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lol, the people in that article run MFE courses. If anyone has a vested interest in people still believing there are jobs, it's them.

Being a quant and being an academic are indeed two great careers. Unfortunately they're also prohibitively hard to get. If you love math, then of course do a phd which you will love. Do not choose a phd based on the career you want after. Once you have a phd, you can re-assess. But be prepared...

Right now, you are behaving irrationally. You're thinking in terms of quant, quant, quant, and everything you do is aimed at being a quant. You need to think differently. Quant is over. Think about developing yourself as a human being for the kind of economy we have in the west e.g. service based.

The days of being a quant are over. Do something else with your life. In general, if you want to improve your job security, do the following: 1) Learn as much maths as you can. Particularly applied/engineering maths 2) Learn as much programming as you can - C/C++ and Python. 3) Learn as much...

Where is QMC? Never heard of it. If you're referring to Queen Mary's, then that's laughable, and I assume only included in the list because it's your alma mater.

Also perhaps consider calling him Dr./Prof. Heinz rather than Paul. Thesis is a formal document..

It's correct, and backed by empirical evidence. Personally, I worked 80+ hours a week for 5 months once, not having a single day off (Weekends included) and by the end of it I was an utterly broken man. Certainly in the last 2 months my skill and ability to actually do what I was setting out to...

You joke but I read on facebook just the other day one of my friends has just moved to Chile for his start-up!

Umm. Firstly, I am your generation. Secondly, none of what you've said is relevant exclusively to university graduates. It's just how the economy works.

The worst thing, which I think this article alludes to, is the arrogance with which people who graduate university have these days. They literally think the world owes them a job, and that they're the smartest, most employable people on the planet. When really they know jack shit. I still...

You completely missed the point. The point being that there is always somebody who knows more than you. In pre-2007 era, this wasn't a problem, since banks and other places were so desperate for warm bodies they didn't give a shit whether or not you knew what you were talking about as long as...

Umm. Your first point is patently incorrect.

I completely agree with him. I know people who are graduating with 2:1's in quantitative subjects in the UK (which is the grade threshold for getting a job) at russell group universities who still think that 1/(x^2+y^2)^0.5 = 1/x + 1/y or can't integrate log(x) or similar. People are far too...

Can anybody explain to me the implications of Dodd-Frank and Volcker on UK investment banks? As far as I can tell, JPMorgan's $2bil loss was as a result of trading operatings performed by its Chief Investment Office (which, despite what JPM say, is a hedge-fund in a bank i.e. a large prop...

Of course an economists idea of quantitative is different to a mathematician's/physicist's. If you sound so sure of your plans, why ask in the first place?

Your background isn't quantitative until you've taken complex analysis and algebra. You're either a math major, or you're not - merely a guy who took the easy applied courses on the side.

Are the lights initially on or off?

The best possible preparation you can do is a mathematics undergrad, where you learn both pure and applied topics and don't stick too rigidly to probability and statistics. Think: Real Analysis Complex Analysis Group Theory Differential Equations Numerical Analysis etc. Once you have this...

Yes, and in actual fact doing physics to work in finance is a hindrance. If you want to work in finance, do something finance specific. Otherwise you'll have to spend your time learning physics instead. Some of the skills might be transferable, but so are the skills you'd learn doing financial...

Hold on. When you say wacom tablet you mean the black pad + pen? (Wacom bamboo or whatever it's called - I have one). If so, then they're pretty decent, but if you want portability you have to carry your laptop + the tablet. Where as with the iPad - you just carry the pad + the pen.

Really. You people are so one dimensional when it comes to computers. I've recommended macs before, and I'll recommend another Apple product again: iPad + Wacom pen Does everything you want with minimal size + cost.

University rankings are a meaningless piece of crap, martingaletrader. Use with extreme caution. Also, no employer cares about what the subject rankings are, they only care/know about universities overall reputations. That's why you're far better off doing to Oxbridge/Imperial/LSE/UCL for any...

I agree with Andy. Far too early to make the jump. Why do you want to change to financial engineering exactly?

