Commerce/Economics (1 Viewer)

[jaychouf4n]

Heya

First off, I <3 maths, it's the subject I'm best at and I actually understand it. Now with that out of the way, I want to be in a quantitative role in the financial world i.e. risk analysis and all that jazz. Basically my two loves are maths and economics so looking at companies and the risks associated with buying stocks lending money etc seems to be a nice fusion of my loves.

So I'm in a Commerce/Economics Degree atm. I'm in math1151, finding it ok in difficulty, nothing major. And I have a few choices when it comes to degree next year.

Actuarial/Finance/Econometrics
Actuarial/Accounting/Econometrics
Actuarial/Math
Actuarial/Law (not really interested in law, but prestige=yay!)
Finance/Law (Kind of boring...basically the standard asian way into financial world)

Econometrics and actuarial for me are interesting. Finance not so much, slightly interesting. Accounting so far has been a killer, boring as hell. Mgmt, while interesting, seems to be a lot of bs shoved into a core subject.

I hear that you can triple major in actuarial/finance and econometrics in 4 years if u plan the units out right. I'm in mgmt1001,econ1101,acct1501 and math1151, planning on going math 1251/actl1001/fins1613 and maybe some econ core.

What's the option that's best for me out of the ones above?? Note I'm finding acct1501 the most boring subject atm, but I hear being able to become a CPA is a good backup?

Note also, exemptions for actuarial are important too, i wanna have level 1 and 2 exemptions by the end of the course.

 

[Simo91]

If it's risk analysis and all that sort of stuff, i'd say Actuarial/Fin/Econometrics or Actuarial/Math would be your best choice..that being said i don't know everything on the topic but it seems the most logical.

 

[dvse]

It all depends. If you want to actually understand anything about what you are doing, pure maths as the science major is the only option. No, you won't know much at the end either but at least it will provide a foundation. Also make sure to learn about numerical methods. Something like this would be a start:

EE364a: Convex Optimization I

If you want a sound back up, go for fields that provide barriers to entry through accreditation, e.g. law or accounting.

And are you really certain about actuarial? Entry level job market isnt ever going to recover with the number of programs out there and the relevance of the qualification itself is rapidly declining.

Heya

First off, I <3 maths, it's the subject I'm best at and I actually understand it. Now with that out of the way, I want to be in a quantitative role in the financial world i.e. risk analysis and all that jazz. Basically my two loves are maths and economics so looking at companies and the risks associated with buying stocks lending money etc seems to be a nice fusion of my loves.

So I'm in a Commerce/Economics Degree atm. I'm in math1151, finding it ok in difficulty, nothing major. And I have a few choices when it comes to degree next year.

Actuarial/Finance/Econometrics
Actuarial/Accounting/Econometrics
Actuarial/Math
Actuarial/Law (not really interested in law, but prestige=yay!)
Finance/Law (Kind of boring...basically the standard asian way into financial world)

Econometrics and actuarial for me are interesting. Finance not so much, slightly interesting. Accounting so far has been a killer, boring as hell. Mgmt, while interesting, seems to be a lot of bs shoved into a core subject.

I hear that you can triple major in actuarial/finance and econometrics in 4 years if u plan the units out right. I'm in mgmt1001,econ1101,acct1501 and math1151, planning on going math 1251/actl1001/fins1613 and maybe some econ core.

What's the option that's best for me out of the ones above?? Note I'm finding acct1501 the most boring subject atm, but I hear being able to become a CPA is a good backup?

Note also, exemptions for actuarial are important too, i wanna have level 1 and 2 exemptions by the end of the course.

 

[moll.]

Heya

First off, I <3 maths, it's the subject I'm best at and I actually understand it. Now with that out of the way, I want to be in a quantitative role in the financial world i.e. risk analysis and all that jazz. Basically my two loves are maths and economics so looking at companies and the risks associated with buying stocks lending money etc seems to be a nice fusion of my loves.

So I'm in a Commerce/Economics Degree atm. I'm in math1151, finding it ok in difficulty, nothing major. And I have a few choices when it comes to degree next year.

