Complete European master guide for S&T/Quant position
Given the post about best master in EU to land a job in IB, I thought could be interesting to share which master I think could help you get a job in S&T/Quant, based previous research, personal experience and advices of friends in trading/quant positions.
In S&T and Quant the concept of target/semi has less importance than IB, but these masters are for sure what I think the best.
If I forget something just feel free to comment
OXFORD:
MSc Computational Math
MSc Financial Mathematics
IMPERIAL COLLEGE:
MSc Mathematical Finance
MSc Risk Management & Financial Engineering
MSc Mathematics (pure & applied)
UCL:
MSc Computational Finance
MSc Financial Risk Management
MSc Statistics
Warwick:
MSc Financial Mathematics
LSE:
MSc Risk and Finance (formerly known as Risk and Stochastic)
MSc Financial Statistics
CASS Business School:
MSc Mathematical Finance/Mathematical Trading/Quantitative Finance
King's:
MSc Financial Mathematics
Merit note goes to Birkbeck's centre of mathematics with the famous Helyette Geman
In France things are quite different with masters in math/stat in these schools still valid
CentraleSupelec:
Mastère Spécialisé Mathématiques appliquées à la finance
Pierre and Marie Curie university:
Most famous program like probability and finance (DEA El Karoui) and Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires
ESSEC/EDHEC master in financial engineering or HEC master in finance work too
ENSAE master in math/engineering work too
Paris Dauphine master in financial engineering merits another note
Also Paris Diderot works
Switzerland has a lot of opportunities, most important are:
ETH Zurich:
MSc Quantitative Finance
EFPL:
MSc Financial Engineering
HSG St Gallen:
MSc Finance
MSc Quantitative Economics
In Italy
Bocconi:
MSc Finance - Quantitative Finance path
Politecnico of Milano:
MSc Mathematical Engineering - Quantitative Finance path
Good note goes to Bologna's MSc in Quantitative Finance, though placement quite regional (lands to Milan)
Germany:
TUM
MSc Math Finance
Netherlands:
Amsterdam's MSc Quantitative Finance
RSM's MSc Econometrics and Finance is another strong master
Austria
WU's MSc Quantitative Finance
Hope it helps, feel free to share comments
Is important to note also that is quite important to have a quant background, and also master in pure physics, math, statistics or computer science help a lot, even more than MFE if you are aiming for pure quant/algorithmic trading positions!
Looks good. I suggest to add also
France:
EMLyon Msc quantitative finance Ecole polytechnique (all the masters)
Italy:
Scuola Normale Pisa for Math Scuola Sant’Anna Pisa for Math too (maybe better at UG)
Ngl I’ve seen also people from University of Florence’s MSc in Finance and Risk Management around Paris
Germany:
Humblot Uni Berlin MSc Stochastic UBonn
Seems very quant focused..
What about MSc 203 at Dauphine? MSc Financial Markets at EDHEC? MSc Finance at ESSEC? (where ~40% go into S&T)
They’re all strong. Dauphine is more PARIS focused though I’m impressed by the placement of EDHEC in S&T, I think is quite underrated (probably because people are more interested in IBD)
Good Uni and masters too. Dauphine has a very great placement in Paris' banks, whilst both EDHEC and ESSEC do well in London/Singapore too I met a great commodities trader that works in Singapore graduated from ESSEC's MSc Finance (the plain vanilla course)
Why no mention of the generalist MSc Finance programs at LSE/Oxford/imperial etc? Aside from being the flagship programmes of their respective school, they all allow for module choices that are geared towards financial markets/quant stuff (Oxford financial economics and imperial MSc finance are already very quantitative anyway), and so for at least s&t I would think they are superior than the less prestigious pure financial math programs.
They are strong of course, Oxford'MFE and Imperial's MSc Finance are also pretty quant focused. Nonetheless, we are coming back with the "prestigious" thing that for S&T/Quant does not matter a lot as long as you are good with numbers and able to make money.
The MD who looks at your CV would prefer Oxford financial math to MFE
Anyway, these are good masters too
I’d say yes, also because the math component is quite heavy. I personally attended one of these with bachelor in accounting & finance, though wouldn’t recommend doing anything related to this to someone who studied history or philosophy
Mind also that whilst a PhD in corporate finance is not that useful, a PhD in quant finance/financial econometrics/financial maths etc would be great to break into some quant funds or banks
Surprised you've included LSE's Risk & Finance programme instead of its straight-up Finance programme - especially as the latter has, I think, higher quant entry requirements. It's also the case that LSE's R&F programme has a lot of qualitative modules that can be taken in place of more quantitive modules: AC412 - Accountability, Organisations and Risk Management; GY465 - Concepts in Environmental Regulation; LL4BK - Corporate Crime.
