Preparation for OR/FE

[dhajk]

I am currently a second year student finishing up his second semester. I go to a school that does not have a Operations Research/Financial Engineering/ETC program, but I would like to do that when I go to graduate school, mainly so that I can work in the IB industry.

Stats:

Undergraduate institution: Large State University

Major: Computer Science(4.0/4.0), Mathematics(3.86/4.0), Statistics(4.0/4.0)

GPA: ~3.85, expecting ~3.9 upon graduation.

Research: Currently 1 year of CS research, doing an REU in CS this summer, 1 co-authored paper, will hopefully attempt to publish by the end of summer.

Race: Domestic White Male

Relevant courses:

Math: Calc 1-3, discrete math, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real analysis

Stat: Undergrad probability theory

CS: Advanced Algorithms, 2 Graduate CS Courses

My question is what courses I should take to be on track to be accepted to a OR/FE program(preferably PhD)?

The CS department does not do senior thesis's(wtf?), but the math and stat departments do, should I attempt to do one of these?

Also, would it be beneficial to take the math and/or cs subject GREs?

Additionally, would I even have a chance at top schools, since I heard there is no point in going to any non top 10 program.

Edited May 8, 2010 by dhajk

[kash]

I am currently a second year student finishing up his second semester. I go to a school that does not have a Operations Research/Financial Engineering/ETC program, but I would like to do that when I go to graduate school, mainly so that I can work in the IB industry.

Stats:

Undergraduate institution: Large State University

Major: Computer Science(4.0/4.0), Mathematics(3.86/4.0), Statistics(4.0/4.0)

GPA: ~3.85, expecting ~3.9 upon graduation.

Research: Currently 1 year of CS research, doing an REU in CS this summer, 1 co-authored paper, will hopefully attempt to publish by the end of summer.

Race: Domestic White Male

Relevant courses:

Math: Calc 1-3, discrete math, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real analysis

Stat: Undergrad probability theory

CS: Advanced Algorithms, 2 Graduate CS Courses

My question is what courses I should take to be on track to be accepted to a OR/FE program(preferably PhD)?

The CS department does not do senior thesis's(wtf?), but the math and stat departments do, should I attempt to do one of these?

Also, would it be beneficial to take the math and/or cs subject GREs?

Additionally, would I even have a chance at top schools, since I heard there is no point in going to any non top 10 program.

If you are doing a financial engineering Phd Math and Stat would be more important than CS. A look at the first year curriculum for Phd in FE usually shows courses in Probability and Mathematical statistics, stochastic modelling,etc. So focusing on that will be a lot more important than CS. Same goes for the GRE subject test.

[wifey99999999]

I am currently a second year student finishing up his second semester. I go to a school that does not have a Operations Research/Financial Engineering/ETC program, but I would like to do that when I go to graduate school, mainly so that I can work in the IB industry.

Stats:

Undergraduate institution: Large State University

Major: Computer Science(4.0/4.0), Mathematics(3.86/4.0), Statistics(4.0/4.0)

GPA: ~3.85, expecting ~3.9 upon graduation.

Research: Currently 1 year of CS research, doing an REU in CS this summer, 1 co-authored paper, will hopefully attempt to publish by the end of summer.

Race: Domestic White Male

Relevant courses:

Math: Calc 1-3, discrete math, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real analysis

Stat: Undergrad probability theory

CS: Advanced Algorithms, 2 Graduate CS Courses

My question is what courses I should take to be on track to be accepted to a OR/FE program(preferably PhD)?

The CS department does not do senior thesis's(wtf?), but the math and stat departments do, should I attempt to do one of these?

Also, would it be beneficial to take the math and/or cs subject GREs?

Additionally, would I even have a chance at top schools, since I heard there is no point in going to any non top 10 program.

Your profile looks good, but what is the "Large State University"...? Is it Cal Berkeley? UCLA? Cal-State Los Angeles? Ohio State? Michigan State? Where you go to school can affect your chance of admissions.

Also make sure your Quant in GRE is respectable (above 770), then you have good chance.

[dhajk]

By large state university I mean top 100(maybe 50, depends on rankings), not top 30. So no u-mich, berkeley, etc. my current plan is to take the following classes:

Math: Abstract Linear Algebra, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis(Continued)

Stat: Graduate probability theory, Graduate Stochastic Processes, Undergraduate Time-Series Analysis, Undergraduate Mathematical Statistics

Will doing research in CS help me at all or is it practically worthless since it isn't in OR?

[kash]

By large state university I mean top 100(maybe 50, depends on rankings), not top 30. So no u-mich, berkeley, etc. my current plan is to take the following classes:

Math: Abstract Linear Algebra, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis(Continued)

Stat: Graduate probability theory, Graduate Stochastic Processes, Undergraduate Time-Series Analysis, Undergraduate Mathematical Statistics

Will doing research in CS help me at all or is it practically worthless since it isn't in OR?

well i dont know what type of research you are trying to do in CS. But research towards proabability theory, stochastic modelling, or optimization will definitely be more helpful. If you are going for a FE Phd focus on math and statistics, even better if its math related to finance. One part i dont get is you want to work in the IB industry, in what capacity?

[dhajk]

well i dont know what type of research you are trying to do in CS. But research towards proabability theory, stochastic modelling, or optimization will definitely be more helpful. If you are going for a FE Phd focus on math and statistics, even better if its math related to finance. One part i dont get is you want to work in the IB industry, in what capacity?

My current research is with medical stuff, so it is more statistical, dealing with noise, etc; Also, optimization theory is something I am using to accomplish this goal, so it seems some what related.

I don't really have any opportunities to do research in financial mathematics, outside of self-learning. Do any REU's exist in this field?

Not IB specifically, more quantitative analyst work in the finance industry.

[wifey99999999]

By large state university I mean top 100(maybe 50, depends on rankings), not top 30. So no u-mich, berkeley, etc. my current plan is to take the following classes:

Math: Abstract Linear Algebra, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis(Continued)

Stat: Graduate probability theory, Graduate Stochastic Processes, Undergraduate Time-Series Analysis, Undergraduate Mathematical Statistics

Will doing research in CS help me at all or is it practically worthless since it isn't in OR?

If you want to go for PhD, then research is obviously an important factor. But if you only shoot for Master, then research is not a do-or-die thing, but obviously it'd help.

[kash]

Maybe you can do a senior thesis that is related to mathematical finance, or in probability theory, stochastic modelling. The CS research does seem partly relevant from what you have told.