Your method isn't one that comes naturally to me, but clearly still works. But the point isn't the method you use to get the answer. The point is to avoid the urge of following your intuitive self's first answer of 10p, which most people can't do.

Umm. The unknown to solve for is the price of the ball. It clearly is an algebraic problem, even if you don't realise that's what you're doing in your head (just to clarify - that is what you're doing).

The problem is not understanding. It's trivial to solve. The point is that the immediate answer that comes to your head is 10p, but you have to resist your intuition and work it out. The first thing I did was to say "OK, if the ball really is 10p, then.." and you immediately see that it gives...

You're familiar with the current dogma that excellence is achieved from many thousands of hours of practice? The number of hours required to be a modern day GM scarcely leaves one able to follow any other pursuit with anything other than superficial dedication. I think if you're searching for...

lol @ the English comment. That's a nice little theory you have - where's your evidence? ;) Hopefully you'll see that the prism through which I view the world is one of empiricism and the scientific method, which is hands-down less opaque than the prism you'll look through as an economist...

I estimate you have around another 100 hours of reading and research to do before you get to the stage of asking questions. Hanging around this forum is a good start. Most of your questions are so vague and at such a rudimentary stage it's pretty hard to know how to answer them. Physics is...

Ken - I fail to see the relation between quant work and what you're suggesting. It doesn't sound remotely quantitative to me. As a poster above said, why wouldn't banks just hire a load of ACA/ACCA qualified accountants to do the job you're suggesting - since it sounds exactly like accountancy?

Well exactly. My point is simply that you can't determine who is or isn't good by which university they went to, and I believe that very, very strongly. The average at Cantab might be higher, but it's meaningless, because the average students are exactly that - average, and you wouldn't them to...

It's not unethical to change your mind about which course you want to follow. You shouldn't make a decision which will affect the rest of your life very strongly based on hurting the feelings of an admissions tutor. Education is a market like everything else. If you bought a Hoover and the...

What is your argument? 50% of people doing part III come from universities other than cantab. The fact that cantab admits them and thinks they'll be able to cope is testament to the fact that Cambridge's standard of education is not head and shoulders above decent courses at other decent UK...

I don't know what the sate of Algebraic Geometry et. al. are like, but the QFT and AQFT course at Cambridge are nowhere near the cutting edge of modern quantum field theory. There is a significant jump from the part III course to research. And as Andy R said, the amount of bookwork you need...

Again, as someone who did part III, I can tell you that's incorrect. The lectures are on the whole dreadful - and the only difference between the students at Cambridge and other Russell Group unis is that BA-Cantabs really believe their own hype, despite having little evidence for their...

As a Cambridge alumnus, I'm telling you it's not true.

Brand names are important. The thing is, there are many universities other than Oxbridge that impress city recruiters, and you already have a BA (Cantab), so you have more flexibility. And really, you'll have to work on being more convincing when it comes to your attitude ;)

First of all, you need to drop your insufferable attitude with respect to Cambridge. I can firstly tell you that the sun doesn't shine out of Cambridge's arse, and that Cambridge graduates aren't head and shoulders above the rest of the country's graduates, as your tutors mention (even the one's...

Ahh ok. That's kind of re-assuring - I worked as a trainee accountant for a year and that stuff is bread & butter by the time I finished. I didn't realise that accounting knowledge was even remotely important for quant roles.

Ken - which bits of financial accounting are important to know? Accounting is a huge subject in and of itself - you could spend a lifetime learning the nuances of financial accounting.

Measure theory definitely won't hurt, though if you have analysis - you can easily extend what you've learnt to the measure theory you need. So it might be better doing another course which is in a completely new area.

LOL, very good!

Well that's a shame since he wanted to do engineering at cantab and maths at imperial. Fortunately cantab happens to be great at engineering and imperial at maths too. Anyway, the point is, you have no idea what either entails yet you're giving advice. If you don't know about something, keep...

How can you be sure both programs are great when you've freely admitted you know nothing about either? Engage your brain please.

There has been severe criticism about the "physics envy" exhibited on wall street. One could say that they teach too much mathematics with proof than without, so your first paragraph is complete garbage and your physics - Shakespeare analogy is horrible. You also fail to see the utility of...

