Cornell vs Vandy for HF quant role
Hi guys, I am a high school senior from an Asian country, and want to work as a quant. I want to ask that is Cornell better than Vanderbilt with a significant margin?
For context, I have a decent profile; I was in my country's IMO team (didn't win anything tho). I can easily get a full ride at Vanderbilt, since generous aid for internationals, but at Cornell, I will have to pay a lot. So is it worth applying to Cornell in the ed round( committing to Cornell) or should I go for a full ride at Vandy? I am not looking for other factors like social life etc.
Your suggestions will be hugely appreciated. Thanks.
I would go with Cornell, there are definitely some quant funds that are picky about school from my experience.
Cornell's CS program is #6 compared to Vanderbilt's #42.
Cornell's math program is #16 compared to Vanderbilt's #44.
Cornell is significantly above Vanderbilt for reputation, and given your parents are probably going to pay for you anyway, just choose Cornell.
If you actually will be paying tuition yourself, but you are not confident you will be able to land a HF Quant role based solely on your merit, then Cornell will still pay off in the long run with better teaching and connections leading to higher salary positions.
If you are paying but are abnormally smart and hard-working (top 0.1%) so you will prob land the role anyway, then yeah go with Vandy. But I'm guessing this isn't the case.
Adding to this because I was accepted to Vandy but went to a different school. Vanderbilt is a fine school, but most of the grads on average end up in ATL and other Southern cities more so than elsewhere. To put it another way, NYC firms will have a heavy bias against you.
For anyone else reading this, Duke is the only school from the South imo that places strongly for NYC/SF/Chicago/etc. regardless of industry. And I say this as someone from ATL/Raleigh/Miami.
The founder of HBK went to Cornell
Cornell by a mile, and if you end up in a good quant seat student loans wont be a problem. The Ivy league name sticks with you for life.
Rerum reiciendis similique et non quia alias. Minima quasi possimus sunt quod.
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