Actuarial + Compsci at UNSW versus Integrated Masters in Mathematics at Imperial College London (1 Viewer)

[Axiomaticsettheory]

End goal is to both intern and work after graduation in a quantitative trading role in a high frequency trading firm. I've heard a lot of rumours about university prestige being highly beneficial for entering top firms, but I am unsure how true this really is. Also, if anyone is familiar with the differences in job prospects between quantitative trading roles in Sydney and London that would be greatly appreciated. I know that this is an Australia based forum which may induce some bias, but any information is greatly welcomed.

 

[liamkk112]

End goal is to both intern and work after graduation in a quantitative trading role in a high frequency trading firm. I've heard a lot of rumours about university prestige being highly beneficial for entering top firms, but I am unsure how true this really is. Also, if anyone is familiar with the differences in job prospects between quantitative trading roles in Sydney and London that would be greatly appreciated. I know that this is an Australia based forum which may induce some bias, but any information is greatly welcomed.

london prolly has a lot more quantitative trading roles than sydney, yes sydney has a few major trading firms like optiver, vivcourt, susquehanna and a couple more + the banks but london is an international center for finance, plus every office of the firms i listed above also prolly has a office in london anyway. although from what i’ve heard in london it is much more competitive to get a job in quant trading (not to say sydney is easy but yeah)

in australia tbh there’s not really any uni bias, it is true that in trading firms there tends to be a higher volume of grads from the higher ranked unis like usyd,unsw, unimelb but id chalk this up to the grads from these unis just being more motivated, given that all the trading firms usually have several technical interview rounds that the uni u go to has no bearing on (aside from ur educational quality obviously, but they won’t not give you a chance because u go to a certain uni). essentially, for grad roles in sydney someone (or probably an ai now) will probably just check ur resume, and if u have a HD in a relevant degree you’ll be put through to the interview rounds. uni isn’t really involved as the interview rounds will weed out those who aren’t competitive enough anyway. im not sure if that’s how it works in london, it could be true that there is bias towards certain unis but im not really in a position to comment on that

in terms of unsw, looking at the leiden ranking (actually objective ranking of unis through scientific research) it’s top for compsci and math in the country, uts and usyd are just behind. from what i’ve heard (i go to uts but know people who go to unsw) it’s a pretty intensive program, drop rates are pretty high for compsci/math/acturial mostly because they have a high amount of content in only 10 week semesters. its not impossible obviously but it is a good and rigorous program, uts and usyd have slightly more chill programs depending on the degree but in turn you get more spare time which would make working on personal projects or internships easier, honestly it’s just a personal preference but unsw is the likely best out of thef 2 unis in sydney that offers acturial.

honestly idk if it’s worth it coming to sydney if u want to be a quant tho, london should have plenty of opportunities already. but unsw is a good uni and u certainly wouldn’t go wrong with picking their acturial / compsci degree

 

[idkkdi]

End goal is to both intern and work after graduation in a quantitative trading role in a high frequency trading firm. I've heard a lot of rumours about university prestige being highly beneficial for entering top firms, but I am unsure how true this really is. Also, if anyone is familiar with the differences in job prospects between quantitative trading roles in Sydney and London that would be greatly appreciated. I know that this is an Australia based forum which may induce some bias, but any information is greatly welcomed.

i would take imperial. u would have better backup options (eg ib hfs) if u dont make hft quant

 

[Axiomaticsettheory]

london prolly has a lot more quantitative trading roles than sydney, yes sydney has a few major trading firms like optiver, vivcourt, susquehanna and a couple more + the banks but london is an international center for finance, plus every office of the firms i listed above also prolly has a office in london anyway. although from what i’ve heard in london it is much more competitive to get a job in quant trading (not to say sydney is easy but yeah)

in australia tbh there’s not really any uni bias, it is true that in trading firms there tends to be a higher volume of grads from the higher ranked unis like usyd,unsw, unimelb but id chalk this up to the grads from these unis just being more motivated, given that all the trading firms usually have several technical interview rounds that the uni u go to has no bearing on (aside from ur educational quality obviously, but they won’t not give you a chance because u go to a certain uni). essentially, for grad roles in sydney someone (or probably an ai now) will probably just check ur resume, and if u have a HD in a relevant degree you’ll be put through to the interview rounds. uni isn’t really involved as the interview rounds will weed out those who aren’t competitive enough anyway. im not sure if that’s how it works in london, it could be true that there is bias towards certain unis but im not really in a position to comment on that

in terms of unsw, looking at the leiden ranking (actually objective ranking of unis through scientific research) it’s top for compsci and math in the country, uts and usyd are just behind. from what i’ve heard (i go to uts but know people who go to unsw) it’s a pretty intensive program, drop rates are pretty high for compsci/math/acturial mostly because they have a high amount of content in only 10 week semesters. its not impossible obviously but it is a good and rigorous program, uts and usyd have slightly more chill programs depending on the degree but in turn you get more spare time which would make working on personal projects or internships easier, honestly it’s just a personal preference but unsw is the likely best out of thef 2 unis in sydney that offers acturial.

honestly idk if it’s worth it coming to sydney if u want to be a quant tho, london should have plenty of opportunities already. but unsw is a good uni and u certainly wouldn’t go wrong with picking their acturial / compsci degree

