A few questions concerning school in U.K...I considered applying for MSc Financial Math courses in Kings, Imperial, Edinburgh next fall. But, looking through other threads, MSc Financial Math graduates does not seem to performquiet well over other quant discipline graduates in the credit derivatives job market.Instead of taking mainstream path (Fin Math), would MSc in Applied Math/Statistics be a possibility forgetting an entry position in trading? It seems to me that Cambridge, excepting Imperial, has the best reputation in applied statistics. Even more, David Williams used to be a headin cam statistical lab, and probability courses therein are still keeping an outstanding reputationeven over the counterparts in other parts of world. For this reason, I am thinking of applying for a placein Cambridge now.Could anyone tell me if there are any out there who holds MPhil in applied statistics form Cambridge, and has place in credit derivatives trading? I would like to know if anyone trod the path to Cambridge and derivatives trading before me.Best,

I never heard about that williams man you mention, but at Cambridge you have professor LCG Rogers, who took up the Chair of Statistical Science in September 2002. He's written several quantitative finance papers, and he runs the quantitative finance group within the statistical lab.See http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~chris/

LCG Rogers is easily the top financial mathematician at Cambridge. He is top class and one of the leading academics in this area. His approach to financial maths is probability based and he is also one of the leading probabilists in the world. You are right in saying that David Williams was the head of the Stats lab (before moving to the University of Bath). In my opinion Williams was the top probabilist in this country in the 70's, 80's and 90's. On a par with Marc Yor. Williams has a number of very good books on probability.and numerous papers. A couple of the books are authored with Rogers.As for going down the cambridge route...I don't think you can go wrong that way...if they offer you a place take it immediately! You can most probably take courses in probability, finance and stats and that will give you a fairly good start to working in the industry.

How about the RiskLab in Cambridge?

'Advice for PhD Applicants in Financial Mathematics'http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~chris/PhD.html

I will go there next year. What is your background ? Did you study a lot of probability already ? If so, I advise you to write directly to LCG. Rogers and explain to him your situation (I have been waiting weeks before an answer..)? I think that if you study pure probability at Cambridge, even with almost nothing finance oriented, it will not be hard to find a quant job, even in prestigious institutions .. but I may be wrong.

QuoteOriginally posted by: SmartAlekk ... I think that if you study pure probability at Cambridge ... [snip]Now there's a sterling idea !