Choices: Finance + Stats or Comp Sci?
Hey everyone,
I'm currently an undergrad at a Canadian target. My long term goal career goal is hedge funds although I'm not ruling out any other finance career, especially for the first few years (ER, S&T or IB). I want to graduate with some quantitative knowledge in order to be able to work in a more "quant" environment should I want to.
I have heard nobody gives a shit about minors, and I'm also thinking it only lets you scratch the surface of the subject at hand. I can't double major finance / comp sci, so I have the following choices:
1) Major in Finance, minor in Statistics or Mathematics
2) Major in Finance, minor in Computer Science
3) Major in Finance, major in Statistics or Mathematics (this option will probably delay my graduation slightly)
From talking with people and reading past posts here, I understand that whatever I choose having a 3.5+ GPA is a must. I also don't reject the possibility of going straight into graduate studies after this (conditional on if I can get into a top school or not).
Some additional info: I prefer stats to maths, and I think compsci could be more fun than any of these two. I don't have any coding knowledge although I've had some exposure to algos (very basic level) and loved it.
What path do you think will bring the most opportunities, and why?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
There's literally dozens of these posts, if you'd bothered to use the search function
To answer your question - 3) is the best option if you can keep your cumulative GPA above a 3.5.
Thanks for the advice. I did look at some other posts but I just wanted to get some insights on my specific situation.
Don't even think about pure math. Seriously. You won't get a "quant" job with a minor since you won't know anything, and you're a freshman, you have no idea how hard "real" math is. I've taken a few "high level" math courses and trust me, it's like nothing you've ever done in math before. It gets to the point where there's no numbers and your explanations for the logic behind your proofs dwarfs your actual equations on the exam. I've seen kids get high 80s and 90s in first year math and drop out in upper years just because its too difficult.
Stats is useless. Most places in the real world don't use them.
The only option I'd even consider thinking about would be #2 since it might make your life a bit easier with VBA and macros, but even then, you're better off saving your GPA and learning it on your own.
Also how are you going to get in to a hedge fund if you don't want to get in to IB?
That was my concern about minors, thanks for confirming. I do understand getting a quant job entails more than a couple undergrad courses, I just want to earn transferable knowledge/skills before graduation. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I didn't mean to say I want to work for hedge funds asap, it's a longer term career goal. I'd kill for a strong IB experience.
Could you explain further why you wouldn't even consider stats, even though you seem to say math would be good? I would've thought stats could be useful for S&T, fixed income / derivatives etc. I know a few people with grad degrees in pure math and they definitely would agree with you on the roughness, I'll take that into account.
Thanks for your reply!
The math you need for a lot of that stuff is minimal. You don't need stats to execute a client's trade.
Stats is "useless" in the same way pure math would be useless... beyond a couple courses (Bayesian methods, time series analysis, stochcal) you end up learning a bunch of really difficult, inapplicable material
A few of my friends (at both target/Ivy and non-target schools) did the finance and math double majors and they got offers everywhere from Two Sigma and Jump to GS/JPM/MS IBD. I think it's a good signal to interviewers that you're smart as fuck and hard-working (math) but still have people skills and are interested in the big picture (finance). Hence my recommendation..
I majored in CS and it was a huge plus for every trading-focused role (prop trading, S&T, quant) I interviewed for. Literally no one in my ibd interviews cared (besides general curiosity) so if you know you're interested in the more "qualitative" path of IBD/ER/S&T (excluding non-linear derivatives/exotics/etc) I'd say don't seriously pursue it unless you genuinely find it interesting. McGill CS is pretty legit and I'm not sure that it'd be an easier time than a math major (which is often the case at many schools) maybe try the intro courses and see how you fare?
Sounds good, I definitely still have time to take some courses and readjust later. I'm leaning towards the finance/stats path. Going to meet an advisor and talk to more people before making a final decision. Thanks for your help!
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