Quant programs are extraordinarily competitive and require a great commitment. You'll be surrounded with classmates who already have PhDs and/or MS in Physics, Math or Stats. You'll be programming many models (CIR, Vasicek, BS, etc.) â using mostly C++ and Matlab. You'll be deriving every model and theorem from scratch. Itâll help immensely if you have a good grip on mathematics and a solid programming background. Quant programs are difficult but very, very rewarding. If youâre seriously considering it, take a look at some of the programs Dividend listed â most have websites with course requirements, descriptions and student profiles. See what current students have and decipher what youâll need. GMAT/GRE scores are important and are weighed when the admissions committee is looking at your profile, but a lot of weight is given to your background/commitment â they look for students that <b>will</b> succeed and have proven so in the past. It's a tough route but it's a great one! Good luck.
you don't specifically have to do physics, any hard sciences will do ranging from math, stats, physics even engineering, but later you have to somehow get a foot in the door into trading related areas, how you do that depends on your ingenuity and luck, and yes, many quants end up in B.O. doing portfolio construction and risk, which is far from what works in trading, today you can still get in with a bachelor but by the time you graduate i'm think its likely you need a minimum of a MSc, unless you r going to grad in 3 semesters, btw focus on passing your passing your 1st year first, in 4 or 3 years time, the demand will be very diff, just like in IT, today everyone seems to be a developer
Most quants do not end up managing portfolios or hedge funds although some have. You will need to do post grad work to excel in this area hopefully you love math, programming and modeling. You should probably talk to some of the schools about your goals, some of them are very good in advising what career paths are possible, what it's like in different roles, and where/what recent graduates are doing. Baruch and Berkeley for example are great in this area and are great "non-ivy" schools. But don't let that fool you, they are very competitive. Like others have said, go start spending some time at the wilmott forum. Besides that, some other quant hangouts are global-derivatives.com & nuclearphynance.com Good luck.
GRE math score at top programs are in the 780+ range (no one really cares about the verbal). But you wont' get in on the strength of GRE scores - everyone will have them. You get in based on your undergrad coursework (lots of math? lots of compsci?) and research (did you work with a prof on a research project?). I think you said you went/go to Baruch? That's going to be problematic. It's not a research school, so it will have no standing with committee that determines your admission (finance academia is a small world). Oh, don't bother going to a second tier program. I had friends that did that - doesn't quite work out; out of the gate, placement pretty much follows pre-program work experience. The street goes head over heals for top programs, and will completely relegate the lesser program graduates to middle office. Honestly, I'm not at all sure you know what a quant's job is; you probably won't like it.
nuclearphynance.com has an entire section of the board for schools, certainly check that out. i would think overall its a crowded field that will only get more crowded. Even the state school here has a financial engineering degree program now.
Bullshit. (1) SPLUS is nice but it's not exactly industry standard; every shop has its own preferred software; (2) knowing an econometric package without understanding the econometrics is worse than not knowing the package at all;
Wow, this thread probably gave me more information than all other threads combined. Thanks guys. Yes, I am currently attending Baruch just finished freshman year with a 3.6 GPA. I haven't started any courses that deal with really hard math yet. (although I just finished the remainder of Calculus) took financial accounting and that is a breath. Regardless, I will start to take statistics and next semester. Math major probably semester after that. I will try to enquire more about the subject in my school, but I am trying to figure this out at first from you guys. Should I switch schools to lets say Rutgers. The reason I picked Baruch was b/c it is cheap. Rutgers is about 5X more money. But, I believe that I got the idea of Quant. program new techniques in trading, evaluate risk in trades. Write bunch of formulas. I was talking to people in the MFE program in Baruch and they said I need about 750 on math part in GRE. Yeah, that one is a killer but I believe I can do it. ANy other suggestions?