BEST grad schools for active equities trading/prop trading
First off:
-The GI Bill pays me to go to grad school
-Most schools I am cashflow positive 20-40k over 2 years
-I will ONLY consider a career prop trading
-I am not looking for a quant/MFE program, I am doing 200-300% a year pattern trading
Avoid reiterating the regular general MBA suspects Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, NYU like a US News magazine, unless talking about their trading competitions, trading floors, trading classes, trading clubs.
I am looking for equity trading specific programs that have something unique, like Tulane, Penn State, Princeton MFin, etc
The two considerations are:
-A good part time/night MBA/Mfin where I could trading during the day at a prop firm
-A full time program where there is oppurtunity to do competitions and be in a good trading club.
Please try to retain your 'you don't need a grad degree for that' or why prop trading comments
I will compile a list and later do a risk/reward matrix specifically designed for this.





I'm using my 911 GI Bill
I'm using my 911 GI Bill also. I would look at NYU or Columbia. I hear NYU's part time program is good for S&T. The only thing is I found that being in a part time program hampers your opportunity to get an internship. The internship is where they get to assess your abilities. So the full time option works better if you want to assure you are able to transition from military to business seamlessly. If your married like me find a state school so its cheaper and network yourself to death. My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
IMSOSMOOVE wrote: My ordeal
My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
That sucks brother.
IMSOSMOOVE wrote: I'm using
I'm using my 911 GI Bill also. I would look at NYU or Columbia. I hear NYU's part time program is good for S&T. The only thing is I found that being in a part time program hampers your opportunity to get an internship. The internship is where they get to assess your abilities. So the full time option works better if you want to assure you are able to transition from military to business seamlessly. If your married like me find a state school so its cheaper and network yourself to death. My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
IMSOSMOOVE,
Yea I am really grateful they redid the GI Bill, it is a hell of an opportunity. So I am assuming you are coming out as an officer? I am actually prior enlisted and am finishing my undergrads in 2012 so I was able to do two internships as an analyst at different mutual funds, one of which is ranked #1 in it's Morningstar catagory now.
NYU and Columbia are very appealing to me but I only have a 3.5 GPA/710 GMAT and am going straight from a state school with no post bac exp. I think there is a chance, but I am no outstanding candidate in admin's eyes, so I need to make a contiegency plan.
Good to see other vet's lurking around WSO. Where are you going to school now IMSOSMOOVE?
Bourbon wrote: IMSOSMOOVE
I'm using my 911 GI Bill also. I would look at NYU or Columbia. I hear NYU's part time program is good for S&T. The only thing is I found that being in a part time program hampers your opportunity to get an internship. The internship is where they get to assess your abilities. So the full time option works better if you want to assure you are able to transition from military to business seamlessly. If your married like me find a state school so its cheaper and network yourself to death. My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
IMSOSMOOVE,
Yea I am really grateful they redid the GI Bill, it is a hell of an opportunity. So I am assuming you are coming out as an officer? I am actually prior enlisted and am finishing my undergrads in 2012 so I was able to do two internships as an analyst at different mutual funds, one of which is ranked #1 in it's Morningstar catagory now.
NYU and Columbia are very appealing to me but I only have a 3.5 GPA/710 GMAT and am going straight from a state school with no post bac exp. I think there is a chance, but I am no outstanding candidate in admin's eyes, so I need to make a contiegency plan.
Good to see other vet's lurking around WSO. Where are you going to school now IMSOSMOOVE?
If I were you and finishing undergrad I would pick up a job for 2 to 4 years with the intent of heading to B school afterward. To command the money and position you want you need some street cred. If I came into your class to teach in the military and talked about war with nothing to back it up, it would fall on deaf ears. But if you see that combat action ribbon you know I'm not talking shit. Plus the networking you'll do might get you into somewhere that will open doors.
I'm at the Smith School of Business.
surferdude867
My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
That sucks brother.
Yeah it sucks but, I love the suck! lol
There are two types in this world, rock-stars and groupies. When it gets tough groupies go home rock-stars keep playing. I'll be in NYC tomorrow playing my ass off for free after four hours of sleep. Easy day.
IMSOSMOOVE][quote=Bourbon
[quote=IMSOSMOOVE]
The only thing is I found that being in a part time program hampers your opportunity to get an internship. The internship is where they get to assess your abilities. My ordeal is doing an internship in my last semester at a firm for free that only recruits guys from BB's after their first few years. Just so I can have the internship on my resume.
If I were you and finishing undergrad I would pick up a job for 2 to 4 years with the intent of heading to B school afterward. To command the money and position you want you need some street cred. If I came into your class to teach in the military and talked about war with nothing to back it up, it would fall on deaf ears. But if you see that combat action ribbon you know I'm not talking shit. Plus the networking you'll do might get you into somewhere that will open doors.
I'm at the Smith School of Business.
I think you are confused. I was hoping to hear from those that trade equities, BB desks, prop traders, hedge fund traders, or investment firm traders, that had an experience at a trading centric or specialized program like Tulane, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, Princeton MFin, Vandy MFin or something along those lines. Something with good links to trading competitions and good trader clubs.
No point in reiterating US news or bweek rankings.
