[Smallc]

What I meant by HKU>CUHK>HKUST was on their general reputation. For maths, the ranking in HK should be CUHK>HKUST>HKU. The CUHK I am referring to is The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Shing-Tung Yau is in charge of a mathematics institue in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His charisma attracts talented maths people of Hong Kong and from Mainland China to study in The Chinese University. Stephen Smale is also in Hong Kong. He is the University Professor of City University of Hong Kong (CityU Hk), which is considered by most HK people as one of a second tier university in Hong Kong.

I understand the OP wants to pursue a career in Finance. Unlike prestigous universities in UK, universities in HK have developed specialised courses like Quantitative Finance, Risk Management, etc to attract maths talents with career interest in Finance to study. The scholarship now offers by HKU to the OP should be a general maths degree; this can be evident by the faculty based scholarship offered by HKU to the OP because starting from last or this year the Science Faculty of HKU started to offer places on faculty basis. If OP decides to study in HKU, he should check whether he has the chance to study financial maths because it is not sure those financial maths courses would be available to general students of its Science Faculty.

[Smallc]

OP I also observed whether HKU offers you a 3-years course or a 4-years course is also quite a concern to you. Please be optimistic. I am quite sure that HKU will offer you the 3-years course. 2012 is the year for universities in HK to turn from a 3 year curriculum to a 4 year one. This year universities in HK offers both types of curriculum to the freshmen. Those entering on the strength of the old HK A Level exam will be given the 3 year curriculum and those on HK Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) exam will be given the 4 year curriculum. I am quite sure you will be given the 3 year one because they have to preserve the places for the 4 year curriculum to those on HKDSE (you know there might be difficulties for the students on HKDSE to study the 3 year curriculum as they studied one year less in secondary schools than those attending the HK A Level exam.). Also, giving you a 3 year curriculum could save the university one year of scholarship. I believe the university mentioning about the possibility of giving you a 4 year curriculum is just a kind of bureaucratic disclaimer to prepare for the unlikely case.

[glgan1]

(Original post by Smallc)
OP I also observed whether HKU offers you a 3-years course or a 4-years course is also quite a concern to you. Please be optimistic. I am quite sure that HKU will offer you the 3-years course. 2012 is the year for universities in HK to turn from a 3 year curriculum to a 4 year one. This year universities in HK offers both types of curriculum to the freshmen. Those entering on the strength of the old HK A Level exam will be given the 3 year curriculum and those on HK Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) exam will be given the 4 year curriculum. I am quite sure you will be given the 3 year one because they have to preserve the places for the 4 year curriculum to those on HKDSE (you know there might be difficulties for the students on HKDSE to study the 3 year curriculum as they studied one year less in secondary schools than those attending the HK A Level exam.). Also, giving you a 3 year curriculum could save the university one year of scholarship. I believe the university mentioning about the possibility of giving you a 4 year curriculum is just a kind of bureaucratic disclaimer to prepare for the unlikely case.

Thank you for your kind replies on this post, Smallc. HKU offers me a 4 years programme which they already stated on the offer letter and will not change. I spoke to my parents and they strongly suggest HKU because of the full scholarship factor. They said they want to save money instead of spending so much on UK, although they can afford my studies in Warwick. For me, I'm still considering between HKU and Warwick. I have listed the pros and cons for the 3 universities HKU, Imperial and Warwick. I have simplified it to 3 major factors: quality of education/course I preferred, reputation and money. For quality of education/Course I preferred: 1st would be Warwick's MORSE, 2nd is Imperial's Mathematics with Statistics in Finance, 3rd would be HKU BSc. For reputation(in both Asian and Western countries), I placed 1st Imperial, 2nd Warwick, 3rd HKU. I am not so sure between Warwick and HKU so I need people to comment on that. Money factor: 1st HKU with scholarship, 2nd Warwick 280k MYR 3 yrs, 3rd Imperial 475k MYR 3 yrs.