am8

Thanks statscan, I agree with you on both points. My goal to eventually pursue a PhD is to enhance my own understanding of the field; the job I get afterwards would only be a product of immersing myself in statistics.

I have two choices for masters programs: American University ( would cost me 10k over 2 years) versus columbia, GWU, UVA, and BU. The latter schools have offered no funding. What is the smarter choice if I wanted to continue pursuing a PHD? What's the smartest choice for job outlook after graduation? My gut feeling is that the actual knowledge I would acquire would be marginally different, but there is a price to pay for a name brand such as columbia. I would ideally want to work in a hedge fund as a quant in the future. Any advice would be appreciated!