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Usefulness of Computational (not Computer) Science Programs as a "quant" Ph.D

Fenderbender

Joined
7/20/13
Messages
8
Points
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From what I've seen/researched on quantnet the typical Ph.D that people who work in quantitative finance are usually Math, Stats , Economics, EE, Etc.

Programs in Computational Science, which are relatively new have emerged at top schools:

http://icme.stanford.edu/
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-085-computational-science-and-engineering-i-fall-2008/
http://iacs.seas.harvard.edu/
http://citris-uc.org/decse/philosophy


For those that don't know Computational Science is basically using mathematical models and computers to solve problems. Looking at the programs themselves it seems like they are very flexible and easily applied to one's field of interest, which could very well be finance( and in fact, stanford has a financial analyst track for its M.S.).

A huge part of Computational Science is modeling and simulation.

Because the programs combine the two fields that are used in computational finance: Mathematics and Computer science, it seems like this kind of Ph.D would be perfect for a prospective quant.. Does anyone know how useful a Ph.D in this field would be for a research position in quantitative finance?

I'm doing my best to look into placement for these programs, but as they are fairly new its difficult for someone like me who "isn't in the know" to assess the quality of these programs for myself without much historical data for these programs.
 
Computational sciences (in fluid/solid mechanics, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, etc.) have existed long before specialized programs like the ones you listed become formal. In that regard, they are not really new.
 
kwlmy said:
Computational sciences (in fluid/solid mechanics, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, etc.) have existed long before specialized programs like the ones you listed become formal. In that regard, they are not really new.
Click to expand...
Indeed.

It seems that the term 'computational science' is relatively new.

Because the programs combine the two fields that are used in computational finance: Mathematics and Computer science, it seems like this kind of Ph.D would be perfect for a prospective quant..

In theory yes, but a potential danger is that it is difficult to become an expert in both fields.

I worry that the word 'programming' does not seem to appear.
 
Last edited:
Daniel Duffy said:
Indeed.

It seems that the term 'computational science' is relatively new.

Because the programs combine the two fields that are used in computational finance: Mathematics and Computer science, it seems like this kind of Ph.D would be perfect for a prospective quant..

In theory yes, but a potential danger is that it is difficult to become an expert in both fields.

I worry that the word 'programming' does not seem to appear.
Click to expand...


Well you'd have to choose a dissertation topic. Even with the confines of "one" field , you do not become an expert in all of its topics. For example if you did your Ph.d thesis in Algorithms for a CS Ph.d, you would do it for one particular problem within computer science. You wouldn't be an expert on say Programming Lanugages, AI, or ML , etc.

The same idea would apply to this Ph.d: You'd choose a dissertation topic that would have coursework/research very relevant to some particular field of finance and some particular problem within that subfield.
 
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