quantitative finance applicant personal statement
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Math is the only true universal language among all men. It trancends time, space, and language and political barriers. All students of mathematics can speak to each other in terms of a well understood set of rules. These rules are based upon reality and are what make math so objectively appealing to men of reason. I have always been fascinated by the wonders of mathematics. The bountiful ideas and beautiful theorems are only the beginning of math's allure. When one takes an english class, the teacher must grade subjectively. They cannot tell the students that one paper is definently better than another based on a sound, rational guideline. Some of the greatest authors do not follow the standards set by english departments. However in mathematics there is always a right answer. There might be multiple ways to come upon that answer and there might be a multitude of forms the answer takes, but for any given question there is a correct answer. This is not to say there are no controversies in mathematics. Just look to Jean-Baptiste Fourier for an example.
To those who have not had extensive training in mathematics, the idea of beautiful proofs can be somewhat alien. However, even those who have only conquered the fundamentals of algebra can still appreciate the beauty that lies within the numbers. As of now, I am not fully trained as a mathematician, however in my brief course of study I have seen many things that have shocked and astounded me. I sometimes wonder if the days of the truly great mathematicians has come to an end or if only history can truly judge some men to be great. I wonder if during Euler or Newton's life, they were considered to be as great as they are today. I dreamed as a child of growing up to become one of these giants of the mind. My goal was to do cryptanalsis for the government. My career goals have changed, but my ultimate dream still exists. I have switched my path to the mathematics of finance.
Financial mathematics is a relatively new field from what I understand. The concept of using math to model complex financial systems is not new. However, teaching classes with the sole intention of developing financial models is new. I am an applied math major at CU. I was originally a math major, but I switched to Economics and Chemistry and I have since switched to Applied Math with a finance emphasis and Chemistry. Applied math is viewed as many different things by those outside the major/field. To pure mathematicians it is seen as almost dirty, in a sense. They think that somehow math should be detached from reality and people should sit in rooms doing proofs all day. This is fun, but not as fun as doing proofs that relate to a field of application. Or possibly creating a new mathematical model that can be used to create great amounts of wealth for the user.
I am planning to work in the field of quantitative trading. I thought for the longest time that I wanted to go in to investment banking. However, from everything that I have read, researched and heard from people inside and outside the industry, the corporate finance side of things seems rather dull to me. Sure there is some really exciting things going on and M&A would be very fun, but as a whole, working on that side of the investment bank would probably bore me. Now, trading is the opposite end of the spectrum. From all the information I have available to me, trading seems like the most interesting career one could hope for. In addition to that I would be able to solve problems using mathematics. I love to solve problems, especially in math, and I am just really excited that there exists a job where I get paid a lot of money to do everything that I love. I am still not sure if I am fully qualified for some of the positions that I am looking into, so I have been trying to learn as much on my own as I can. I have also looked into a few one year quantitative finance programs, such as at the Unversity of Chicago, NYU's Courant Institute and Princeton's Masters in Finance which is similar. There is also the opinion that I could work for a few years and then get an MBA. However, I have been heard and read that business school is nothing but an expensive courting process between companies and future employees, with the employees paying around $100k for the process. I am not saying that you do not learn anything getting an MBA, but what I think is that I would be much better suited getting a similar degree with a much greater emphasis on the quantitative side of finance than spending two years getting an MBA. I also think that I would be better off learning from experience at work. In addition to this I figure that I can also take classes at night because I know for instance NYU offers classes for professionals in a situation similar to the one I will find myself in.
As I continue in my education I hope to do research in the field of financial mathematics. I wrote a paper in a probability class about the application of the Gambler's Ruin problem to option trading. My mathematical abilities were not as sophisiticated as they will be in the future, so the paper is more of a direct application of other people's work. The application was my own original work, but the foundation for the gambler's ruin problem I obviously did not come up with. Also, my financial knowledge was limited at the time. I have since taken a class in accounting and three finance courses and my knowledge level has grown exponentially. I am taking more finance in the spring of my junior year, including a course in derivatives which I am really excited about. You can click here to see my schedule of courses for the spring. I have realized that until I can fully understand other people's work I can't really do much original work of my own. Thus, I am reading as much as I can from books and journals to try and understand everything that is going on. I want to work in fixed-income trading, therefore I am spending most of my time learning topics that relate directly to fixed-income securities and derivatives.