I am not really sure what you mean by I need street cred. Typically when I talk to successful traders they will ask me what my track record is. I'll typically tell them while I have a lot to learn , I'll tell them my current YTD return in my pattern trading account (172%), my 5/5 #1 placements at collegiate stock comps and that I started a trading club and got my team qualified for the CME, Tulane, and Penn State competitions which we will be attending next year.
While I appreciate your attempt to help by suggesting I do as you did I really don't want to be in your shoes. I don't want to have to go to an MBA program with an acceptance rate of 87% or be in a school where my GMAT is116 points higher than the average students.
I am not sure whether you realized you were being an douche, but I think you need to realize relationship dynamics are different in the real world. There aren't people who will listen to your shit and won't give it back. A butter bar won't get you very far out here, you either succeed or you don't. Judging from your school profile (below) and your unpaid PWM internship I think you are headed for the latter.
You can either get pissed off at this or, hopefully, realize that 6 years of no negative feedback when you treated enlisted service members badly, you need to polish your soft skills, and retrain how you respond to people.
A lot of NCOs and Junior Officers are never able to get past this mentality, and it limits their success.
University of Maryland--College Park (Smith)
Admissions & Enrollment (Part-time)
Applicants (part-time)
Acceptance rate 86.7%
Average age of new entrants 29
Average undergraduate GPA 3.27
Undergraduate GPA range (10th-90th percentile) 2.71-3.85
Entrants providing undergraduate GPA 345
Average GMAT score 594
GMAT range (10th-90th percentile) 500-690
Students with prior work experience 342
Average work experience (months) 62
Uh, just because he is going
Uh, just because he is going into a different field in finance doesn't mean he isn't right. A lot of schools and businesses like to see experience.
Also, he was referencing teaching *a class in the military* and how having a combat action ribbon lends someone teaching a class like that credibility when talking about war. He wasn't being a douche, there's just some miscommunication here.
"WSO is like the 300 for anti spamage. None shall pass." -happypantsmcgee
"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer
D M wrote: Uh, just because
Uh, just because he is going into a different field in finance doesn't mean he isn't right. A lot of schools and businesses like to see experience.
Also, he was referencing teaching *a class in the military* and how having a combat action ribbon lends someone teaching a class like that credibility when talking about war. He wasn't being a douche, there's just some miscommunication here.
Yea I have got mine too as well as 4 plates/12 screws in my leg. At the end of the day that doesn't really matter for shit though, just some crap you throw in a box and put in your attic. I was asking for second opinions on the best MBA programs for trading out there, and his conclusion was I wasn't ready for an MBA, unlike him, because I was a Sergeant and he was a butterbar (junior officer).
Now that we've gone quite off topic...
Would love to hear from some people that have participated in the tulane energy trading competition, the smeal comp, or the traders trophy last year, and what schools you saw represented well or had experiences with.
"-The GI Bill pays me to go
"-The GI Bill pays me to go to grad school
-Most schools I am cashflow positive 20-40k over 2 years
-I will ONLY consider a career prop trading
-I am not looking for a quant/MFE program, I am doing 200-300% a year pattern trading"
A little bit too cocky???
How is this cocky? Just
How is this cocky?
Just giving background as to factors that impact my decision. As per my return that is with a smallish line and of course I would have diminishing returns as the line get larger, just showing I am semi decent trading basis.
As per the GI Bill it is what it is, and the cashflows are what they are. It is like that for anyone.
I'd like to offer some
I'd like to offer some help/insight. One of the first questions your going to be asked anywhere is: your 200-300% returns...on how much capital? sharpe ratio? avg. duration? etc. Just trying to get a better feel for where your at.
We have a lot of entry level guys apply with "trading records" and they usually get a smirk, not much else. There' are many good master's programs out there that focus on trading without too much crazy math/high-level programming.
Also, by prop firm do you mean a straight prop shop or any aspect of prop trading a la HF, bank, etc.?
isnt a junior officer higher
isnt a junior officer higher than a sergeant?
SalGr wrote: "-The GI Bill
"-The GI Bill pays me to go to grad school
-Most schools I am cashflow positive 20-40k over 2 years
-I will ONLY consider a career prop trading
-I am not looking for a quant/MFE program, I am doing 200-300% a year pattern trading"
A little bit too cocky???
How could you possibly accuse this guy of being cocky? He knows what he wants to do, which is a lot more than the average dipshit on this site.
Yeah I think you have some
Yeah I think you have some air of arrogance about you and that's going to kill you off for opps. Prop desks get plenty of kids who are overtly confident coming in and they get torn up and not invited back for second rOunds. The reason that Columbia and Chicago are constantly pushed is because they are the best "trading" schools -- Wharton and Harvard are of course great but I feel These two shine more strongly. Maryland is a solid undergrad school before you bash it..
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
If your strategy was so
If your strategy was so successful then why would you need to go to grad school for it? Just plug in and print money.
I need a crib, a big estate, I need a boat and that need a lake, I need some salmon that need a plate, that need a chef so I feed my safe
From trading equities to slanging wine in Latin America
A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship i
Most schools teach theories
Bourbon][quote=IMSOSMOOVE
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IMSOSMOOVE wrote: Sorry I