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school/career track advice

Joined
11/13/08
Messages
3
Points
11
Hi,
I'm currently applying to mathfin programs for next fall. Right now, I'm very worried about the job industry going forward (of course). I feel that in order to make sure I can get a good position, i need to attend a top tier school. However, I'm trying to think of other options in case I don't make it in.

I live in Raleigh, and NC state has a mathfin program. This program is second tier or worse, but it's only a year long, and is very cheap. I was thinking that I could do this program, then go for an mba at a b school that is strong on finance. Would this open up oppurtinities in the trader/analyst fields in spite of my weak mathfin school choice?

Along these same lines... what value does an mba add? I'm intrigued by the dual finance/mba programs out there. I feel like this gives both degrees a lot more versatility, and would make me appealing to a wider range of companies.

Or, if I got the mba, would the quant degree not make any difference if I weren't going to wall st.?

Thanks in advance!
 
This program is second tier or worse, but it's only a year long, and is very cheap.
You'd be wasting your time and your money. Even top-tier school graduates are having ever-greater difficulty. Sorry, can't give you any better -- or more encouraging -- advice.
 
Let's say for the sake of argument that I don't make it into and mathfin programs, and eventually pursue an MBA. Do you believe that having a mathfin degree from NC state would have negligible benefit? Thank you for your perspective.
 
Do you believe that having a mathfin degree from NC state would have negligible benefit?

MFE programs are narrowly focused, and designed -- if they're any good -- to train people for a fairly narrow technical niche involving programming and (some) mathematics. If the program doesn't lead to a real internship and/or a real quant job, you are wasting your time and money. People who hire MBAs will probably not give you undue consideration if you also have an MFE -- it won't do you any harm, but it's an expensive and time-consuming way of having an extra master's degree after your name.

It is possible you want someone here to encourage you to enter the NC State program. But such encouragement would be irresponsible. In the present climate, the only people I would encourage would be math whizz kids going to one of the five or six strongest programs.

As Alain suggested, try to have a clear idea of what you want to do: it will force you to discard choices that make scant sense.
 
No, definitely not looking for someone to encourage me to go to state. If anything, the opposite is true. I just want to make sure that I'm not missing out on an opportunity to pick up a useful degree for relatively low cost.

As for a career, I don't think I want to be coding algorithms, but I definitely don't want to be in management. I like the idea of trading, or being an analyst. From the programs I've researched, I believe Princeton would be the best fit. It seems to strike a balance between between the technical components and big picture ideas. I work in semiconductors, so my exposure to the finance business is very little, but I really like the mathematics involved, and from my reading thus far ('my life as a quant' and 'fischer black and revolutionary idea of finance'), the field sounds very exciting. I'm just hoping to make sure I get a broad enough education that I can be flexible about a specific career. Any thoughts on other programs that are strong for this?

Thanks for all the help, I'm really enjoying this website.
 
I'm just hoping to make sure I get a broad enough education that I can be flexible about a specific career.

Mark, in this field being specific is much better than having a broad knowledge. People pay premium for specific knowledge as long as you are very very good at it.

Also, the market is changing drastically. Things might be totally different 2 or 3 years from now.
 
If you want to be flexible (reading: you have no idea what you want to do), then an MBA may be your best bet.
In my experience, employers of MFE type are usually very specific in what they want you to do:
Get this spreadsheet to work NOW
Get this pricing tool to work NOW
Price this, calibrate that.
We need tool A to work with B, C, D to get this result. We have no clue how to do it, so you get at it.

So you can see that a big number of these jobs are pretty much hand on and practical. If you don't like programming or fixing things under the hood, then it would be tough.
Forget whatever you read from those "My life as a quant" or Wall Street novels. Reality isn't like that.
 
Is this your experience? You think it's generally the case from your own observation/experience? How about when you're a senior quant?
 
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