What is the best city to pursue quant trading or trading at HF's ?
Hi, I'm a French high school senior and I want to do QT or trading at an HF later because I love math. I have the choice to go study either in France, the US or the UK but have no idea what to choose.
I've got into Stanford and UPenn in the US, oxford in the UK and the top french "prépa" for engineering schools -> Polytechnique/ENS and the bachelor of Polytechnique. All of these are in math btw.
What's the best choice ? I definitely don't want to work in Paris, so either New York, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Sydney, Singapore or Hong Kong. I have affinity for Sydney as I used to live there, went to Amsterdam and seemed like a great city, same for NY and london, no idea about Chicago Singapore and HK but seems like a good change.
For the US schools, I would need to take out loans, maybe not for UK and definitely not for France.
Depending on compensation, taxes, cost of living and just how good the city is, which one seems like the best and what would be the best university choice for it ?
Thanks for the help
are u considered international for oxford cuz im not sure how much cheaper it is compared to US for intls
yea I am but still cheaper, turns out to be about 60k total which is 40k less than the US.
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Obviously things could easily change in a few years but work visa wise UK is generally easier than the US for finance people as you don't need to lottery for the skilled worker visa although working in the US after graduating from a US university is much easier than if you went to Oxford. I would tend to think Stanford and Oxford are generally stronger for quant recruiting at US/UK quant firms than UPenn or the French universities even if those are still good schools. There are also some culturally French quant firms like Squarepoint that presumably recruit heavily from the French universities but I am not knowledgable about that path and there is presumably more information on that route in some French language forum.
Location wise there is also a big difference between US and UK and Stanford, UPenn, and Oxford are also very different locations so I would consider that heavily as well. I think posttax compensation even after accounting for cost of living is generally going to be higher in New York/Chicago than in London but hard to say whether that outweighs the higher cost and time of the US degrees. Even if you don't want to work in Paris proximity to France may still be a big plus of London so I would consider that as well unless you specifically want something further away. Amsterdam/Singapore/HK/Sydney are all interesting and have decent numbers of quant trading roles but quant research roles are still more concentrated in US/London. It can also be somewhat more difficult to relocate after some years of experience as your product knowledge/professional networks will be somewhat specialized to where you worked.
thanks for the response, that's really helpful.
New York all the way
In general I would recommend the US, Stanford slightly over UPenn as you have better opportunities on the West Coast external to finance, although both have strong Econ and Math departments. A lot depends on your visa. I don’t think France has a lottery keeping you out of the US labor market, but you should research this before you go. My main advice is to choose the US over the others. The quality of life and opportunities available to someone starting their career in the US versus Europe is significant and growing due to tech difference. Tech is important for quant and there is a lot of cross-pollination. You will also be paid more. Markets are efficient on average, and they’re more efficient in the US. The europoor meme IS REAL and IT SUCKS.
ok perfect, thanks for the answer
Assuming OP studies a STEM major in the US they should be have no issues getting an OPT for 3 years (assuming no significant changes in immigration law) and wouldn't face an overly long wait for a green card but would still need to be in the lottery for an H1B visa after the OPT expires like everyone else. A select few nationalities such as Canada, Singapore, Australia have country specific visa options as part of bilaterial agreements but I don't think France or any European country has one.
Arguably the after graduation working rights and the path to green card are more generous than the UK especially after the recently announced changes but the UK skilled work visa is almost certainly easier to get and more immigrant friendly than an H1B.
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