Proving your Programming Skills

[Kevin Ramlal]

Hey Folks!

First thread here, and I'd like to start by saying how much I appreciate this website and the incredible insights I've gained so far. Currently I have a slight dilemma. I'm entering my senior year at UofT and I shall be completing a double major in Statistics (Quant Finance stream) and Astrophysics. Now while I have been able to take a large variety of math/stats/quant finance courses, the extent of my programming experience (on transcript) has been limited to R and Matlab.

I have recently been using online resources to teach myself C++ as I understand that a high-performance language is usually required for many tier1 MFE programs. I know there are various online certificates offered that validates an understanding of the language, however, I have unfortunately found many of them to be over my budget. Are there any recommendation that you all have in regards to proving to these schools that you know how to code, without having to pay too much. For example; should I just start a project of some kind and say "Look at what I've made!" Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, if this has been asked before, I'm sorry, if anyone could link the related thread that would be great.

Thanks.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

The QN/Baruch course is reasonably priced IMO.

 

[JLevin]

the good free ones i know are Stanford's CS courses, MIT opencourseware and Coursera. You typically won't get any certifications for these though I think? You would then want to find other resources (such as blogs) that have finance specific C++ stuff.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

the good free ones i know are Stanford's CS courses, MIT opencourseware and Coursera. You typically won't get any certifications for these though I think? You would then want to find other resources (such as blogs) that have finance specific C++ stuff.

QN C++ has all the stuff you mention.

The support of TAs is invaluable.

 

[ExSan]

I am taking this at COURSERA:
Text Mining and Analytics
this is a VERY challenging course, in terms of programming. You don't need much maths, this course will really proof your programming skills, at least it has been for me

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I am taking this at COURSERA:
Text Mining and Analytics
this is a VERY challenging course, in terms of programming. You don't need much maths, this course will really proof your programming skills, at least it has been for me

Did you complete the course?

 

[ExSan]

Did you complete the course?

currently it is only halfway, hopefully I will

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I am taking this at COURSERA:
Text Mining and Analytics
this is a VERY challenging course, in terms of programming. You don't need much maths, this course will really proof your programming skills, at least it has been for me

But is not a course to learn C++??

 

[QTMGMT]

you can take one or two courses at a local community college. Very affordable and you receive college credit from an accredited institution.

Austin Community College ( I assume U of T is University of Texas):

http://www5.austincc.edu/faculty/syllabus.php?id=305240

 

[Yike Lu]

you can take one or two courses at a local community college. Very affordable and you receive college credit from an accredited institution.

Austin Community College ( I assume U of T is University of Texas):

http://www5.austincc.edu/faculty/syllabus.php?id=305240

U of T could also be Toronto, and possibly Tennessee.

 

[ExSan]

But is not a course to learn C++??

no, it is not. But it requires programming in C/C++

 

[QTMGMT]

U of T could also be Toronto, and possibly Tennessee.

That is why I said "assume". I don't think anybody outside of Tennessee would refer to it by its initials.

As for Toronto, as an homage to your avatar, I tend to forget about Canada sorry, "They're not even a real country anyway"

 

[Daniel Duffy]

[...]. Very affordable and [...].

Quanto costa? Wat kost het $

 

[QTMGMT]

Quanto costa? Wat kost het $

it varies obviously, but at my local community college it would cost about $130 for a semester long course; about double what I paid just 7 years ago. The rate of inflation on educational costs is absurd but it is nonetheless still the best deal in accredited tertiary education that you will find. in the US at least.

 

[IntoDarkness]

agree. community college is the way to go. it costs $60 for a semester long course 7 years ago in california. back then i was poor so the tuition was waved by the state

 

[QTMGMT]

agree. community college is the way to go. it costs $60 for a semester long course 7 years ago in california. back then i was poor so the tuition was waved by the state

There you go. who says the American Dream is dead? Very satisfying to have come from a family too poor to afford a traditional college education and wind up making wall street money.

 

[Yike Lu]

That is why I said "assume". I don't think anybody outside of Tennessee would refer to it by its initials.

As for Toronto, as an homage to your avatar, I tend to forget about Canada sorry, "They're not even a real country anyway"

Being from TX, nobody ever calls it U of T, just UT, or if you're from OK, you call it TU.

 

[Kevin Ramlal]

Haha, interesting turn in convo, I guess I wasn't aware that people outside of Canada didn't automatically recognize UofT as University of Toronto. Also, tuition here is around $3500 CAD a semester, so almost $2850 U.S.

 

[Kevin Ramlal]

I was looking at Coursera but couldn't find pure C++ courses, if any at all. Has anyone ever heard of/tried the C++ Institute where you teach yourself online and write a test afterwards (around $150) and get a certificate saying you're a "C++ certifiedassociate"?

Here's the link: http://www.cppinstitute.org/?page_id=1661

 

[ExSan]

how to swap two numbers without temp program in c(++)