Universities for Quantitative Finance / Financial Maths major? (Undergraduate)

College Search & Selection
1

I am thinking about switching from Finance to the mathematical side of Finance (They call it quant finance, fin. maths, fin.engineering etc etc)

Not looking to do a math minor so please don’t suggest. I would be open to most suggestions, 10-20 colleges don’t matter but I currently have no idea which university has mathematical finance as an undergraduate major.

Suggestions? (No Ivy League perhaps, I am transferring from community college)

2

There are a few options to become a quant:

  • Math/Physics/CS/financial engineering undergrad at an elite university (Caltech, Chicago, Cornell, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania / Wharton, Berkeley) with an excellent GPA
  • PhD in a quantitative subject (Math/Physics/CS) at a top university
  • BS/MS in a quantitative field with an excellent GPA at a tier-2 university and an MS in quantitative finance at a top program
  • BS/MS in a quantitative field or business with an excellent GPA at a tier-2 university and switching from the IT or dev quant ladder to becoming a quant (fairly difficult at the more prestigious firms)

I’d suggest the first option if you can make it. The second option mostly include hard-core quantitative scientists who decide that academia is not for them.

3

@frontpage provided some excellent advice, to which I will add:

  • The list of elite universities for this purpose will also include Carnegie Mellon (particularly with a CS degree), and elite LACs.
  • You need to prove to people that this is actually what you really want to do. Once in undergrad, after you get to know a few profs, start working with them on a quant project, whether theirs or your own. This will be your calling card when looking for jobs.
4

I have some issues with the state of quant. finance education. The idea of quant. finance education is good. The problem is about curriculum, staffing, and delivery.

I may be biased here. So if my thoughts do not make sense to you, please ignore my views.

If the quant. finance is offered within a business school, like the traditional finance education, students will likely to received teaching from finance professors and other professors from math, applied math, stat, or operation research department. The curriculum tends to be more balanced and integrated. Business is largely an interdisciplinary field, and business schools have much experience in offering integrated education across many fields, such as healthcare management, green MBA, etc.

If the quant. finance (or whatever name they use) is offered outside a business school, students tend not to receive teaching from finance professors. It tends to depend on which department or unit offering this degree, the students tend to be restricted to teaching from the faculty within that department or unit.

The main reason for the latter structure is that the budget of offering the quant. finance degree outside a business school is much lower. In a typical research university, a math, applied math, or operation research professor earns about 50-60% what a finance professor would earn. It is often the case that these departments or units do not have enough financial resources to pay business schools for necessary fundamental education in finance. A much cheaper way for them is to use adjuncts or their own faculty.

I am not saying all quant. finance degrees offered outside a business school are inadequately staffed. But this is what students need to be aware of. So go on the department’s website, make sure that (1) the program has an adequate amount of introductory courses in financial management, investments, and financial intermediation/banking, (2) these courses are taught by someone who has a PhD in finance (or economics from a well respected university), (3) some of those math, applied math, operation research professors have done at least some finance research (that is, investigating whether and how well themselves are able to apply their quant. specialty to finance; looking into their vitas and see whether they published in the top 3 finance journals as a quality signal (if quality is important to you): Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies).

5

You can consider a traditional math major at any good university. My son found that there were many employment opportunities available to him with a dual BA in math/economics. If the objective is to be hired into a quantitative analyst program at a financial institution straight math might be a good path.

6

I’m with @prof2dad

Among the better schools for quant finance training are the business schools at MIT and Chicago. Their PhD programs provide fundamental financial training, and qualified undergrads can take these classes.

Quant firms tend to prefer CS/math/physics majors over the typical business majors (i.e. those who haven’t taken advanced math, stat or finance courses) since they believe that students with a firm quantitative foundation can more easily learn about finance than the other way.

7

Carnegie Mellon’s BS in computational Finance. Can do it from either the biz school or math science side. U of Michigan’s BS in Finance Math. UCSB’s Applied Math n stat. Can’t beat these 3