Entering the Finance World
Hi everyone,
I wanted to ask you what would be the best route for someone like myself could take in terms of getting into the finance world.
I come from a family of doctors, and they wanted me to follow their footsteps by going to med school. However, I realized this is not for me.
I am graduating from UT Austin with a degree in bioinformatics in December of 2012. I am very keen on working with a hedge fund. Have done tons of research and I know this is what I would like to do.
Catch is, my GPA isn't great. Lets just say its barely 3.0
My initial plan was to enter a Masters in Quant Finance program as I have the pre-req courses and have scored well in them. I have had tons of undergraduate research experience in biology specifically bioinformatics as well as in the Business school under a finance professor. I was also involved in club sports and 3 different student organizations and founding father of a fraternity.
I have realized my chances of getting recruited into a half a decent firm is slim to nil. But I have spoken to numerous professors in the business school and they recommend me enter a Masters program in finance. I would love to hear your input and thoughts.
I am very optimistic about my chances in the future and very positive that I will get to where I want to be. This is just a slight hiccup and with hard work I can certainly be successful. I know my chances in the immediate future are very slim, but I am planning for the long run.
Again I would love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks in advance.
TexasGrad
your GPA is terrible, esp coming from an easy state school. Do the MS Fin Engineering -> trader/ER -> hedge fund. If you want to go into a biotech hedge fund your best bet is biotech ER -> hedge fund, you can also try healthcare ibd -> hedge fund. Not sure how well MS Fin Eng places into ER/IBD, I think not as much as top MBA. Thus, if you pursue the latter, work for a few yrs at a healthcare conslting firm or some other prof workplace, take post-college courses to strengthen gpa, get a 750+ on gmat if you're asian or white, and spruce up your extra curriculars to get into a top mba school, then you will be fine going to ER/IBD -> hedge fund easily.
Good luck.
Kellogg alum / Wharton ugrad
Wouldn't the trader->HF route be more for Macro/Commodity hedge funds than for the traditional Long/Short funds. Those funds don't particularly care about business schools either.
dude, i hate to burst your bubble, but keep on dreaming. getting into a hedge fund with your background is near impossible, unless you want to do some kind of middle or back office role which will not help you ultimately land a portfolio manager role.
also, i majored in a life sciences field as well and the kind of research you do at an undergraduate level is meaningless....its not even research. anyway, it will be difficult for you to be admitted into a top MSF or whatever program since you dont have a quantitative background, youll be competing with kids who majored in stats, mathematics, phyics, engineering, etc. and whom are from abroad where math is their first language.
bioinformatics wont help at all either.
i dont mean to be so harsh, but im going to be frank with you.
Thank you very much for taking the time out and replying socola2003. I will definitely keep your advise in mind. Thank you for replying as well mashed potatoes. I did take the MCAT and scored in the 90th percentile. I just don't want to pursue that as everyone in my family has taken the medical route. I guess the research was just geared towards medical school, as I was always pushed in that direction.
Thank you once again for your responses!
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