I should have made this clear originally, but I would be moving to London to attend Imperial, rather than me moving to Sydney for UNSW. From what I've seen and read, Imperial is obviously the stronger uni (it seems to be stronger in industry than oxbridge and its entry reqs are the same with a much lower acceptance rate), but I would have to pay international tuition which I'm worried could backfire in some way. I'm not sure how the pay differs in actuality (as there is a lot of hearsay), but it seems that grads entering HFTs in London are earning near 250% what they are in Sydney, which is a major factor for me along with Imperials stronger academic quality. Overall, after graduating I do plan to live in the UK or Europe so I would likely consider applying for roles in London even if I studied at UNSW. The main issue I've noticed with this option though is that most if not all quant roles in London require a masters degree or Phd, which would mean i'd need to study for around 6-7 years if I were to graduate in Sydney, rather than 4 at Imperial. I guess overall my predicament is whether the tuition cost is worth it for those benefits that Imperial provides.

 

[liamkk112]

I should have made this clear originally, but I would be moving to London to attend Imperial, rather than me moving to Sydney for UNSW. From what I've seen and read, Imperial is obviously the stronger uni (it seems to be stronger in industry than oxbridge and its entry reqs are the same with a much lower acceptance rate), but I would have to pay international tuition which I'm worried could backfire in some way. I'm not sure how the pay differs in actuality (as there is a lot of hearsay), but it seems that grads entering HFTs in London are earning near 250% what they are in Sydney, which is a major factor for me along with Imperials stronger academic quality. Overall, after graduating I do plan to live in the UK or Europe so I would likely consider applying for roles in London even if I studied at UNSW. The main issue I've noticed with this option though is that most if not all quant roles in London require a masters degree or Phd, which would mean i'd need to study for around 6-7 years if I were to graduate in Sydney, rather than 4 at Imperial. I guess overall my predicament is whether the tuition cost is worth it for those benefits that Imperial provides.

it is probably true that london finance roles pay much more than sydney, however u got to factor in that london is a pretty expensive city. im sure its still a very good salary but yea just saying
and yea a lot of international quant roles need masters/phd, some in sydney do as well but there’s also many more that dont
ultimately it’s up to u but u will still be on a good salary and doing well in sydney so idk if it’s worth the debts

 

[Test-king12]

london prolly has a lot more quantitative trading roles than sydney, yes sydney has a few major trading firms like optiver, vivcourt, susquehanna and a couple more + the banks but london is an international center for finance, plus every office of the firms i listed above also prolly has a office in london anyway. although from what i’ve heard in london it is much more competitive to get a job in quant trading (not to say sydney is easy but yeah)

in australia tbh there’s not really any uni bias, it is true that in trading firms there tends to be a higher volume of grads from the higher ranked unis like usyd,unsw, unimelb but id chalk this up to the grads from these unis just being more motivated, given that all the trading firms usually have several technical interview rounds that the uni u go to has no bearing on (aside from ur educational quality obviously, but they won’t not give you a chance because u go to a certain uni). essentially, for grad roles in sydney someone (or probably an ai now) will probably just check ur resume, and if u have a HD in a relevant degree you’ll be put through to the interview rounds. uni isn’t really involved as the interview rounds will weed out those who aren’t competitive enough anyway. im not sure if that’s how it works in london, it could be true that there is bias towards certain unis but im not really in a position to comment on that

in terms of unsw, looking at the leiden ranking (actually objective ranking of unis through scientific research) it’s top for compsci and math in the country, uts and usyd are just behind. from what i’ve heard (i go to uts but know people who go to unsw) it’s a pretty intensive program, drop rates are pretty high for compsci/math/acturial mostly because they have a high amount of content in only 10 week semesters. its not impossible obviously but it is a good and rigorous program, uts and usyd have slightly more chill programs depending on the degree but in turn you get more spare time which would make working on personal projects or internships easier, honestly it’s just a personal preference but unsw is the likely best out of thef 2 unis in sydney that offers acturial.

honestly idk if it’s worth it coming to sydney if u want to be a quant tho, london should have plenty of opportunities already. but unsw is a good uni and u certainly wouldn’t go wrong with picking their acturial / compsci degree

look at this we got yappington out here.

esey pikkins/

 

[idkkdi]

I should have made this clear originally, but I would be moving to London to attend Imperial, rather than me moving to Sydney for UNSW. From what I've seen and read, Imperial is obviously the stronger uni (it seems to be stronger in industry than oxbridge and its entry reqs are the same with a much lower acceptance rate), but I would have to pay international tuition which I'm worried could backfire in some way. I'm not sure how the pay differs in actuality (as there is a lot of hearsay), but it seems that grads entering HFTs in London are earning near 250% what they are in Sydney, which is a major factor for me along with Imperials stronger academic quality. Overall, after graduating I do plan to live in the UK or Europe so I would likely consider applying for roles in London even if I studied at UNSW. The main issue I've noticed with this option though is that most if not all quant roles in London require a masters degree or Phd, which would mean i'd need to study for around 6-7 years if I were to graduate in Sydney, rather than 4 at Imperial. I guess overall my predicament is whether the tuition cost is worth it for those benefits that Imperial provides.

if u want to work in london later on it doesnt make sense to stay in sydney for uni. breaking into london quant straight out of a sydney uni should be very hard.