- Joined
- 9/7/25
- Messages
- 4
- Points
- 3
Basically the title.
My goal would be to work in quant trading and/or risk management, given my background in economics. The unis I'm applying to are Baruch, UChicago, NC State, and GaTech.
I come from a developing country where the quantitative finance world is almost non-existent. Derivatives and High Frequency Trading is largely non-existent. While there is a stock market, it is well known that it is subject to manipulation, and that too is pretty small too. What dominates the financial scene here is mostly corporate finance and traditional banking. I know these fields don't really utilize quant finance. My end goal would be pursue an MFE in the US and live and work there.
But would this be okay to mention in the SOP? I know student visas are supposed to be nonimmigrant visas and they can be rejected if they feel I have insufficient country ties. As far as I know the visa office will not have access to my SOP, right? But who knows with the current rules and regulations.... What do people usually write in this case?
I tried talking to one of my profs here, and they mentioned my SOP had to have a tone that would say that I intend to return to my home country and help my country using the knowledge from the degree. They mentioned that my country currently has a need but a gap in occupational health and safety insurance. The country has a large space for insurance in general. But I'm not sure how to explain the usefulness of my degree for this here. As I said before, the scene here is largely dominated by personal experience, not much data or quant analysis. To be even more fair, I have not seen anyone study quant finance and work here either. Most people do not even know that this field exists. Now I am really confused as to how to explain the goals section in my SOP.
My goal would be to work in quant trading and/or risk management, given my background in economics. The unis I'm applying to are Baruch, UChicago, NC State, and GaTech.
I come from a developing country where the quantitative finance world is almost non-existent. Derivatives and High Frequency Trading is largely non-existent. While there is a stock market, it is well known that it is subject to manipulation, and that too is pretty small too. What dominates the financial scene here is mostly corporate finance and traditional banking. I know these fields don't really utilize quant finance. My end goal would be pursue an MFE in the US and live and work there.
But would this be okay to mention in the SOP? I know student visas are supposed to be nonimmigrant visas and they can be rejected if they feel I have insufficient country ties. As far as I know the visa office will not have access to my SOP, right? But who knows with the current rules and regulations.... What do people usually write in this case?
I tried talking to one of my profs here, and they mentioned my SOP had to have a tone that would say that I intend to return to my home country and help my country using the knowledge from the degree. They mentioned that my country currently has a need but a gap in occupational health and safety insurance. The country has a large space for insurance in general. But I'm not sure how to explain the usefulness of my degree for this here. As I said before, the scene here is largely dominated by personal experience, not much data or quant analysis. To be even more fair, I have not seen anyone study quant finance and work here either. Most people do not even know that this field exists. Now I am really confused as to how to explain the goals section in my SOP.
