<p>oops, totally skipped over posts #5 and #6 when reading this so I partially take back part of what I said above.</p>
<p>about hedge funds;</p>
<p>going to a hedge fund out of college is difficult if not nearly impossible.
hedge funds are mostly very quantitative and like people who have substantial background in math. actually, it helps if you have a graduate degree in math, stats etc… or if you have worked in finance for a few years.
so in general hedge funds are heavier on the quant side, although there are still positions that do not involve quant, just like everywhere else</p>
<p>going to a hedge fund out of college is almost impossible. if you look at the bigger hedge funds they only colleges they recruit from are Harvard, Yale, MIT, thats pretty much it (give or take a few schools). and even then they only take a few people every year.</p>
<p>if you compare this to I-banks, which recruit from around the top 50 schools, you can see that hedge funds are incredibly selective. </p>
<p>that said, there are plenty of smaller regional hedge funds, which still do offer very lucrative job opportunities, for which the requirements are relaxed.</p>
<p>unfortunately, I don’t know as much about hedge funds as I do about I-banking and other finance related professions. I-banks are very big here, they come and do information sessions all the time, it is very easy to get to know the recruiters and ask them questions, hedge funds are much more exclusive, they only show up once in a while, and when they do they are pretty much only interested in seniors looking for full-time positions, since they do not offer summer internships, so they are not really interested in talking to a sophomore like me. if anyone has actually spoken to hedge fund recruiters in depth please do post here and provide your input</p>
<p>to ramaswami specifically,</p>
<p>applied math will definitely work out for your son, not too sure about applied physics.</p>
<p>basically there are two paths for him to take if he wants to work in a hedge fund
college –> grad school in math/cs/similar field –>hedge fund
college –> finance job for 2-3 years (not sure if it has to be quant related) –> hedge fund
business school is an optional step somewhere in here, the jury is still out on whether it is actually beneficial</p>
<p>finally there is the third less likely path of going to work in a hedge fund directly out of college, but this happens less and less nowadays</p>
<p>let him know that there are plenty of other very “sexy” opportunities besides hedge funds like I-banking, private equity, venture capital etc… which do not require an extensive quantitative background, though if he is a mathy person then perhaps grad school and then work involving lots of math is the right thing for him</p>