Stochastic or statistics?

[BaconPudding]

Hi. I'm currently a math major. I wasn't very sure what to do with my degree, but working for a financial company seemed like a good plan.

Right now, my degree consists of 5-6 'pure math' courses, i.e. courses within the math dept, and 3-4 courses from other depts with significant math content.

Right now, I can take classes like data mining, regressional analysis, and other courses offered by the stats dept, or take some courses in stochastic calculus and financial engineering.
Which courses should I take?

I would ask my degree advisor, but she works in pure pure math and doesn't know too much about working in the financial sector. Most of my friends are in pure math or economics without much math background.

Thank you

 

[babinu]

This choice would ideally depend upon what you want to do in the future :

1. Do you want to be a sell side quant specializing in pricing derivatives : Go for stochastic calculus.

2. Do you want to a be a quant on the buy side focussing on coming up with new quantitative trading strategies : Go for statistics and data mining .

Of course, taking these courses do not guarantee you a "quant" position in the industry, but these courses are more aligned towards the different careers as mentioned by me above.

Thanks
Babinu