Can somebody spell out just what you need to know C++ wise to get into quant dev? If you learnt the material on this website: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/ for instance, would that be enough?

Get a mac. Learn to do without Matlab and Visual Studio. When it comes to coding, you should be using text editors and a terminal. There is no need for managed environments. Matlab is all well and good until you leave university and have to pay £1k for a licence - there are better tools out...

The kind of firm you're considering joining has another name - "Casinos". Avoid like the proverbial plague.

This is what you're not getting. Living life to the fullest does not entail blowing all your money on material goods. Fair enough, Buffett can probably afford whatever he likes and not jeapordise his financial security. But he chooses not to. Buffett gets pleasure from sitting behind his desk...

iOS I imagine - also android based tablets are really not as good - the screen on the iPad is much more responsive than on android's, and that's an operating system thing, not hardware thing.

What on earth have you written here, young chap? It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that you're making the correct decision when deep down you know you're making the wrong one. Here are some truths for you, in response to your points: 1) Who cares what business cycle they run...

You are clueless my friend. If you don't change your attitude soon, you will just be another member of the middle-class struggling to get by on $300k a year. I.e. pathetic. Gollini - you are a legend - it's refreshing to find people in finance who have "figured it out" and realise that buying...

Nope. I'm going to buy the old one at a reduced price, instead ;)

Just started using R, it's really an amazing tool. Also if you combine it with pspp you can get survey data into R really easily.

Really? I'd say the opposite. It'd be like learning to play guitar by playing some Tommy Emmanuel songs. Pointless.

Well I think it's quite individual. For me analysis was a revolution, similar for most of my peers. Linear Algebra was very straightforward, since there is a large component of computation to get to grips with in the beginning - which is what most students are used to from high-school maths...

Agreed with bbw. You will struggle, that's the point. I spent 9 months studying analysis in my first year at uni, the penny didn't drop until a month before my exams and I came top of the year. Before that I hated, hated, hated it with a passion. The whole experience was stressful, but extremely...

The first reason is exactly why you should take it. The second is not a reason you shouldn't take it. The whole point of learning is to learn stuff that is new and stretches you. What is the point of learning something you can do comfortably? It teaches you absolutely nothing.

Yes. Not only for the material you will learn, but mainly for the fact that you'll learn how to think properly (rather than just learning and following methods) in maths.

Athletes of the 80's are nothing compared to the athletes of today. Jacks may have been the best in his day, today he wouldn't even make the olympics or a world championship. And you're wrong about judoka's bench pressing. Firstly, they bench press because it's important to have a balance...

Jacks is doing 1/2 dips at best, by modern standards. I'd be amazed if this chap really could bench double his bodyweight, since that feat is reserved mostly for NFL/NHL/NBA draftees et. al. He is simply a pathetic narcissist, no more, no less.

Rexcel doesn't work on macs :(

Ken - have you seen this link? http://www.practicalstats.com/xlsstats/excelstats.html The general consensus is that Excel is awful for stats stuff, unless they've fixed these problems for Excel 2011.

Cheers Ken, I don't know why I overlooked spreadsheets. Here was me thinking that spending x hours fighting with python to suck some data off a website was perfectly normal if you wanted to do some data analysis. Do you use third-party stats add-ins to do the analyses?

Say I'm doing some data analysis from scratch i.e. downloading the data from a website, and then doing some explorative stats on it. What's the best way to go about this? For instance, do most people just load the dataset into something like mySQL and then do queries to get the numbers they...

Thanks Andy, very nice. My work mainly involves in MPI so it's good to see there's some demand for those skills, unfortunately none in the UK it seems.

I assume that was a joke Andy? :p

Does the world really need more HTML, Javascript and CSS programmers? I don't think so. We need more people who understand numerical methods, algorithms and FORTRAN/C/C++.

The first place you should look before asking any questions is the website. FWIW, I recommend getting the entry level 15" one if your budget stretches that far.

They're all identical except for computing power and screen size. So just pick the spec you want. There aren't even that many to choose from...would you like us to help you pick what pants you'd like to wear today, too?

