cmu carnegie/tepper v. cornell engineering
I'm an incoming freshman to cmu's carnegie institute of technology, who was offered a guaranteed transfer option from cornell. To be honest, my long term career goals mainly lie in biomedical devices and drug discovery. However, I am interested in quant for the opportunity to make some money and pay off my massive student debt. now i got waitlisted from mit and qualified for usamo, so i know i'm not an idiot and am confident with the right resources i can at least get a decent s&t/quant job making a non-zero amount of money. but i want to aim as high as possible (jane street, citadel) to max out my profits and min the time spent working in quant. considering this, is it better to stick with cmu for four years majoring in computer engineering+biomedical engineering (NOT computer science) where i'll inevitably be seen as inferior to scs kids, or should I transfer to cornell's college of engineering? if it helps i fucking hate ithaca and would much rather spend four years in pittsburgh, but i know cornell has the ivy league clout and, while being "easier" than cmu, places more focus onto its computer engineering students.
If you qualified for USAMO you’d get looks from citadel/de shaw even if you went to Maryland. Relax dude
u never know what life throws at you, stick to CMU. the risk/reward of doing all that extra stuff for a slightly inferior program isn't worth it even if it's slightly more relevant to your current interests as a 19 year old.
life is long. don't sweat the small stuff.
thanks man, that makes me feel better. i think i will stick to cmu as pittsburgh is more fun and i've already met so many people here. i don't think it's too much worse than cornell in terms of reputation...?
i'd like to know though--is an ece major at cmu looked upon the same as a cs major from cmu? ece is definitely easier to get into but we take the same core classes as scs.
I go to CMU, but I’m not in ECE. All of the people I know in ECE have really good internships. Idk if u know this already, but if ur serious about quant you'll want to get into the computational finance program. Very rigorous and has a ton of math, but amazing placements from what I've seen
Interviewed w/ de Shaw and I’m stupid you’ll be fine
Those quants shops are okay with computer engineering major as long as you can pass their math & algorithm tests. They also don't care about CMU vs Cornell as long as you pass their tests. Those tests are very hard I shall warn ya, so I recommend to drop the bio major to focus more on interview prep
What's funny is the test is the easy part. Wait until you get asked how much would you pay for playing a weird game with a 13 faces dice
Yep, if you can can crack the final round ( where they ask you all kinds of mind boggling weird twisted complex stats puzzles ), they won't care if you dropped out of high school, let alone the tiny tinny difference between Cornel and CMU ( both are top programs so why bother ? ) They are looking for smart mind, that's it.
Fwiw I took a parallel albeit different route than you when I was in your shoes. I went premed and majored in chem from a non target because med school was the cool thing to do to make $ back then. I ended up switching routes senior year to chase business which is what I wanted to do long term (after making some cash) anyway. My point is stick to the major that aligns with your long term interests. There are unlimited ways to make money and you will inevitably find them if you put effort into your pursuits. It's 100x easier to bring effort everyday when you have passion about what you are doing. I'm not telling you to change plans or lose sight of quant, but don't risk your long-term interests just to fit somebody else's square hole. If you excel and network you will have the options either way. Good luck to you and always remember, when playing your hand a pair of balls beats everything - nothing will ever beat an insatiable desire to succeed.
My guy is gonna end up doing systematic trading for Ken or David. Not even full on quant and forget to go save the world.
Amount of times heard “just few years to pay off my debt”…
Does DE shaw have systematic trading team?
ANd just curious: what do you think are some cons for systematic trading compared to semi-systematic or quant research roles? seems to me "end up doing systematic trading" has a bit of nuanced stance against..I also work at this area but a total newbie here so just want to get some objective views regarding this industry, thanks
Sure, “systematic trading” is a fancy term PMs made up when they do not totally discretionary trade that helps show a better sharpe. It allows risk groups to have a clear understanding of what is going on. Typically it is backed by heavy quantitative data models, so it works well in various FICC products. Also quants typically have tighter stops, systematic allows wider stops and longer hold periods sort of thing. Its also the class of term “quanta-mental” that was made up.
It is very common to see very strong quant background but dislike sitting and programming algorithms (like OP) to end up doing this form of trading. It is common also to start out as QR and then do this. Someone who wants to read medical journals for fun all day would do well in this as well.
Whoops, skipped over question. Yes DE has pods who trade macro products who employ an army of quants to build them models. Same with other multi-strats out there.
Current CMU student here. Tons of opportunities and huge target for quant specifically. Computational finance is a great program, but you can still get into quant if you take on a math, stat or CS related major/minor. Can't speak for Cornell but the alumni network at jane street from CMU is strong.
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