The Economist Intelligence Unit publishes their Which MBA? annually and it is of course, much sought after and reasonably priced. It ranks the programs worldwide.Modelled on that would be a great "signature publication" for Wilmott.Sound decent?

My understanding is that the above runs parallel to Part III in pure maths and stats, and that students are allowed/encourage to elect courses from the latter. Is that right? Is there a financial maths stream as part of Part III in pure maths and stats? >>The Part III Maths contains a few courses which are relevant to Finance but there is no financial maths stream as such offered by the Maths dept.The Financial Engineering stream of the MPhil finance course consist of 2 courses from part III Maths, 2 from the Judge Institute (the business school) and 4 from the Economics dept. It's also very new, which is probably why most people haven't heard about it.CeloT4p

Part III Maths contains a few courses which are relevant to Finance but there is no financial maths stream as such offered by the Maths dept. The Financial Engineering stream of the MPhil finance course consist of 2 courses from part III Maths, 2 from the Judge Institute (the business school) and 4 from the Economics dept.Does a quant actually need to take so many courses from a business school and even more from economics? My impression is that pricing derivatives requires minimal knowledge of either business or economics, and that the time spent on these is better devoted to stoch procs, PDE's and numerical methods. Am I completely wrong about what a quant needs to know in practice?

It's a pity there's no specific financial maths course at Cambridge. I believe there is the usual stochastic/ito calculus stuff in part IIB of the undergrad course and some financial maths stuff in part III. (http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/CASM/courses/descriptions/). I imagine the part III stuff is pretty rigorous - the quantum + general rel courses were VERY tough.

Does a quant actually need to take so many courses from a business school and even more from economics? My impression is that pricing derivatives requires minimal knowledge of either business or economics, and that the time spent on these is better devoted to stoch procs, PDE's and numerical methods. Am I completely wrong about what a quant needs to know in practice?When I interview people for quant positions, I look almost exclusively at physics, math, and engineering, because of their mathematical, problem-solving, and approximation skills (well, pure math people sometimes don't have the approximation stuff down).Not to say that the math finance programs aren't worthwhile - but in my experience grad work in physics, math, or engineering is better preparation for the real quant world.

"It's a pity there's no specific financial maths course at Cambridge."Well, it's a respectable university. And no respectable university massages its courses a bit, and calls them by a different name, to make a buck from unsuspecting fee paying (mostly foreign) students. If they don't have the staff to teach a professional fin maths course, then they don't claim to teach a fin maths course."Part III stuff is pretty rigorous - the quantum + general rel courses were VERY tough."Oh, yes. And the marking was tougher. But it was an experience in the best sense of the word. They teach you what the verb "to study" means.

"When I interview people for quant positions, I look almost exclusively at physics, math, and engineering, because of their mathematical, problem-solving, and approximation skills (well, pure math people sometimes don't have the approximation stuff down).Not to say that the math finance programs aren't worthwhile - but in my experience grad work in physics, math, or engineering is better preparation for the real quant world."I appreciate what you are saying, but does it in any way trouble you that students who work on a thesis in lets say theoretical high energy physics, if they are any good, do so with an eye towards becoming theoretical high energy physicists, and when they fail to achieve that, they feel that they have "failed". I mean, investment banks may be accumulating all those very bright people who feel like failures.

I appreciate what you are saying, but does it in any way trouble you that students who work on a thesis in lets say theoretical high energy physics, if they are any good, do so with an eye towards becoming theoretical high energy physicists, and when they fail to achieve that, they feel that they have "failed". I mean, investment banks may be accumulating all those very bright people who feel like failures. The most brilliant physicists I observed whilst studying for my PhD were so far detached from reality I doubt they'd be any use as a quant in an investment bank.

Does a quant actually need to take so many courses from a business school and even more from economics? My impression is that pricing derivatives requires minimal knowledge of either business or economics, and that the time spent on these is better devoted to stoch procs, PDE's and numerical methods. Am I completely wrong about what a quant needs to know in practice? >>It's not as bad as it looks! One of the courses given by the business school is given by Prof Dempster (anybody heard of him?) and is accepted as module for PartIII Maths I think. The other one is "Principles of Finance" which serves as an introduction.On the other hand I do agree that the Microeconomics and Econometrics courses may not be terribly useful. CeloT4p

(Apparently, it would have been the same if I had written my opinion about Carol Alexander in public!Why are you all that interested in what she is like? Hasn't anybody met her?)

Exoticow,This forum seems to be overwhelmingly male, so i imagine there's some honest intellectual curiousity. Me I'm just here to argue.

....just a few additional thoughts on exoticow's description of ISMAI am currently doing the MSc in Financial Engineering and Quantitative Analysis in ISMA. Some mandatory modules include Valuations of Securities (CAPM & APT etc.) and introductory econometrics which lack the rigour expected on a MSc level and are not very interesting for a Fin. Eng. Apart from that, the MSc's strengths are obviously Carol Alexander, Harry Kat (Financial Engineering module) and Ubbo Wiersema the guy who teaches Stoch. Calculus Numerical Methods and Advanced Derivatives. As for the jobsearch, exoticow, I am just experiencing how hard it is, and I am not very optimistic because of what you wroteAll that I know, is that I paid 11,000 quid and I want to see some of them coming back soon!!!!!

£11k!!! Anyone know about the legality of setting up Wilmott University, making all Senior Members of the Forum the Professors, and selling degrees for a more reasonable sum? (Or a percentage of future income, no reasonable offer refused.) After passing some exams involving GARCH, Perpetual Up & Out Barrier Securities and Executive Stock Option pricing, of course. Think H will be keen on this, he can be Vice Chancellor...P

I could use some extra cash ...

This forum seems to be overwhelmingly male, so i imagine there's some honest intellectual curiousity >>What do you mean by THAT Hamilton??And alexisazen,you probably have realised already that the students' background is so adverse that there is no way that everybody will be happy with the level.As for the 11K, my friends, I have some good tips to give you (at least I can tell you how they got it from me last year )