Be an entrepreneur. Forget finance.

To me, he spent 1/3 paraphrasing Spinoza and Goethe, 1/3 of the book talking about physics (pretty boring since I did a physics undergrad and didn't learn much) and finally 1/3 talking about finance which was the only moderately interesting bit - and just when it seemed he started getting into...

The Schaum one is excellent.

The term COWI is used with reference specifically to Mathematics departments. I agree with you it's a bullshit term. If you go to Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial and LSE you have a much higher chance of getting into banking - between them (at the graduate level at least) they provide 90+% of all IB hires.

What do people think? Personally I found it absolutely awful. Very disappointed considering how decent "My Life as a Quant" was.

Just use C++ and get gnuplot to do the plotting. Both free.

Agree with Yike Lu. Python is way better than Matlab. Also, mathematica will be almost useless for quant finance, since its job is a symbolic toolkit useful for analytic calculations, which will you will be doing very little of as a code monkey.

You should have a range of compilers to use. g++ is a good one, but there are many others.

What's the value of this in quant circles? My PhD involves doing quite a lot of optimisations to code so that it runs faster (as a very simplistic example, arranging loops for optimum memory access) and also some MPI and OpenMP. Is there any value in knowing this stuff for quant work? I assume...

Good luck to anyone who attempts installing mac os x on a PC/windows laptop. Heaven knows I've tried and couldn't get it to work. The problem with these tutorials is they're written by hackers for hackers. A regular computer user like me wouldn't have a chance.

Have you ever used cygwin? It's vile.

It's industry standard because it's so user friendly a trained ape could use it. I expected users of quantnet to be slightly more sophisticated, not just in their choice of OS but in their reasoning for a particular OS's dominance at least.. In science and engineering, nobody uses windows for...

Tbh I shouldn't really argue with this about business students, because if you just want to use excel or matlab then windows is great. If you do any proper programming then a unix based OS is vital, and Mac OS X is the best unix based OS you can get which is still user friendly (i.e. better than...

Why are they overpriced? Sure, the hardware is overpriced, but you get much more value-added via Mac OS X, the best operating system on the market, period. If you buy any of those other laptops your options are windows (which is a sack of shit) or installing a linux-distro. As someone who has...

Get a mac.

TA is rubbish, but in some markets the participants believe in it so much that it actually effects prices. In FX and commodities, for instance.

Not really true. I didn't think Part III was more difficult even than anything I did at Nottingham, and looking at the part II courses it seemed to be more of the same. The hard thing was the sheer volume of material they expect you to learn by pure rote. I took Quantum Field Theory and that was...

Cantab BA's have always been able to do part III with a 2:1. They're usually accepted to continue with part III if they get 65%+, without question. Even 60-65% is acceptable if your director of studies vouches for you. Everyone else is expected to get a first. Or if you're like my friend, 80%...

Am I reading this right? You say 20% of your class got offers, mainly from management consultancies, and use that fact to justify the integrity of the Oxford MFE? My advice: save yourself a pretty penny and do MASt Maths at Cambridge.

Sure. I did the same. Then I got bored of spending an entire weekend in the terminal trying to install software or even getting my nvidia graphics drivers working. Bought a 27" iMac and never looked back.

First of all, you should probably drop the attitude wrt Cambridge and then making excuses for not being at the top. As a Cambridge alumnus, I can tell you that you probably shouldn't believe the hype and there are plenty of other courses comparable to a Cambridge Maths BA.

Macbook pro? Didn't realise people still bought windows laptops these days..

Are there already compilers for C++11?

Can most americans identify all of the states in the US?

We all know Python is great for scripting, but what are people's thoughts on its use in scientific computing? For instance, I see little use for Matlab now considering the numpy/scipy/matplotlib libraries for Python. Similarly surely R will become obsolete with Python's stats libraries? It's...

I watched this almost a year ago now on TED, so it wasn't posted less than an hour ago..

Just an aside, I've studied real analysis up to open/closed sets, compactness etc. How much more analysis would I need to do to understand the measure theory behind modern probability theory?

I thought kdb+ is where all the database action is these days?

