SIG vs IMC?

Hi everyone, I'm a junior and I have to decide between internship offers at SIG and IMC very very soon. For some background, I'm solely concerned about the internship only rather than full time opportunities. I plan on going to graduate school to get a PhD in CS/Finance immediately after undergrad, so the main thing I want to get out of this summer is to learn more about trading and decide whether I like the environment more than I like the tech environment - ultimately I am more interested in Quant Research and the work they do with models and algorithms (unless one or the other of these internships would look better on a resume for grad school?)

My current thinking is that IMC seems like a pretty nice place to work - I really enjoyed my interviews with them and they give you great housing in the best part of Chicago. I've heard that they are chill and the internship program is very fun. Their approach is HFT and automated, so the tech side of me really likes that aspect.

On the other hand, SIG is paying more (and is more reputable I'd say? idk) and while I'm not crazy about poker, I think their internship program is a rigorous learning experience that will make me a better trader in the future if I somehow decide to continue to pursue this discipline. Downside is that I'm not too fond of the location (suburban Philly) and I've heard they're more about positive expectancy gambling and human judgement in trades. My interview experience was not the best either - while at IMC I felt like the traders were genuinely trying to help me through the problems, the interviewers at SIG would talk amongst themselves to intentionally distract me.

Any thoughts are appreciated! Thank you all so much!

 

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