Hello all - for the last few years, I’ve aspired to work at a hedge fund as a quant trader. What are some universities with solid hedge fund recruiting? Based on some research I’ve done, I’ve found the following universities:
Harvard, Princeton, Wharton/Penn, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, U of Chicago, Duke.
In general these seem like the typical target schools that are also tough to gain acceptance to. Is it possible to get into hedge fund out of undergrad without coming from a super selective top 10 university? Any anecdotes of students succeeding at getting into hedge funds elsewhere? Any details involving name of university, major, type of experiences heading in, and others would be beneficial.
I’ve started trading through TD Ameritrade and have been learning machine learning basics and general trading strategies in my spare time. I feel like I’ve got the academic stats, extracurriculars, essays, and teacher recs to be competitive for admission to any of the above universities.
Getting into any of those schools is tough, but Wall Street will only hire grads from the top schools. If you’re willing to go to grad school, CMU has a terrific quant-based MBA, but I don’t believe they have an undergrad program. Anyway, I understand that Dartmouth is more or less a feeder for the Street. Good luck!
Hedge Fund recruitment of undergrads are anomaly events - even at your top schools like Princeton and Harvard. You should not keep your professional focus so narrow so early on in your career.
Do you know what a quant trader does?
Do you know what a Hedge Fund is?
Why be a Quant Trader at a Hedge Fund instead of a Bulge Bracket?
Why be a Quant Trader at a Hedge Fund instead of a Proprietary Trading Firm?
Why be a Quant Trader at a Hedge Fund instead of a Mutual Fund?
Why be a Quant Trader at a Hedge Fund instead of an Asset Manager?
Do you have experience with discrete mathematics, data structures, algorithms, calculus, statistical modelling, and linear algebra? If not, it is unlikely that you are doing “real” machine learning development like a quant trader/developer would.
I could go on and on. Spend this time to do your research of the world of high-finance of both the buy-side and sell-side, and how people get to certain types of firms and roles. You will see that hedge funds rarely recruit undergrad students among many other valuable insights. There is no reasonable way a high school student should have narrowed down their focus to a specific type of role and specific type of institutional fund class. Learn as much as you can and keep your mind open. Good luck!
Princeton (math), MIT, and the other schools on your list would be an outstanding first step toward realizing your dream career. The issue, however, is whether or not it is a “required” first step.