Yes, well you just proved my point. It comes with experience and practice, not via a course.

Well, I don't really see what you've said is a refutation of my point. First of all, I'll assume people taking this course will already have a degree. In your degree, you must have had to do some sort of project, and for those looking to do quant work I imagine would have been theoretical or...

You gonna drop ~1,500 bucks on an education you coulda got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library? Madness. The ultimate MFE cash-cow has arrived. Now you don't even need to attend the university in person.

I think I should consider a change of career. I've literally figured out what's wrong with you - have you ever taken a narcissistic personally test?

Mac OS is based on unix, and most unix operating systems are free. I recommend Ubuntu - as good as any mac OS but free.

You need to figure out what you want to do with your life. Do you want to be an expert in stats? Do you want to be a quant? It's true that it's possible to be a quant with a stats degree, but I think the path of MFE to statistician is a little less trodden. You can't possibly make these sorts of...

Just checked out that book. I wish I knew it existed when I tried to learn analysis! Learning analysis for me was akin to banging your head against a brick wall for a month without rest, and then suddenly "eureka!" - everything made sense and I came top of the year in both my analysis exams.

It's hard, but worth it. Brings a new way of thinking to your mathematical problem solving arsenal, and useful for many areas of applied maths (probability, differential equations, numerical analysis etc.)

I'd choose real analysis. Teaches you a new way of thinking about mathematics, and also to really understand numerical analysis you need to have done some real analysis, since numerical analysis is basically a subset of real analysis.

Hang on a minute - I'm getting a sense of deja vu?

Do players actually have full contact practices in NFL? In the UK we have a similar sport - Rugby, and teams only have full contact during league games.

Logic 101. False dichotomy. There are a range of points between "WORK" and "FUN" which are the only possibilities you seem to think exist. Clearly, for these interns and prospective employees, fewer perks and longer hours has conflicted with their own personal balance which they believe will...

Let me reiterate. You do not need to study quantum field theory etc. unless you want to do research in quantum field theory/string theory. For every other area of physics research your BSc in physics is enough to get you admitted into a top PhD programme. Therefore, my advice would be to study...

You do realise that your own perception of "good position" is different to everybody else's? Because you are desperate to get into finance and consider people doing 100 hour weeks as privileged, does not mean they agree with your sentiment. The same way that you moan about not getting a job all...

I was in a similar position. I had an offer from Cambridge for MASt Physics and an offer from Imperial MSc Applied Mathematics. I chose Cambridge, but wish I chose Imperial. With a BSc in physics you are qualified enough to get a PhD in physics, and the stuff you learn at Masters is level is...

Ilya - you come across as quite naive and try hard. Maybe relax a bit and be yourself and people might warm to you more - both in real life and online. Maybe also consider gaining some experience in another industry before making the jump to finance..

How much does the amazon computing cost,out of interest? I've heard that people are now building GPU supercomputers at a fraction of the cost of the usual CPU ones so maybe that's also a potential avenue for exploration.

Sounds promising, though I'm not holding my breath. Apparently cloud-like supercomputing services are in the ascendancy too, so that could be another avenue.

You are unbelievably deluded. You are very, very unlikely to become out-of-your-mind rich as an employee in financial services, particularly in only 10-20 years.

I'm doing a PhD in highly parallel computing (as in - world's largest supercomputers) and I was wondering if anyone knows of any applications of HPC in finance? I'm talking the FOTRAN/MPI/OpenMP kind with 100,000+ processors rather than the CUDA stuff.

I think you're getting correlation and causality badly mixed up here, bbw. If I didn't know better I'd think it was David Starkey himself behind some of your comments ;)

Don't get me wrong, what I'm saying is not racist. I have met and know plenty of black people that are completely integrated into society and law abiding. When I say that blacks in London commit most of the crime, I am not in anyway saying that all London blacks are criminals. I'm just saying...

Just to agree with others - the overwhelming proportion of rioters were young, black males. Any number of news reports during the riots will confirm that. The fact that there were a few white people taking part doesn't change much or make the problem "multi-cultural". The same people who are...

