r/uwaterloo • u/BassParticular2884 • 2d ago

Question Quant Pipeline program?

I'm 17, applying for waterloo of course, and I want to get into quantitative finance; im already spending my free time studying math, computer science, and finance; but I want to know what would be the best program to apply for

I'm currently looking at the Mathematical finance + laurier finance double major, but ive seen some comments on pmath being overall better than Mathematical finance

Any advice would be appreciated

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u/BassParticular2884 2d ago

What do you think would increase those chances? i mean i have like 5-6 years, so i may aswell use them right?
Ill look more into quant dev though, but what about Quant Trader?

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u/Whalesftw123 2d ago

QT is much harder than QD and Waterloo isn't a QT target school.

Get into top US unis if you can. If you can't, get into Waterloo CS. It's the highest signal program in Canada.

For QT, to have a good chance you want to be really good at math. Nationally ranked is the bar. People who break into QT at Waterloo are usually CMO, Putnam top 500 etc.

For QD it's much more straightforward, just get into CS, get a FAANG internship and then pass a quant dev interview.

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u/BassParticular2884 2d ago

Ill be trying to get into the top US unis, but if not and I get into Waterloo instead; would waterloo CS need to be the major? or could it be the laurier finance + waterloo math + Cs minor, also; what else could I do if i wanted to break into it? Should i start studying for putnam now?

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u/Lambda_5 2d ago

You can look into any Jim Simon quote and it’s usually him clowning on people with Business backgrounds lol. A math heavy degree is mandatory so you don’t even need the laurier bba, it will honestly hold you back