case.

Currently I have received two offers for PhD Studies, one is from School of Computer Engineering of NTU and another one is from Department of Information System of School of Computing of NUS. However, based on my knowledge, the PhD studies is more about computer science and will be continue what I am doing currently as a researcher in NTU and it will be related to creating algorithms or optimizing algorithms with probability or statistics for data preprocessing, data mining, pattern recognition and time series analysis and prediction in transportation domain, eg. parking lot time series prediction and suggestion system. It may be more focus in efficiency or accuracy rather than seeking explanation for certain behaviour or phenomenon in transportation data. Regarding NUS programme, as I was admitted by department of information system instead of computer science, I will do more in explanation the behaviour of human, phenomenon or do sentiment analysis with text mining in trading. It will apply statistical tools to analyse the phenomenon or etc but it will be more focus in explanation rather than creating and optimizing algorithms.

In my mind, the research I do in NTU will be more training myself in quantitative skills and data processing and NUS provide me better certificate as it has higher ranking and I can work in trading domain but it may not provide better training in quantitative skills, programming and computer science knowledge than NTU programme.

On the other hand, NTU professor committed to work with me closely to try to let me be able to graduate in 3 years and NUS potential supervisor has informed me that the studies may be 4 or more than 4 years.

I am appreciated and wish to get more advice from professional to let me have some pictures about which programme may be more relevant to what industry needs and hope you all can help me here.

Thanks and regards,
Wilfred

 

[kwlmy]

A PhD program is about doing research. Choose your program based on your research interests instead of what lies after your PhD.

 

[Keith Tan]

Hi everyone,

I would like to seek for some advice from you all again especially who are working in algorithmic trading field and I have to do the decision by 22/8/2013. I am appreciated that you all can give me some guides in my case.

Currently I have received two offers for PhD Studies, one is from School of Computer Engineering of NTU and another one is from Department of Information System of School of Computing of NUS. However, based on my knowledge, the PhD studies is more about computer science and will be continue what I am doing currently as a researcher in NTU and it will be related to creating algorithms or optimizing algorithms with probability or statistics for data preprocessing, data mining, pattern recognition and time series analysis and prediction in transportation domain, eg. parking lot time series prediction and suggestion system. It may be more focus in efficiency or accuracy rather than seeking explanation for certain behaviour or phenomenon in transportation data. Regarding NUS programme, as I was admitted by department of information system instead of computer science, I will do more in explanation the behaviour of human, phenomenon or do sentiment analysis with text mining in trading. It will apply statistical tools to analyse the phenomenon or etc but it will be more focus in explanation rather than creating and optimizing algorithms.

In my mind, the research I do in NTU will be more training myself in quantitative skills and data processing and NUS provide me better certificate as it has higher ranking and I can work in trading domain but it may not provide better training in quantitative skills, programming and computer science knowledge than NTU programme.

On the other hand, NTU professor committed to work with me closely to try to let me be able to graduate in 3 years and NUS potential supervisor has informed me that the studies may be 4 or more than 4 years.

I am appreciated and wish to get more advice from professional to let me have some pictures about which programme may be more relevant to what industry needs and hope you all can help me here.

Thanks and regards,
Wilfred

Dear Singaporean,

you have already done your homework. SG companies' demand for PhD in finance industry is low. PhD IS-ers typically work in IT departments and deal with software. You could be working and enjoy a good career in LTA or ComfortDelgo.

PhD CS is widely in demand, suitable for jobs from Bloomberg to any position in civil service doing programming and data analysis.

There are many types of quants. Algo trader is one of them. but it doesn't require any PhD in any of the above. What they usually do is to data mine events, perform analysis like risk and arbitrage, blast orders and hedge risks simultaneously and automatically. all these while analyzing data throughput. what you need is more quantitative finance and financial engineering instead of wasting 4 years.

there are many option traders around, making big bucks everyday. every now and then a few of them go bankrupt when a big spike happens. still, pricing these is a challenge.

I suppose u haven't had any full-time working experience, or in finance at least. when you do, you will realize the demand for quants, the background required and the techniques they use. not judged by the the rank of my university nor by my research.