I personally think it's closely related to narcissism. I thoroughly recommend reading "The Narcissism Epidemic" by authors I can't remember - very insightful.

Is infinite dimensional stuff useless in quant finance then? All that time I've spent doing quantum mechanics..what a waste.

It's not the 80's anymore. Don't get me wrong, Oxbridge still has first dibs when it comes to interviews, but after that it's a level playing field. If you look at the intern books of front office BB these days, UCL is the most dominant, followed by LSE and Imperial and then Oxbridge. I went to...

Not necessarily true. With the exception of McKinsey, you can get any job an Oxbridge grad can if you're a good candidate. My girlfriend is about to start work at a top city law firm, and they only have one Cambridge grad in their intake, the rest come from UCL, Durham, Nottingham, Bristol.

Cambridge Maths is very "pure". You can do a computing project in the 2nd year (not sure if it's compulsory these days) and that's it.

I agree but for different reasons, I think. I also believe the job situation is shit. But I don't accept that Oxbridge graduates are special and deserve jobs over other people or that poor employment amongst Oxbridge graduates is an indicator of economic health. Having just graduated from...

Agree with your first paragraph, though I'd still say it's perfectly possible to get into Russel Group unis if you're at least reasonably bright even if from a poor/state background. I'm not against unpaid work experience. But the focus is on work experience. One month of unpaid experience...

Well now you put it like that I mostly agree with you. A small amount of unpaid work whilst you're at Uni/during the vacations when you're already paying for your accommodation is fine, and would certainly be useful to poorer students. As I said in the UK the situation is basically horrific...

Have you seen the reports from the Sutton Trust charity in the UK, which shows that privately educated people are far more likely to go to the UK's 30 most selective institutions than their state educated counter-parts even with identical A-level grades? UK society is far less meritocratic than...

To point 2) - it seems we've had a miscommunication here. What you've described is more part-time work experience than an unpaid internship. I'm from the UK - I don't know what the situation is like in the US, but in the UK, for industries other than finance, it has become the norm for people to...

The difference is that some bright poor people are able to get top educations, but a bright poor person can't do an unpaid internship. You suggest that they can offer themselves up to a ten-man outfit to gain some much needed experience, but how the hell are they going to do that without...

Forgive me for being such a communist, I was only suggesting that people shouldn't be slaves by guaranteeing they receive a minimum subsistence wage. And so if you're as hard down by and hard-working as you appear to be, would you mind explaining to us/me how you were able to support yourself...

Anthony post #4 I mean really, this post is so full of contradictions it's funny. You clearly see yourself as some sort of go-getting, alpha male who can make a success of himself despite having all the odds stacked against him, yet your perceived situation is far from your actual position...

The problem with York is that although it's a highly rated university according to newspapers, it does really poorly in getting people into FO. I don't see that doing the degree will help you much.

That is simply not true. It was true if you were a gang member in Chicago selling crack-cocaine in the late 80's/early 90's, but that's a pretty specific societal function to have.

Well that's because there is a cap, and they haven't updated their fees. They're having the debate as we speak, and there is no doubt that the fees will increase to the fully allowed £9,000. LSE and others would charge more if they could. Oxbridge as been thinking about turning private for...

LSE now grants its own degrees, indepedent of the UoL. Also, LSE does charge 18k for its courses. Look at its MSc brochure.

It's nothing like Oxbridge. I wonder how long this little project will last. Can't imagine that many academics will want to go to this place to do their research once Dawkins et. al. pass. Not to mention they have no ability to do any science what-so-ever. It seems like a university that does...

What language do you use for HPC? Fortran is the Gold standard for HPC I'm led to believe?

Wow, so being a quant developer is better paid than being a quant? Interesting..

Dominic - I think the aim for this programme is to get people into the tech divisions at IB's, rather than work as quants. If you look at the syllabus, it includes lots of project management style things and Java programming. As for the PhD, my impression is that you get to potentially work on a...

BBW - I think you're coming across as slightly deluded here. There's no justification for escorts or prostitutes. They're dysfunctional people used by other dysfunctional people. The fact that so many bankers apparently use escorts just shows how many are dysfunctional. Escorts are not classy or...

