Is a Masters worth it?

SeanMoorhead · Post by **SeanMoorhead** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 11:32 pm

Hi,

I'm about to enter my last year in a 3-year maths course at Oxford University. I'm want to apply my mathematics knowledge to the finance area and feel becoming a quant would be a great way to do this. The Masters courses in Mathematical/computational finance are extremely expensive and so my question is are they worth it? They certainly would give me specialist mathematical knowledge in the area but does it help in improving chances with prospect employers? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Sean

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:00 am

Doesn't Oxford do a 4 year MMath where you pay undergrad fees and can opt for financial modules in the last year?

Alternatively I've heard good things about Part III at Cambridge.

jungle · Post by **jungle** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:19 am

"Masters courses in Mathematical/computational finance are extremely expensive"

Masters courses in applied math subjects other than finance might not be expensive, e.g. the stats programme at Oxford. As I recall, there are comments on other NP threads - I don't remember which - suggesting there is also value in doing something other than financial math/engineering. Perhaps someone else knows the threads and will post the links.

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:06 am

I'd argue that an applied maths masters with a bit of a finance leaning is better than a financial maths masters.

Nonius · Post by **Nonius** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 2:13 am

danko · Post by **danko** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:16 pm

I agree with Scotty and disagree with Nonius. I would suggest searching this forum for my previous responses to similar questions. You should read a couple books or maybe take one or two finance classes to get familiar with the industry and the ways that people make money but further financial classes are almost provably worthless.

sv507 · Post by **sv507** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:14 am

I agree with danko. just look at the job adverts...hardly any require a math finance degree ( physics, maths are equally if not better regarded).

At least for derivatives pricing quants, my own experience is that your qualification should show how smart you are, rather than what you know! so I would go for part 3 at cambridge, say. Not to say you shouldn't choose topics of relevance to finance. But you first have to be at the top of the pile of cvs.

SeanMoorhead · Post by **SeanMoorhead** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:26 am

So after lots of reading it seems to me that the way to go is to continue with a masters in maths tailored towards finance (Cambridge has been mentioned numerous times and would be a great place to go) and to gain experience in programming knowledge in Java, Matlab or something along those lines.

Thanks for all the advice,

Sean

silverside · Post by **silverside** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:55 am

the alumni network, careers service and industry contacts (for projects etc) to be found on some masters courses can be very useful. it is hard to get an unbiased comparison of courses, but I seem to recall reading that the cambridge tripos was extremely difficult and designed almost as a reading course aimed at preparing people for cambridge phd's. tbh I don't think you would go too far wrong with cambridge/oxford/warwick/imperial once you have the necessary ability and interest.

SeanMoorhead · Post by **SeanMoorhead** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:39 pm

"I seem to recall reading that the cambridge tripos was extremely difficult"

The difficulty of the course doesn't bother me too much, the problem is the fees of the course and after a quick reading of Cambridge's fees they are unfortunately too much for me. I'm from a background where £20,000 plus on the spot is impossible to come by and the careers development loan alone has a maximum value of £10,000. Maybe I'd just be better off sticking with the Oxford maths course for the full 4 years, the only problem with that is there is little finance related courses and I'm only allowed to take few statistical based courses. If I were to take up finance in my spare time (which is already fairly limited) I'd be constricting the time in which I could learn the necessary programming skills. But like I said the difficulty of the course, or indeed of any course where I meet the entry requirements, is not an issue.