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On PhDs, it's more about how much of your undergrad population goes on to be research students. They get relatively lowish pay (but get other perks). It is one of those (many things) which can greatly skew figures.

Reply 21

dsch

sell cocaine if all you care about is money. You'll rake it in, be in a wonderful ethical situation and get to mingle with some really top people! You should think about what a job involves, not how it remunerates. Some people do charity work because it makes them happy, that's as good a reason as any.

Reply 22

Metalmayhem

I think it's about 2% of Cambridge maths grads go straight into six figure salaries. Not too shabby.

Reply 23

GerardT

Diamond resource researcher for DeBeers I expect is a farly lucrative position for budding gelogists to aim for.

Reply 24

kahler_potential

I severely doubt any graduates at all go straight into six figure salaries, Cambridge Maths or not.

Reply 25

President_Ben

Olek

I severely doubt any graduates at all go straight into six figure salaries, Cambridge Maths or not.

There has been one UCL economist who has done that in the last 5 years (all I can get records for) and that was because he started up a company that did well very quickly. 2% per year every year does sound rather high...

Reply 26

Metalmayhem

lol maybe its just 2 in the year. Will have to go back and ask my friend who recently started his maths degree at cam....

McDonalds.

There is nothing as the highest paid job when you are newcomer. Some newcomer might get very high pay because of his/her very special talent that not many people can complete and its two in a millions

But anyway, the best prospected job will be your highest paid job in the future. :rolleyes:

Exec.Job View

Reply 29

Howard

CityTrader

My friend's 22 and on 6 figures - did the American qualification at an Ivy League, followed by the New York Bar Exam, and transferred to London office as Corp Attorney.

Are you sure about that?

The reason I ask is because to qualify as an attorney in the US you have to have a JD. That takes 3 years. And before you can do a JD you have to have a regular 4 year degree. So from the time you leave high school to the time you pass your JD takes 7 years. It will then normally take at least another year to prepare for, and sit the state bar exam of your choice which takes us to 8 years out of high school before you are an attorney.

What you are saying is impossible unless your friend finished high school at about 14. And assuming he'd had a couple of years experience before he got "transferred" he'd have had to have started his university education at around the same time he got his first pube.

Reply 30

bluefuture

I can believe that 2% at Cambridge maths get 6 figures. They are the most intelligent students in the country and study the most difficult undergraduate course in the world.(on average have highest ucas score 560 points! With Oxford physics being second at 520 points.)

If a mathematical prodigy wanted to work on my trading desk i would pay him/her well! In the markets its about who's the sharper one on the end of the option, the buyer or the seller.

Reply 31

President_Ben

I would guess many Cambridge maths students will go into academia.

The only industry that could pay so high a starting wage is finance. Who know full well they don't need to pay that much to get someone in. Especially since 'being a genius' doesn't mean 'is a great banker' by any means.

For two students per year to make that kind of range would already be pretty exceptional and of the few Cambridge mathmos I've met (and I'll readily admit, I can't say I know many!), most of them don't have 'greed' written on their forehead or anywhere near it.

Reply 32

Drogue

Metalmayhem

I think it's about 2% of Cambridge maths grads go straight into six figure salaries. Not too shabby.

They don't. Only people who get that straight out of uni don't do graduate jobs, they found companies or become sports or music stars.

Reply 33

CityMonkey

They are the most intelligent students in the country

Hard to say, you have to factor in that not every intelligent person wants to do maths, or go to Cambridge, I know some extremely intelligent people who I did engineering with there, and a few mathmos who had a few loose screws. Also have to remember, that only those that get a high 2.1 or above at Camb in maths are going to be better than any other maths student in the country. Below that, and you're not really all that.

study the most difficult undergraduate course in the world

This statement is probably more true for the Part III of the course, which most Cantabs don't stick around for. (Ok its a grad course, but technically its not because its still defined as Tripos, I think the only reason they accept external students onto is because its the flagship Cambridge course.)

most of them don't have 'greed' written on their forehead or anywhere near it.

They also have no sense of style or any life either :p:

Reply 34

bluefuture

The top 2% are offered interviews with GCHQ. They start on six figures if offered a place.

I have a friend at Deustche bank who himself has an undergraduate friend who started on six figures after a Cambridge Maths BA.

It happens.

The average Cambridge maths student has 560 ucas points, the highest average in the country as well as a 1/distinction on the STEP papers. They are grade wise, the best qualified in the country.

A 2.1 at Cambridge is the equivalent of a 1st at anywhere else outside Oxford or IC/warwick/LSE for maths.

Reply 35

kahler_potential

GCHQ pay six figures? Wow.

Reply 36

burningwings

Wow...my friend's going to do maths at cambridge so i'll mention this to her!!

Id say the more "immoral" jobs get paid the most..like prostitution, drug selling, other more legal stuff..
Im gonna be looking for a job with perks and bonuses though, not the salary only

Reply 37

CityMonkey

The top 2% are offered interviews with GCHQ. They start on six figures if offered a place.

Keyword, IF. Also, as surprising as I find GCHQ to pay a 6 figure salary to a grad, even if they do it won't have the future earning potential of IBs/Hedge Funds where they couldn't care less if you were in the top 2% of Cambridge maths if you're an absolute looney (which quite frankly you would be if you were THAT good :p:

). The serious people on the Maths Tripos (i.e. those that are in the top 2%) are more interested in doing the Part III, then a PhD and then becoming a fellow of a college and going into academia than earning 6 figures (yes I know a LOT of people who got 1st in NatSci, Maths etc and wouldn't touch an IBs application form with a stick).

Reply 38

President_Ben

bluefuture

The top 2% are offered interviews with GCHQ. They start on six figures if offered a place.

Hmm, aren't GCHQ applications only meant to be known of being made by the applicant and at most, one member of the immediate family? Anything more leads to termination.

Could be MI5/6 rather than GCHQ that clause.

I have a friend at Deustche bank who himself has an undergraduate friend who started on six figures after a Cambridge Maths BA.

Friend of a friend stories eh? Not saying they aren't always true but then, I'm not sure how many of them are true. Six figures in Cheltenham goes a hell of a long way! Especially since what are technically civil service jobs come with all kinds of other goodies.

A 2.1 at Cambridge is the equivalent of a 1st at anywhere else outside Oxford or IC/warwick/LSE for maths.

LSE, for maths, isn't anything like IC or Warwick.

Reply 39

kahler_potential

http://www.gchq.gov.uk/recruitment/careers/math_salary.html

I think the grapevine has distorted things a little bit. I can't imagine that there's some secret scheme which pays 5 times as much to Cambridge mathmos just because it's Cambridge.