Job or MFE out of undergrad if you want to be a quant...

[IlyaKEightSix]

Okay, I'm just wondering...if I want to get to a quant position, should I try and land the regular 2-year analyst position at Goldman Sachs/JPMorgan/Lehman Brothers/other large financial institution or take the full $50,000 brunt of debt on myself?

In the current economy, one of my mom's friends said that when the economy was in a downturn, to stay in school and come out when the economy turns good...but I'm also wondering where I would get the money to do so, and how much does having an MFE from a not-so-top-tier school affect my chances?

Right now, after 6 undergrad semesters, my cumulative GPA in info systems engineering from Lehigh University is 3.23, which isn't particularly amazing, with my major GPA being in the 3.4s somewhere.

I have one year left of undergrad studying. If I want to find a position that I'm hired for my engineering skills and applying them and operations research techniques regularly at my job, what should be the route I take?

What kind of employers pay for an MFE and by what point? Right now, I am very unsure of what to do. Any suggestions?

 

[MikeK]

Personally, I'd rather land a job first and let my employer cover part (or all) of my tuition. There are a few reasons for this. First, a good employer will cover 60-80% of your graduate tuition, meaning you would owe $10k-$20k instead of $50k (plus interest, assuming you get student loans). And since you're working, spreading $10k-$20k over 2-3 years isn't too bad.

Second, I believe people with some job-related finance experience will have a better understanding of the "big picture" when they enter a graduate program.

Third, after working for a year or so you may find that finance is completely boring and you want to move into a more interesting field. Or you realize you don't like working 100 hour weeks at Goldman Sachs.

Finally, having some real-world job experience will probably improve your chances of getting into a decent program.

Of course, given the current state of the job market, this may not be an option.