What Undergraduate Major?

[Jo Cha]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and am looking for some advice. I will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall and I am wondering what major would be best to prepare for a career in quantitative finance. I am unsure at the moment into what specific field I would like to work in. My options currently are CS, Applied Math, Stats, Operations Research and Management Science, and Economics. I am leaning towards a CS and Stats double major. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

JC

 

[Lyosha]

Comparative Literature

 

[Canuck]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this forum and am looking for some advice. I will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall and I am wondering what major would be best to prepare for a career in quantitative finance. I am unsure at the moment into what specific field I would like to work in. My options currently are CS, Applied Math, Stats, Operations Research and Management Science, and Economics. I am leaning towards a CS and Stats double major. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

JC

Applied math and cs.
Lyosha also makes a strong case.

 

[Jo Cha]

Any other opinions?

 

[Ari Ben-Elazar]

I'd also like input on this- I'm beginning undergrad this fall as well. I am thinking about going in as a major in Math/CS, though that may change. The Financial Engineering professor at my school explained these are qualities that are good to have going in to FE:
1. Be a good writer
2. Learn a lot of CS
3. Learn a lot of math
4. Learn some science
5. Learn a decent bit of economics
6. Gain good public speaking skills
7. Gain experience working in teams

I believe I will take the following courses in the first semester:
Linear Algebra
Calculus
Writing seminar (Required)
Java
Language (Required)

What courses are you planning on taking, Jo Cha?
Also, for those already in industry, is there a foreign language that is particularly good to know (ex. Spanish for medicine in the USA)?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Also, for those already in industry, is there a foreign language that is particularly good to know (ex. Spanish for medicine in the USA)?

English. (!, ?)

And it's always good to know some other languages to be well-rounded and handle yourself at cocktail parties.

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to Women, French to Men, and German to my Horse.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

 

[Jo Cha]

At this point it looks like I am choosing between a double major in CS/Applied Math or CS/Statistics. I have taken couple statistics courses already, and have liked them a lot. I feel I would prefer a CS/Statistics double major more however lot of people on this forum say that a CS/Applied Math major is more lucrative. Any thoughts?

 

[C S]

At this point it looks like I am choosing between a double major in CS/Applied Math or CS/Statistics. I have taken couple statistics courses already, and have liked them a lot. I feel I would prefer a CS/Statistics double major more however lot of people on this forum say that a CS/Applied Math major is more lucrative. Any thoughts?

I'd go for the CS/stats. I went to a talk where the head quant trader of a well-known prop trading firm said it's unusual to find CS guys that have good backgrounds in stats. Maybe that's just his own peculiar experience, but generally my impression job-hunting has been that the skills taught in a typical applied math curriculum aren't as generally applicable as you would learn in a stats program.

If you really want to do CS/Applied Math, I'd just go for CS/Pure math (but I have a bias here...). The math will be more rigorous and the mastery it gives you of foundational topics will show when you have to demonstrate your math skills in interviews. You can always build upon it by picking more applied courses (I'd recommend mathematical physics type courses, in addition to courses on numerical computation).

 

[Daniel Duffy]

I'd go for the CS/stats. I went to a talk where the head quant trader of a well-known prop trading firm said it's unusual to find CS guys that have good backgrounds in stats. Maybe that's just his own peculiar experience, but generally my impression job-hunting has been that the skills taught in a typical applied math curriculum aren't as generally applicable as you would learn in a stats program.

If you really want to do CS/Applied Math, I'd just go for CS/Pure math (but I have a bias here...). The math will be more rigorous and the mastery it gives you of foundational topics will show when you have to demonstrate your math skills in interviews. You can always build upon it by picking more applied courses (I'd recommend mathematical physics type courses, in addition to courses on numerical computation).

But not just pure maths alone; mix it indeed with maths physics and numerical analysis. And learn how to program.