I'm a Metallica fan and love maths. I know of plenty other people with the maths + metallica combo too. At least 5 of my friends, for instance.

That still makes no sense. Do you have a job offer or not? If you have yet to have an interview, it's not a job offer. Anyway, the purpose of an MFE is to get a job, so if you get the job before the MFE, then the answer should be obvious.

I would say 5, but that was just from intuition/visualisastion of the fact that two of the sides would merge into one on each side. Pretty impressive stuff from peterruse.

There was me thinking it was because it encouraged people to save rather than spend..

When I was trying to decide on which PhD to take from my offers, I spoke to some grad students in the Cambridge group I got an offer from. Two of them were 4.5 years in with no idea of how much longer they'd be going on for. Both absolutely hated their lives, their supervisor was away for 6...

It's true, it's why I avoided experimental/theoretical physics like the plague and instead I'm starting a PhD in high performance computing and modelling - skills which will actually serve me well for a technical career in the future. I also chose a PhD with an industry top-up so that my salary...

ENTP for me. As above, I'm not surprised that my careers should be "natural scientist, engineer, finance" and I've taken this test before and been given the same result so maybe it has some merit, at least in terms of consistency. Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving Strength of the...

In the UK: Oxbridge Gap Imperial, UCL, LSE Gap Warwick Gap Durham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Bristol Gap Other red bricks Gap Beyond here, you have 1/1000 chance.

Correct. He wrote 48/2(9+3) not 48/(2(9+3)), and if you evaluate what he wrote using high-school maths, BODMAS - brackets over divide multiplication addition subtraction, you get 48/2 * 12, and since multiplication and division are on the same "level" in BODMAS you then work from the left - so...

I always find it ridiculous that in academia people are proud to be bad at administration. I remember a PhD interview once where it took me weeks to get an interview with the guy and when I finally did he said "You need to send me an official application etc.", to which I replied I already had...

Alain - the answer is 288 from the way it's written. Because multiplication and division have the same precedence, you work from the left. So 48/2 * (9+3). It would seem ambiguous, but actually the way it's written is somewhat legitimate.

People renege on academic courses all the time. You owe them nothing, and they expect a certain % of students to renege anyway.

I wonder when people will finally read the writing on the wall and realise that IQ has almost dick-all to do with how successful you'll be in life. I feel sorry for this kid, because when you start getting into maths and being proud of it the way he has, you stop doing the things that you should...

Is there a possibility of banning text speak on this site?

Well, when the only metric used to decide which career to follow is money, it's kind of implied, isn't it? IQ is irrelevant. You somehow assume that people with high IQ's only like doing work that's reserved for people with "high IQ's", which is false. It's more to do with what you find...

Case. In. Point.

I just wonder when people will learn that life isn't all about the money? Spending your life helping sick people and making complicated diagnoses beats the shit out of sticking a plunger down a toilet, even if the plunger does get paid more.

No, but he will have a background which 99% of the people he's competing against won't, which has value in itself, particularly when someone is looking for just that skill. If an employer wants an MFE grad, they have x,000 to choose from, what will make him any better than them? You need a...

The problem is it's not MBA specific. It's modern western-education specific. Most people's command of the English language is pretty awful, so much so that when you do use proper English, like using its instead of it's appropriately, people think you're the one who's dumb.

UCL is an outstanding Uni and being an expert in machine learning is far more valuable than being just another MFE grad.

Go to Oxford. You're doing this to maximise your chances of getting a job in finance. Financial firms are brand names whores. Almost everyone you work with will have been to Oxbridge, and now you can join "the club" and be treated equally to them.

Well, I chose UCL instead, thanks for the input :)

Well, I'm already at Cambridge, and I hate it, so I'm not sure I agree that it's a nice place to live. Subjective opinions about whether a particular city is nicer, what do you think about the merits of the projects and the institutions themselves?

Hardly new news. If you can self-fund a PhD, you can do it anywhere provided you're not a retard. The battle is getting the funding, not the supervisor.