Thanks for pointing it out! I have to apologies, as I meant the old Risk & Stochastic course that now is quantitative methods for risk management
Hi guys, first of all great work with this thread, a couple years ago I would have paid to have some light on which msc to target. Anyway I would really appreciate an advice on my situation from some more experienced people who work in S&T (my goal is London S&T, specifically structuring / systematic strategies / maybe (algo) trading). I am about to graduate from a BSc in Engineering from a university in continental europe (respected in my country, but far from a target for the UK). I hold a deferred offer for a math msc in a top UK uni (think Oxbridge / Imperial) to start in autumn 2020. I deferred it because I wanted to get some work experience before my master but I still haven't found anything valuable so I was thinking of accepting one of the other offers I had for next year (2019) since I believe that having two strong MSc is better than doing nothing / an unrelated job for a year, and I don't mind at all an extra year of study. The other offers I have are Applied Maths at LSE and Machine Learning at UCL. Which would you pick between the two (the courses in both MScs are completely different from the MSc I deferred)? Personally I see the ML msc more useful and future-proof (for areas like algo trading, and btw it has 2 electives in finance / stochastics) but I don't want to end up as a software engineer if I fail to get into finance, infact my plan B would be Management consulting in my home country, where the LSE has a much stronger brand than UCL, (the LSE msc has courses in stochastic calc, derivatives, etc but also has some elctives in Op. Research so maybe they would be useful for consulting too). What would you do in my shoes? I feel that for London S&T the ML msc would be more useful, also because UCL is a top player in CS, while LSE isn't super strong in maths, but the LSE's brand is huge, especially in my country.
I personally think that your profile is strong, and adding this masters would result in a very good mix for what you want to do in S&T
I don't know so much about the two master mentioned, but do feel the same about LSE and UCL. I personally think that both are strong, so I would consider them via: 1. Costs 2. How many alumni employed in your target industry
Then would contact few alumni/current students on LinkedIn I met a few kids coming from the computational finance's MSc at UCL, and tbh they said that placement of the course is great though a bit "random" in assigning places in banks/funds etc. Moreover, a very high percentage of them go to risk management instead of trading
Oxbridge and Imperial for these subjects definitely have the edge
Thanks for the advice, the cost difference is negligible and I have already contacted a few alumni and I am waiting to have their feedback.
Yeah, I thought that the ML MSc could be helpful in the future and also a good combo/differentiator for strat roles in S&T. Even though I don't want to do pure DS, I still think that it would be easily employable given the trend to use DS in almost every sector, consulting too (like BCG Gamma, McK Analytics, etc). In fact, the avg starting salary for that MSc is almost 50k £/yr.
But still, LSE has a huge brand and many courses in stochastics, derivatives, risk management, which are useful for S&T. Probably UCL is as famous for CS / ML in UK, but in my country everyone knows LSE, definitely not the same for UCL. And while UCL ML students "disperse" in a variety of sectors, especially tech, almost all LSE alumni work in finance.
I really can't make my mind and I also can't quantify the applicability of ML in quant finance. I mean, is it something very niche limited to a few algo trading desks, or is there a decent demand for these skills?
Hey,
I have my GRE on October 18th. Should I wait until GRE results to apply for Masters or should I submit my application as early as possible. I know Oxbridge already makes first decisions by October 15th so... there I have no choice
Thank you for the post. I am new to MSc placement into quant roles - how well do applicants from Oxford or Imperial MSc programs place into firms like Citadel, Two Sigma, or Hudson River? Is there a major disadvantage for those who do not previously have professional experience in a quant role? In my case, I would like to apply prior to working in the finance industry. If that is the case then my only professional work experience would be in the U.S. military (a non-quantitative role).
Those firms heavily favour quantitative people. Do you have a quantitative undergrad degree? If not, I think getting into either of the Oxford or Imperial programmes would be very difficult. In terms of how they place, nothing is certain. Those firms are cream of the crop and employ the best of the best and thus, a degree from either one may get you an interview but from there its down to your interviews.
How much does prestige come into play for Masters courses? I am about to finish my degree at Imperial and wanting to do a masters in Statistics/A.I. with a focus towards finance. I have done several internships and have great grades etc.
Want to end up at a quant fund in a research role and have applied to Oxford Statistical Science, two Imperial courses, Statistics and A.I. and will also apply to UCL Computational Statistics and ML and also their ML MSc. I don't want to end up with nothing and wanted to broaden my search and liked the look of Royal Holloways MSc in Machine Learning and also the MSc in A.I. at City. I know these universities are not as highly rated as the other three but is there a significant difference in teaching quality I would see? Would this severely hamper my job prospects?
Thanks for your help.
I would add Imperial's MSc A.I. course and their MSc in Statistics to this too. Same with the Cambridge MPhil in Machine Learning.
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