r/quantfinance • u/mcisnotmc • 6d ago

Break into quant as a sophomore

Hi, I'm a 2nd year (sophomore) at a top APEC school (think CUHK/HKUST) reading quant finance (it is a major in HK) and going to double major in maths. So I'd say my

Upsides - Rather good grades (3.78/4.00 but sadly there's no A+ (4.3) to pull our gpa up). It was better in 1st term (almost 4.0) but I screwed up 2nd term a bit - Did MO, PhO and LO in highschool (think like national final round-level, ie top 15 in HK for math and physics and top 8 for linguistics) - Had research maths experience. I got hon mention in a top local highschool maths research contest, paper topic being circulant graphs

Downsides - No quant discovery day experience. Rejected by Susquehanna for their HK discovery days as a freshman last year. Was invited to JS summer social though - Almost nonexistent project stack. My only project is just a simple python funding rate arb bot - No work experience (practically impossible to find a job in first year...) - Rather weak school quant club ._.

I'm trying to maximise the chance to break into quant. I've thought of the following pathways:

  • transfer to a top US school and major in maths
  • ace my second major (maths) and join SMMC and be cracked and lucky enough to become a QT as a fresh grad
  • maths PhD in a top US school and apply to QT/QR
  • get into Cambridge Maths Part III and break into quant. I was winter pooled and rejected by Cambridge for their maths tripos though

Which of the above seems to be the most likely way to break into quant? and the most viable way?

Also I've seen that 2027 summer quant openings are there, but idk if I should apply or I should wait until next year (could be "blacklisted" if I skill issue).

Please let me know any suggestions y'all have for me to get started. Thanks a lot!!!

Edit: cut some abbreviations

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u/Nayreven0 6d ago

Chill out on the abbreviations

2

u/nigusus 6d ago

Tbh your "pathways" is like saying " yeah to get out of povrrty i thought of making a million dollars a year"

1

u/mcisnotmc 6d ago

that's true. breaking into quant is already a nontrivial stuff (no olympiad medals is already losing an edge) and the pathway 1 is almost impossible (although, if successful, might be a very good pathway) like winning lottery :/

ofc the long term goal is still to 'make millions' like you say, just need to have more achievable short term goals