Actuarial/Finance/Econometrics
Actuarial/Accounting/Econometrics
Actuarial/Math
Actuarial/Law (not really interested in law, but prestige=yay!)
Finance/Law (Kind of boring...basically the standard asian way into financial world)

Econometrics and actuarial for me are interesting. Finance not so much, slightly interesting. Accounting so far has been a killer, boring as hell. Mgmt, while interesting, seems to be a lot of bs shoved into a core subject.

I hear that you can triple major in actuarial/finance and econometrics in 4 years if u plan the units out right. I'm in mgmt1001,econ1101,acct1501 and math1151, planning on going math 1251/actl1001/fins1613 and maybe some econ core.

What's the option that's best for me out of the ones above?? Note I'm finding acct1501 the most boring subject atm, but I hear being able to become a CPA is a good backup?

Note also, exemptions for actuarial are important too, i wanna have level 1 and 2 exemptions by the end of the course.

First things first: Don't do law if you want to be a finance/quantitative analysis guru. It will be useless to you and everyone who does law is a wanker. Even the humanitarian/human rights ones.
Naturally enough, your best option is to major in Finance, even if you don't particularly enjoy it.
Beyond that, majoring in both Actuarial and Econometrics seems a bit of a statistics overkill. If you think it will really help to get you hired easier, great, but otherwise, I would recommend changing one of them to something else you enjoy. You mentioned that you like Economics, so maybe doing that instead of Econometrics may tickle your fancy. There is still quite a lot of basic econometrics included in an Economics major, as well as courses such as Finance Economics and further econometric courses which you can choose for your electives (may want to check the 2010 Handbook and compare majors, because they've changed the whole outline at the beginning of this year).
The alternative may be to transfer from Economics into Science and major in Maths. Both double degrees are 4 years, but you miss out on a major in Comm/Sci. I'm not familiar with the Maths major, so I can't comment on how useful it would be to you.

But well done for knowing at this stage exactly what you want to do after you graduate. I still have no idea.

 

[jaychouf4n]

Ok, so right now, I am jumping between Actuarial/Sci and Actuarial/Finance.

The problem with Actuarial/Finance is that I want part 2 exemptions, and you can get those with a combined degree, which is shifting the balance to science.

When it comes to science there's a course in advanced mathematics called quantitative risk, that i am interested in. The problem is I can't change courses now, since it's past the census date. (I got the ATAR requirement for advanced math). This sounds awesome, but I am not sure how I will do in comparison to the other people doing the course. Since I want a 80+WAM, if I am bad in comparison to the people doing advanced math, will this disadvantage me.

With Actuarial/Finance, while I will be able to get all the financial terms, I am concerned about not understanding the mathematics behind the actuarial studies. Nonetheless, I am currently struggling with epsilon delta limits, so I'm not sure how I will fare in a pure mathematical course, which might get a little to abstract for me.

Economics as a major would be interesting, but I am not sure whether it will be useful in comparison to a major in mathematics. I recently heard that econometrics is Actuarial studies for people who did 2u maths. XD

 

[miaowsha]

Ok, so right now, I am jumping between Actuarial/Sci and Actuarial/Finance.

The problem with Actuarial/Finance is that I want part 2 exemptions, and you can get those with a combined degree, which is shifting the balance to science.

When it comes to science there's a course in advanced mathematics called quantitative risk, that i am interested in. The problem is I can't change courses now, since it's past the census date. (I got the ATAR requirement for advanced math). This sounds awesome, but I am not sure how I will do in comparison to the other people doing the course. Since I want a 80+WAM, if I am bad in comparison to the people doing advanced math, will this disadvantage me.

With Actuarial/Finance, while I will be able to get all the financial terms, I am concerned about not understanding the mathematics behind the actuarial studies. Nonetheless, I am currently struggling with epsilon delta limits, so I'm not sure how I will fare in a pure mathematical course, which might get a little to abstract for me.

Economics as a major would be interesting, but I am not sure whether it will be useful in comparison to a major in mathematics. I recently heard that econometrics is Actuarial studies for people who did 2u maths. XD

You know, looking down on people for which level of maths they did in high school won't help you get that job instead of them...

