Help us decide - GT (Instate [$15k]) vs Yale [$90k] CS/Math

[hebegebe]

@ravencla

He has always been a math guy, doing math competitions (AMC/AIME etc), research etc. He didn’t like CS till around junior year when he did a research project in Python. I don’t think that he is still a software engineer but more of applied math using computers and software as tools. Right now, he is thinking that maybe quant finance eventually.

I’ve already wrote this on another thread today, so I will just repeat it:

@hebegebe

Re quant, note that the industry hires a very small number of people, perhaps a few hundred undergrads each year. The number was higher a few years ago, but AI has made new hires more efficient, reducing the number needed. In other words, it’s extremely competitive.

There are also two significantly different types of jobs for quant. The first is quant trader, which is very focused on fast mental math, particularly probability. Two types of people who tend to excel in this role are excellent poker players, and those who did very well on the AMC math tests. Target colleges for these hires include MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford, although there can be a smattering from other places as well. Depending upon the hiring company, required software skills ranges from non-existent (e.g. Jane Street) to moderately strong (e.g. HRT).