I have a couple of PhD offers to consider, appreciate any advice you can give me as to which one I should take if I want to work in finance in the future. UCL - fluid dynamics/molecular dynamics - working on simulation codes for non-newtonian fluids using the lattice-boltzman method - the codes...

Of course, I'm well versed in the theory of entrepreneurship, ideas are mostly worthless (try and sell one to Joe Public on the street for instance) and they're certainly not a business. I was just hoping that nobody else had my idea and I could start executing once I had time after my masters...

Incredible, I actually had this exact same business idea about 2 years back, planning to get stuck in after I've finished my masters degree. The early bird catches the worm, always.

P.S. were these the only schools you could get into, or the only schools you applied to? If the latter, I'd reject them all and reapply to better unis next year.

Forget league tables. Look at the methodology for ranking, and you quickly realise how bullshit they are. Lancaster is a dogmeat Uni with zero reputation in the city. Manchester has at least some respect, amongst some circles, but it's still not great. By far the most respected course in that...

There are only two. NYC and LDN.

That's incorrect - I live with a chinese PhD student in organic chemistry who can't even form a coherent English sentence. He literally struggles with answering the question "How are you?". No problem, he's Chinese, he's new here, give him a chance etc. except that he's been living in the UK now...

There are several factors you're overlooking here. The first is access to the money required to undertake these courses. 11k might seem like a bargain to you, but the problem is that there is absolutely no way to source that money currently unless you have the money in your bank account. Banks...

Agreed about credentialed vs non-credentialed, except the downside to the credentialed route is that it's now massively devalued real-degrees from real universities. Having the letters BSc after your name now is literally meaningless, as every tom-dick and harry has a degree. The thing is I...

I can't talk for PhD level, or for quant jobs, maybe Dominic can chime in on which universities are sought after there. For undergrad recruitment it basically goes: LSE Oxbridge Imperial UCL Warwick Bristol/Nottingham/Edinburgh/Durham Other top 20 unis Once in a blue moon, someone...

As a rare example of a working-class UK student, I have mixed feelings about the increase in fees. Firstly, there is no doubt in my mind, judging by my friends from school, that £9000 per year will put working-class people off going to university. However, I'm not sure if this is a good or bad...

The tube these days is pretty good, except for weekends. M25 is awful, and it will only get worse.

Not exactly thinking outside the box - it's exactly the same idea as MIT opencourseware with different implementation/less functionality and from a terrible, terrible, terrible institution.

Surely the number one reason is that banks use the content of social media websites to discriminate against applicants in the recruitment process. Had a good time on a holiday when you were 18 and have a picture of you skinny-dipping with some hot chicks on a Greek island? Kiss your banking job...

To be quite frank, LSE isn't capable of becoming a private institution. It has an endowment of some £60 million, which is about the same as my Cambridge college (which is poor in Cambridge terms). They do not have the money to make the initial investment they would require to become a private...

There are modules such as "Advanced Financial Models" which pretty much belong on an MFE programme, my mate is taking it at the moment. Also, it is not seriously cheap. For a UK student, expected costs are £16k. You pay £3300 tuition, and then a compulsory £5000 college fee, and then there's...

Banach spaces and numerical methods? Solving the Heat/Wave/Laplace equation can be done by separation of variables and using simple boundary conditions can be solved fairly easily. We also learnt how to solve them using fourier transforms/laplace transforms, again this was pretty easy, I don't...

Elementary PDE's are the linear heat, wave and laplace's equations.

Fair enough, probably some merit in it then, I would say that a relevant internship or anything FO is likely to be more useful to you in terms of getting interviews than a summer of self-study.

Guys, what sort of jobs are we talking here? Quant or generic S&T? If the latter, I have trouble believing the advice you've given. HR place a huge value on having done relevant internships and not wasting your summers. When I told an HR lady at barcap the other day that I wanted to do an MSc...

Dude, your reasons for pursuing an MSc are completely flawed. If you enjoy learning, go and get to a library, the stuff those MSc programmes will teach you will be absolutely trivial if you have half a brain. Do not waste £20k on an education you could have got for a $1.50 in late fine charges...

Hehe, Dan is a member of this forum and a regular poster. Perhaps he could answer your question?