Recommend major/career path for math-loving girl

[Anonymous]

Another female engineer chiming in here. I'm a civil/environmental engineer and have had a great career with lots of options. I now work on policy and regulatory issues, but I also got to work on environmental remediation systems at various facilities on an earlier job. Chemical engineering is another good career path with lots of potential business or lab careers.

[Anonymous]

Actuary. This career always scores high on the low stress high pay scale. Also, an added plus is that many actuaries are female.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Architecture is more about art than math/engineering. If she wants to build things, she should look at civil engineering.

Also, architecture tends to be an expensive degree (5 years with almost no financial aid) and architect salaries are not high. It’s more sales than anything else. Engineering has lots more opportunities for lucrative jobs after a 4 year degree and the possibility of an employer funded masters. As others have pointed out, it’s project based work so it’s easy to go part time and ramp up when you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD thinks engineering- maybe architecture. She loves math and is very good at chemistry. Even though she's very creative, she's looking for a career where she can earn some money and the starting salaries of engineers are appealing to her. Advice?

Do not do architecture.

[Anonymous]

Another for Economics, though Mathematical rather than business-oriented Economics. Great options for academia, public service or business careers, and the PhD is a valued credential in all. (Whereas the history PhD working in the business world just looks, I don’t know, like a plan gone awry?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1732 here.

so the path would be applied math at atop 25 (preferrably top 10 school) -> use the alum database to reach out to employees at the aforementioned firms to set up phone chats after her first semester at school, join the quant finance club, first summer paid research internship at a university in applied math/quant finance, fall sophomore year - really work the network at on-campus recruiting to land interviews at trading shops, and each subsequent summer intern in either trading or something tangential to that so you are a strong candidate come senior fall recruiting.

How much does the prestige level of the school matter? Will top-50 do, maybe one that has some Wall St recruiting on campus?

Major: suppose the school doesn't have an official "applied mathematics" major. Will a regular math major + whatever extra courses also work?

Can a math/physics double major get on a quant path?

Hey sorry about the delay in response. Hope you still see this.

Regular math will work supplemented with rigorous exposure to statistics and pick up a few econometrics classes from the econ department.

Prestige does matter in finance unfortunately - though less so in the quant world - thankfully. Looking at the top 50 list, pretty much all of them will have prof's in the math/econ department that do research in financial asset forecasting which she should try to get on a research assistant.

Yes a math/physics double major is a very common profile to get on the quant path.

A higher ranked school will make it a bit easier for recruiting but top 50 won't stop you. breaking into the quant world is a lot more egalitarian than traditional IB or MBB consulting. She'll just have to pound the pavement harder and bolster her resume with more research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Economics.

I have advanced degrees in two other math-heavy fields, but my aunt who is an economist had suggested early on I go into economics. In retrospect, I often wish I had listened to her.

Economists out-earn pretty much every other STEM field as well. Lots of opportunities to do creative policy or corporate strategy work.

I majored in Econ and Stats and then ended up working in policy (really interesting niche area at a think tank) and then moved to market research, then strategy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey sorry about the delay in response. Hope you still see this.

Regular math will work supplemented with rigorous exposure to statistics and pick up a few econometrics classes from the econ department.

Prestige does matter in finance unfortunately - though less so in the quant world - thankfully. Looking at the top 50 list, pretty much all of them will have prof's in the math/econ department that do research in financial asset forecasting which she should try to get on a research assistant.

Yes a math/physics double major is a very common profile to get on the quant path.

A higher ranked school will make it a bit easier for recruiting but top 50 won't stop you. breaking into the quant world is a lot more egalitarian than traditional IB or MBB consulting. She'll just have to pound the pavement harder and bolster her resume with more research.

Thank you - this is very helpful!