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hello everyone,I'm a second-year french engineer school student and my objective is to work as a quant in Paris or London. For the third year I have the opportunity to apply for msc programms either in the US (stanford, columbia, NYU, Princeton) or in the UK(cambridge partIII and oxford msc computer modelling).1) Is a top american msc in mathematical finance enough to get a quant job in London ? I've heard that a phd or a dea is often a requirement.2) My present plan is to go for a uk msc, followed by a french DEA. What do you think about it ?Any comments or advice are welcomed.

If your main goal is to get a job, forget about collecting degrees and look rather for a job. What do you want an MSc+DEA ?Try to get a job as quickly as you can. I did MSc+DEA, and now doing a PhD, but I was not interested in finding a job straight away. And did the DEA after the Msc just because I was not a mathematician and felt that the training in the DEA would be very beneficial to improve in Maths.But if you are in a good engineering school, and your main objective is to find a job, then look for a job not a degree.

i couldn't agree with madmax more. degrees only get you an interview--once you're on the job, you either exceed/meet/fail to meet expectations and advance accordingly. plus, you get paid to work, whereas you have to pay to do school. and don't underestimate how much you'll learn on the job.of course, if you want another few years to live the life of a student (free time, etc.) and further your education in a broader sense, getting a job immediately is not the best call.and i know several folks, including myself, who have gotten quant jobs in london/nyc with just undergraduate degrees. so a msc is icing on the cake, and dea won't hurt either, but neither is a "requirement". depends on the sort of position you'd like to end up in.

I actually agree with madmax and hammerbacher, the important is the job, but then again you need to get to interviews to get this job.My advice would be to do what a LOT of french students do, go on exchange during your third year to an MSc in a GOOD uni, if your school is good you wouldn't have problems getting a good name in the UK or even in the US (I don't know if it is possible in the other side of the atlantic). I guess you'll end up with your degree and an Msc.Being in the UK gives you juste one main adavantage, the visits of the I-banks, where you can get some business cards and start networking (and harrasing).HTH

thank you for your replies,actually i would like to still continue a few more years as a student and improve my scientific skills. I like maths and money and quant seems to be the job that better fits those two aspects (if you know other such jobs please tell me). madmax, just to have some ideas, what is your phd about ? and where are you studying ? best regards,

Well if you are interested in lenghtening your student life (because you want to study some more stuff or because you simply enjoy it), then it is another story. You should know that most French (and Swiss Poly) Engineering schools degrees are recognized as equivalent to an Msc in the US. The top 2 DEAs (Paris VI and VII) in France provide top notch education in mathematical finance, with a few others that are quite decent as well. The cost is negligible and insignificant compared to the USD 30 000+ in US. I personnally think that the MSc degrees in UK don't compare at all in terms of the level of the teaching but still cost quite a lot. So if you are decide on going on with your studies, I would recommend to apply directly to some good PhD programs in the US (NYU courant institute, CMU math finance, and some others). If you think that the PhD is too long and you are not sure that you want to go that route, you should know that the PhD in US starts with 2 years of coursework, and it is not terrible if you drop after completing the coursework. In fact some people have done that in the past and they were awarded an MSc. The main thing is in an MSc you pay 30 000 USD+ while in most good PhD programmes you get a funding package which can go around tuition fees + up to 20000 USD. The MSc in my opinion is just a waste of money, and your french degree is probably already recognized as equivalent to an MSc. You might want to go just for an exchange program in your third year try to go to NYU or Princeton, but definitely the MSc is a pure waste if you can get the exchange program. If you have exchanges with NYU, Princeton and the like that means you are most probably in ENS, Centrale, or X or some of the other top5 to 10, which means you could get into a PhD programme straight out of your engineering school. The only hassle is the GRE test.I am in UK (finance department, not OxBridge), my PhD is about credit correlation modeling and correlation products. I also did a few other things during my PhD that will not end up in my thesis but will make a few papers. The advantage of not being in a top US PhD program, is that I did not have to go through the doctoral coursework and did not want to, because I am not the kind that likes sitting in a classroom, I prefer studying the material on my own, and after the DEA, I felt I did not need formal courses. Which means I had a lot of freedom and was able to spend a lot of time on C++ for example. The inconvenient is that life will be harder after the PhD, at least at the beginning because I don't have the brand names on my CV, and anyways I don't think I would have got into NYU, CMU, Princeton and I could not be bothered even to sit for the GRE test. Good luck

madmax,Will you expect yourself to have hard time to get a good job in the industry in the US? Will it be also hard to find a post-doctor position in the US if someone is interested in academia?

QuoteOriginally posted by: rogersmadmax,Will you expect yourself to have hard time to get a good job in the industry in the US? Will it be also hard to find a post-doctor position in the US if someone is interested in academia?About jobs in the industry in the US, I have no idea as I have never considered it. For the UK, all graduates from my PhD program last year ended up in top tier IB in London. One in a hedge fund. In academia, it seems that there are more jobs than applicants in Finance (not math) so my guess is that it is feasible but much more difficult in the Ivy league where they tend to recruit between themselves.