Is a MORSE degree worth it?

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Would it be harder to get a complex derivatives trading job with a maths and/with econ degree at lse or ucl compared to Warwick (it would be cheaper for me to stay in London rather than move out)? Becuase I'm not sure whether banking employers know about the lse course being a bit weak compared to warwick's.

Reply 21

lolatmaths

Original post by RooT_Fifteen

On the basis of my internship, if your aim is to become a trader, I wouldn't recommend MORSE. The course was looked down upon by several traders, who saw the degree to be jack of all trades master of none.

But bear in mind that this may be different in another bank.

Really? thats a surprise, what kind of internship was it for?

And what degree did you do and is it recommended?

Reply 22

username738914

Original post by RooT_Fifteen

Definitely not the case at all banks. A lot of Warwick S&T SAs across the city have been MORSE/Maths students. The degree is held in high regard by a lot of traders, many whom posses the degree themselves.

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Reply 23

anonwinner

Original post by Princepieman

MORSE will open up both the soft analytical fields (IBD, Equity/Credit Research, strategy consulting etc) and hard analytical fields (derivs trading, proper maths background for a PhD etc). MORSE is a really cool, varied degree and it most certainly will prep you well if something like derivs is your aim.

Was just trawling through some recent top tier MBA profiles (Harvard, Wharton and Stanford). A lot from Warwick had MORSE + some finance job.

Where do you find Harvard MBA profiles?

Reply 24

RooT_Fifteen

Original post by lolatmaths

Really? thats a surprise, what kind of internship was it for?

And what degree did you do and is it recommended?

I was a trading intern, rotating within Fixed Income.

I am an economics student and consequently during my rotation in macro products, people liked my degree whereas the derivatives rotation, they seemed to have preferred the other intern with a background in compsci.

But then again, a trader and a structurer on the deriv desk was an economics graduate from the same course as I so who knows...

Reply 25

username738914

Original post by anonwinner

Where do you find Harvard MBA profiles?

Their website bro, or LinkedIn

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Reply 26

lolatmaths

Original post by RooT_Fifteen

ooh ok ok

From your experience what do you think is the best degree to do? Like something that can universally be seen as advantageous in high finance?

Reply 27

lolatmaths

Original post by Princepieman

Their website bro, or LinkedIn

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May i ask what degree you're doing?

Reply 28

Trapz99

Original post by Ladbants

I'm in the same position- It will make so much more financial sense for me to stay in London instead of mvoing to warwick. I think Imperial has some very good (but very difficult) Maths with Stats for Finance course which seems really exciting and will suffice for a complex derivatives position.

Reply 29

username738914

Original post by lolatmaths

May i ask what degree you're doing?

Data Science

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Reply 30

lolatmaths

Original post by Princepieman

Data Science

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Nice, thats basically stats and compsci stuff right? According to that other guy you would be ideal for derivatives trading

Reply 31

username738914

Original post by lolatmaths

Nice, thats basically stats and compsci stuff right? According to that other guy you would be ideal for derivatives trading

Yep. But I'm not a derivs trading type, would rather do IBD.

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Reply 32

lolatmaths

Original post by Princepieman

Yep. But I'm not a derivs trading type, would rather do IBD.

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nice, thanks for your time and good luck

Reply 33

anonwinner

Original post by Princepieman

Their website bro, or LinkedIn

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thanks

Reply 34

snapsh0t

Yeah just like what everyone said, if you want to go to financial maths maybe you should do econ/finance. Dont get me wrong MORSE is great; Im on my last sem in MORSE but in Southampton though. It gives you A LOT of flexibility esp when I started uni I didnt know where I want to go to. But if you already know what you want to do, dont do MORSE. Its only great for people who arent sure where to go but still within the scope of econometrics/stats side of maths.

