Torn between masters courses at UK unis

[davideh]

Hi

I am applying for masters courses in the UK currently and I have a dilemma

I may receive external funding (tuition fees) for next year for various statistics programmes at one of imperial, ucl or king's. When possible, i am fond in taking their statistical finance stream for the ones that offer them. If not, I will pick relevant electives.

However I also recognise that Maths and finance at imperial, computational finance at ucl and financial maths at King's are better suited for quant roles; these programmes are not covered by external funding so I will have to arrange other means in case I do go ahead with taking them.

I will apply for all the aforementioned programmes, but still had to ask this question.

Is it worth me taking a statistics programme and would I still be able to become a quant? I need your help and opinions on this

 

[erood]

I believe attending the MSc stat degree programme is quite a decent choice.

Practical background on stat with well rounded theory side (backed up with programming capa) is always a key point ppl look up from candidates.
Good name tag on your education stack always helps as a pre-requisit - you never lose with Oxbridge + ICL/LSE experience at least with any quant degree.
And external funding? Fabulous for your life as well as your CV.
No quant job offer at graduation? No problem you can go to PhD and do amazing research works giving you a buch of good quant skills.
And you can even quit in the middle or look up nice opportunities outside of quant world.

Still want to attend the quant finance degree programme for gathering the Q-quant side skills?
Why not getting into it after having the stat master's degree when the world and you do not change much in one year?

Quant finance degree is quite essential if you want to cut into derivatives or structured products quant area - unless you are a solid math PhD guy with self studied job skills - but that's not all, in contrast everyone needs computational stat juniors.

Last point, there are a bunch of good online/part-time degree or equivalent level programmes in the city for this quant math and you can even have them whilst working when you are in early stage of career.
Once you get the quant job and if you have the solid education record before getting in, no one really cares if you attend Oxford or City university for a part-time for your self study effort.

* Btw am just a junior algo quant VP in a sell side yet to be responsible for new hiring, so take a pinch of salt.

 

[davideh]

I believe attending the MSc stat degree programme is quite a decent choice.

Practical background on stat with well rounded theory side (backed up with programming capa) is always a key point ppl look up from candidates.
Good name tag on your education stack always helps as a pre-requisit - you never lose with Oxbridge + ICL/LSE experience at least with any quant degree.
And external funding? Fabulous for your life as well as your CV.
No quant job offer at graduation? No problem you can go to PhD and do amazing research works giving you a buch of good quant skills.
And you can even quit in the middle or look up nice opportunities outside of quant world.

Still want to attend the quant finance degree programme for gathering the Q-quant side skills?
Why not getting into it after having the stat master's degree when the world and you do not change much in one year?

Quant finance degree is quite essential if you want to cut into derivatives or structured products quant area - unless you are a solid math PhD guy with self studied job skills - but that's not all, in contrast everyone needs computational stat juniors.

Last point, there are a bunch of good online/part-time degree or equivalent level programmes in the city for this quant math and you can even have them whilst working when you are in early stage of career.
Once you get the quant job and if you have the solid education record before getting in, no one really cares if you attend Oxford or City university for a part-time for your self study effort.

* Btw am just a junior algo quant VP in a sell side yet to be responsible for new hiring, so take a pinch of salt.

Hi, thanks for your response. I read it on my email when you originally posted it but was too lazy to log back in and reply.

Today I received my offer for the MSc in Statistics (statistical finance) at Imperial College. I am very happy about it and I will 99% accept it. Waiting to see what Oxbridge say but I am very fond and excited to join Imperial. My first step has been taken and I am excited for whats to come.

I believe you are right, the financial mathematics degree is not essential at this moment. Especially because I am interested in doing a PhD, so like you mentioned there is a possibility I might just never need the masters in fin maths. Also the statistical finance stream at Imperial is the closest thing you can get to their maths and finance masters, or even any financial mathematics degree at other unis. I think I made a good choice regarding that as well, as opposed to other unis that are offering statistics masters, but have nobody within the department doing research aimed in finance. To add to that, on linkedin a lot quants have been hired from the same programme at imperial so I should be good in this regard.

do you have any tips for preparation prior to applications opening up in september? online i have come across the various books like 'a practical guide in quantitative finance for interviews', 'option volatitlity and pricing', 'introduction to stochastic calculus' (I and II), but I wanted input from someone who actually made it in like you