St Andrews for Quant Finance

Got three offers- St Andrews, University of York and University of Strathclyde- all for MSc Statistics. Long term goal is to work in Quantitative Finance (Model Validation Quant). I have 5 years of experience working in Finance (Valuations).

At present I'm learning towards St Andrews (most economic as I am self funding)- but again if someone thinks otherwise please do let me know. I guess my biggest question is- how good is St Andrews reputation wise? The rankings are a bit skewed and I know the primary feeders to Quant/ Investment Banking are Imperial or Oxbridge. But is it an impossible jump? Is the University a good one or should I risk taking another year of and try to improve my profile (long shot) to get into Oxbridge/ Imperial.

Reply 1

Student123anc

Hi, I studied statistics at St Andrews. You can definitely go into Quant Finance from there, as some of my classmates did. During my time there (2 yrs ago) have also been recruiting events by some bigger firms (GS, MS, IMC Trading to name a few).

That being said, you probably have to network or stand out a bit harder than say the average Oxbrige/Imp student.

Best of luck