Reply 35

Luke7456

maybe this is a better place to ask my question but I really like the look of the MORSE course however my concern is that my Math will be too diluted. EG if I want to be as competent at Maths as possible which would be better a MORSE degree from Warwick or a Maths degree from Nottingham.

another thing that impresses me about the MORSE degree is you can apparently opt to do more credits eg I can do 144 credits in the first year then 150 in the second third and fourth years.

which means 114 extra credits in total. One of my biggest gripes about degrees is how they do not have enough work involved. so been able to do nearly a whole extra year worth of credits across the four years is a massive bonus.

still concerned my math may be too diluted though which will make me better at Maths? a maths degree from Nottingham or a MORSE degree from Warwick.

note I am likely to go onto the Masters degree for both whichever one I went to.

Reply 36

hassassin04

Original post by Luke7456

You can tailor your course so that you do more MA modules overall than straight maths students have to in order to meet the regulations.

Reply 37

Luke7456

Original post by hassassin04

You can tailor your course so that you do more MA modules overall than straight maths students have to in order to meet the regulations.

awesome I spoke to the Warwick MORSE department they were very helpful and yes I can tailor this strongly towards maths.

So I guess I am going to do the MORSE degree. One thing I wonder though with the extra credits can you Transfer credits from other universities to Warwick or vice versa?

the Reason I ask is I can potentially do 114 extra credits whilst at Warwick, however if I sign up to the Open university and study all the content over the summer say 60 credits each summer and then complete the exams/coursework or whatever in summer or at time when wont disrupt my studies then I can get 240 credit from the four years I am doing the Masters at Warwick plus the 114 credits from Warwick, which I know leaves me 4 credits short from the 360 for a degree but I can probably make that up somehow. I could in theory complete a degree in Computer Science as well as a Masters in MORSE from Warwick which would firstly make me hugely employable and secondly give me the full set of skills I will need to start on my projects.

I have a feeling there will be a reason why I cant do this but I am hoping not because this would be completely doable and would pay very large dividends.

I can get the money to fund this, funding is not an issue.

Reply 38

hassassin04

Original post by Luke7456

No idea about credit transfers. Focus on your main degree- it will be quite a lot of work.
Seems like people get overexcited before actually starting the uni course and make some unreal plans.

Reply 39

Luke7456

Original post by hassassin04

No idea about credit transfers. Focus on your main degree- it will be quite a lot of work.
Seems like people get overexcited before actually starting the uni course and make some unreal plans.

I hear you its just if I am taking a gap year which is looking likely I might as well use it and I can do 120 credits worth with the open university. with Warwick allowing 114 extra credits throughout my degree I am almost two thirds of the way to the second degree anyway it seems a waste not to utilize that.

I think a better option might be to push for a strong first at Warwick and then try to beg them to let me additional credits in the summer.

I may be surprised and find the work load intense but I am skeptical of that even with the most prestigious universities.

A degree used to be something that only the top 2% do and they had to work very hard for that. However these days something like 40% go to university. Now a lot of students get drunk and do not put in much work. So they need the average degree to be of a standard where by the average person can get a 2:1 without much effort. Now I am not average I am not saying this to be arrogant but for context my IQ puts me in the top 0.5% or something. I could actually work out the exact percentage bracket but I cant be bothered right now. Anyway that is likely to be wrong because the test had flaws and my IQ is likely to be higher.

so It seems very likely that I can do something like this. Now don't get me wrong I know a lot of students go to crud universities and Warwick are a very prestigious university so I will have a lot of high IQ peers. However I still feel this is not too much of a stretch.

This would effectively be two degrees and a masters degree over 5 years. I would be doing 240 extra credits over 4 years with this plan. which would be 60 extra credits a year. We should have about 3 months of university June July and August I think a lot of courses do not start actually start academically until September. a normal degree is 30 weeks so I am close to doing half a year of a degree in half the time. EG its directly proportional I would just be using the summer.

I guess I will have to see as you yourself say but this definitely seems doable.