stochastics and statistics?

gushansen — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:36:22 -0400

hey, have a few questions that i hope you guys can help me out with:

stochastics vs. statistics - which is used more in s&t?

does it depend on the product (i.e. stochastics used more in derivs) or on the role (pricing and risk mgmt quants)?

if i wanted to trade, would a stronger statistics background be more useful than a stochastics one?

i mean, i've always heard stochastics bandied around as if it was the be all end all in s&t. if the random walk theory is correct, there shouldn't be a way to make money without assuming additional risk. but apparently, some of the people profiled in market wizards are doing just that.

thoughts?

Traders vs. Quants - Too much math?

gushansen — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:44:03 -0500

When you apply for S&T as an undergrad, how do the banks decide whether to interview for a trading role or a quant role?

From what I understand, quants do programming/modelling are highly advanced in math (usually PhDs), whereas traders simply need to be quick with basic math and probability.

Which major for consulting?

gushansen — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:39:43 -0500

I'll be going to a target school (Columbia) and people have said on many threads here that one can get interviews with any major. Nonetheless, I'd like to know which major will help me develop skills most applicable to management/strategy consulting.

1. Operations research: financial engineering
2. Econ-Math with a statistics concentration

Specific ER questions

gushansen — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:48:02 -0400

Hi. I stumbled into this forum from one of ratul's posts about bonuses and ended up reading the_inscrutable_chicken's thread about ER. I'm trying to decide which will fit me best - IBD, S&T or ER. Hope some of you ER veterans can help with these questions.

Major for IBD or HF?

gushansen — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:33:18 -0400

Hi,

Recently, I've started to look at college majors. I keep hearing about how quant majors are good for IB, but a few posts indicated that quants are recruited more for HFs than for IBD/M&A.

BS vs MS in Comp Fin and Fin Eng

gushansen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:25:54 -0400

From this thread (http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/node/7435) it seems like CMU's MS in Comp Fin program is fairly sought after by i-banks, HFs etc.

But on the BS program website (http://www.math.cmu.edu/~bscf/), Goldman is recruiting only for OPERATIONS. What gives? Are the undergrad versions of these comp fin and fin eng programs worthless?

Breaking into IB - an alternative approach

gushansen — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:36:27 -0400

If your goal is to get into the industry regardless of the geographical office (say NY, Chicago, SF/LA but not some TTT like equities in Dallas), wouldn't you be better off going to a midwest/west coast target like Chicago or Berkeley rather than a second-tier ivy like Cornell?

Think about it...at Cornell you'd be near the bottom of the pecking order (at least under WHYP), but at Chicago you'd probably be treated like royalty because it's an elite school in the midwest region.

Semi-target Econ vs. Non-target Business

gushansen — Thu, 24 May 2007 18:21:10 -0400

We all know that Ivy econ >= non-Ivy business.

But how about Northwestern econ (top 15, no undergrad b-school) vs. Notre Dame's Mendoza b-school? I don't think Notre Dame is up there with the other b-schools like Ross, Stern, McIntire, Haas and Sloan, but I hear Northwestern mentioned frequently as a "semi-target".

How would an industrial engineering/management sciences major from Northwestern be looked at compared to a Northwestern econ or Notre Dame business major?