Is it too late?

[LarryD]

I'm a Finance major at Baruch College...i'm a rising junior, and am really interested in financial engineering. However, I did extremely poorly in pre calc and calc while at Baruch (this was years ago when I did not take school anywhere near as seriously as I am now) I have a 3.8 major gpa in finance. Is it too late for me to go the quant route? Should I pursue a math minor? What else should I do? Also, would it help if I took object oriented programming 1 + 2 at Baruch? My goal is to be a trader at some point down the line or to work at a hedge fund. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

 

[Eugene Krel]

Your math grades will be a problem, but not as big if you do well in other math courses that you will have to take (e.g. 2 more calc courses, programming, probability, etc). Your best bet is to talk to Dan Stefanica about the specifics of your situation when the fall semester starts since you are in school anyway.

 

[doug reich]

This seems to be a common problem; take a look around at some of the mfe candidate profiles to get a feel for what is important (link in my signature).

Regardless, you should be able to patch yourself up with self-study, etc. over a year or two if you can't get into your desired program straight out of school.

 

[Roger Trimble]

I would say it's too late only if you decide to give up. Knowing your weaknesses means that you're ahead of the curve since you know what you have to work on in order to reach your goal. It sounds like you have plenty of time to catch up.

 

[dstefan]

You would have to take more undergraduate classes to prepare for an MFE Program. Getting straight A's in those courses should trump the low grades from your undergraduate studies.