• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Statement of purpose - quantitative skills?

Joined
3/27/09
Messages
28
Points
11
Some schools specifically request applicants to write about how they apply quantitative skills in problem solving. My questions is: what is the "scope" of their definition of quantitative skills? Are they limited to solving problems through the use of mathematical equations?

I know this may sound like a dumb question. Does computer programming count as quantitative? It does involve a lot of logic but not a lot of mathematical equations.

Also, I have been working in a high-tech company for a while. Even though the job does require very technical knowledge, it rarely requires anyone to actually solve any equation because the complexity of real-world problems can only be handled by computer simulations. I haven't needed to differentiate a function for the past many years.

Can anyone, especially those with working experience, help me with how to approach this? Perhaps a few examples?
 
Quant Skill essays do not necessarily have to talk about your ability to solve mathematical equations - although they could of course if you've done relevant academic research.

For my quant skill SoP I talked about 1.) the analytical skills needed in determining how to approach a particular issue and 2.) the quantitative methods to solve that issue, once the approach has been determined. Step 2.) generally requires formuaic excel work or programming in some system to implement.

Programming is a display of quantiative skill of itself already. A way for you to perhaps strengthen your statement even more is to talk about the reasons why your code was necessary. (super short example : Our main goal was to decide how to allocate X in order to ____. We decided method Alpha was the most appropriate and implemented method alpha using C++.)
 
That is very helpful. Thanks a lot!

Do you have any comment on how technical the essay should be when I describe my experience and skills? I am kind of hesitant to mention words like pointers in programming and transistors in electronics. But describing the skills in too general terms may sound unconvincing.
 
Back
Top