Recent Interest in Quant

[Azret Deljanin]

Delete Please...Cleaning up Google Index

 

[bigbadwolf]

There have been a few other posters with backgrounds similar to yours who have asked the same question about viability during the last few weeks. I've refrained from answering because I don't want to discourage anyone. The odds are against you. It will take more than a year to get upto speed with math. If you don't have any real aptitude for math -- which is quite possible -- and you are doing it only because of the need to fulfil requirements for the MFE, you may never get up to speed. And you will be contending in a tight job market with people whose first language is math, and have been doing it for years upon years.

 

[Eugene Krel]

You seem to be mystified by what an MFE "might" offer, but bbw is right about the math part. If you have done no math in the last 4 years you are not likely to be able to get up to speed fast enough.

 

[Azret Deljanin]

Delete Please...Cleaning up Google Index

 

[CGiuliano]

What math have you taken?

 

[CGiuliano]

Fall 2009
Calculus 1
Introductory Statistics

Spring 2010
Calculus 2
Linear Algebra

Fall 2010
Multivariate Calculus
Probability Theory

Spring 2011
Ordinary Differential Equations
Real Analysis

Fall 2011
Statistical Theory
Numerical Analysis
Partial Differential Equations

Maybe you could shave a semester off that if you wanted to exclude some advantageous courses, but 1 year is completly unrealistic. Also, your own evaluation of your "aptitude" is fairly meangingless.

 

[Azret Deljanin]

Delete Please...Cleaning up Google Index

 

[kwlmy]

I am not a quant dude but I can only say this: apply and you will know.

 

[CGiuliano]

Ok, that's a start. I'm almost positive this will be impossible to pull off due to scheduling issues, but if you can do 3 math classes a semester the pre-requs can be done in a year. Here is a huge warning: advanced mathematics call for a different level of quantitative reasoning than elementary math. Some people are good at "computational" math, but fizzle out when things start getting abstract.

Be aware that 95% of the admitted students were engineering, math, science and highly quantitative finance majors. I don't know where that puts you, but if your going to devote your time to mathematics, do it for the math, not for MFE.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Applied Calc 1 and Calc 2 , got A's in both.

Is applied calc something like business calc, where they go no further than differentiation and integration of polynomial functions? If so, then you will need an honest introduction to calc, where they deal with transcendental functions (sin, cos, exp, log) and their power series expansions (the next best things to polynomials). Of course such expansions bring in their wake questions about radius of convergence and this is real math rather than (say) modeling total cost and total revenue with polynomials and looking for maximum profit by setting the derivative of (total revenue - total cost) to 0.

 

[CGiuliano]

MTH 2205 Applied Calculus II
4 Hours; 3 Credits
This course will include the first and second derivative tests, optimization, exponential and logarithmic functions, Riemann sums, areas, antiderivatives and business applications. This course is not open to students who have completed MTH 2201, 2206, 2207 or 2610.

No series?

 

[bigbadwolf]

MTH 2205 Applied Calculus II
4 Hours; 3 Credits
This course will include the first and second derivative tests, optimization, exponential and logarithmic functions, Riemann sums, areas, antiderivatives...

All this should normally be in a first course. Power series and integration by parts is often put in a second course.