Econometrics is like QMB but not as mathsy apparently anyway... Oh and I know people who did GENERAL maths and got distinctions in QMA & QMB and went onto do harder maths study... One is finishing a bachelor of science (maths) major atm... I also know 4unit kids who failed QMA and QMB... 4unit is nothing special, it's a few abstract areas of math and yay for scaling!!!

 

[jaychouf4n]

Apologies if what I said was insulting. I was simply quoting a person who did actuarial studies with econometrics. I believe he was making a reference to the fact that econometrics involves the application of principles in actuarial studies on a simpler scale. He described econometrics as a "WAM booster" for actuarial students.

I am sure that many 2U students are successful at maths, but I believe that he referred to 2u as being less difficult than 4u thereby the relationship between econometrics and actuarial studies, as opposed to the intelligence of students of 2u itself. As such, I apologise if I appeared as if I was looking down on 2u students because I am not.

Nonetheless, I believe that Finance/Advanced Math may be the way to go. However, I read from markjoshi.com, that a PHD or at least master's is required for a quant role. As such, I am afraid that I may not have the necessary knowledge to make it into a quant role in an IB, and may become a number cruncher who cannot move into mgmt in an IB.

 

[migoi]

I'm currently in my 3rd year, doing finance/maths. I switched in 2009 Semester 2 so i'm only up to second year maths subjects. From my experience finance is to put it frankly a load of crap, although a few financial concepts are quite useful but not worth doing as a full major. I've done the following:

FINS1612 - Financial Institutions, Instruments and Markets
FINS1613 - Business Finance
FINS2624 - Portfolio Management
FINS3616 - International Business Finance

Currently doing this sem:
FINS3630 - Banking Financial Management
FINS3634 - Credit Lending and Analysis
FINS3635 - Options, Futures and Risk Management

IMO you would not get much out of what I've done however I cannot comment on other finance courses that UNSW offers.

On the Mathematics side however, i'm getting nailed with big difference in difficulty. Partly due to that fact that i'm not good at it and secondly, second year mathematics courses build on first year (that is most of it assumed knowledge) unlike finance which sees ridiculous amounts of overlap in all courses I've done.

So all in all, my recommendation is take a Mathematics major, like dvse has said - pure mathematics would be a great path whereas quantitive risk major is really just a gimmick. As for the Commerce major, I'd say avoid finance. All just my opinion from my experiences!

 

[dvse]

So all in all, my recommendation is take a Mathematics major, like dvse has said - pure mathematics would be a great path whereas quantitive risk major is really just a gimmick. As for the Commerce major, I'd say avoid finance. All just my opinion from my experiences!

I think that it might be possible to explain the entire finance undergrad curriculum to someone with the right maths background in only a few hours.

 

[jaychouf4n]

Ok, I will do actuarial studies/maths. I've noticed the need to learn object oriented c++ to become a quant, what computing course would i need to do to learn c++. Also is comp1911 a good choice, or should i go comp1917, because it is harder. Note ive never done any time of programming before, apart from basic matlab

 

[migoi]

I think that it might possible to explain the entire finance undergrad curriculum to someone with the right maths background in only a few hours.

lol that is actually quite true.

Ok, I will do actuarial studies/maths. I've noticed the need to learn object oriented c++ to become a quant, what computing course would i need to do to learn c++. Also is comp1911 a good choice, or should i go comp1917, because it is harder. Note ive never done any time of programming before, apart from basic matlab

I myself havn't done any computing courses however have watched half of Richard Buckland's COM1917 2008 Lecture Recordings. Check it out:

Youtube: Richard Buckland's Higher Computing

 

[dvse]

I myself havn't done any computing courses however have watched half of Richard Buckland's COM1917 2008 Lecture Recordings. Check it out:

Youtube: Richard Buckland's Higher Computing

That's a good suggestion, make sure to actually try writing programs, not just watching lectures though. The actual C++ course at CSE I believe is COMP4001:

Class Details

Also I'm not sure if it's really helpful for jobs you can get out of undergrad.

 

[jaychouf4n]

Thank you so much for all the advice.

I've been reading markjoshi.com, and he says that c++ is the main code that quants use. I want to be as marketable as possible for financial companies by the end of the 5 year degree, so I think it might be worth it learning c++.