Physics + Finance Major List

[normal heron]

Location/Region: I want to stay in the Northeast, but any school that isn’t in like 100 degree heat year round + crazy humid is cool. I also tend to prefer colleges that are in urban areas, but still have their own dedicated campus
Major: Physics + Finance (Quantitative Finance path)
GPA/Test Scores (optional): 4.0 UW, 4.6 W, 1520 PSAT, 1570 SAT (790E, 780M) (Don't plan on retaking for the 800M but it might be worth it)
Curriculum: Very rigorous, for math/physics especially I want lots of proofs
Size: Generally small, 20-30 people
Costs: Outside scholarships mostly cover so not much of an issue
**Schools you're currently looking at (if any): **
MIT (Top choice!!!!!)
UPenn
Harvard
Northwestern
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia
Cornell
Brown
NYU (both parents + grandparents went here lol)
UC Berkeley
UVA
Georgia Tech
U Michigan
CMU

I really need to do research for state schools and safeties lmao

Additional:

I want there to be a level of student interactiveness with teachers, so having small class sizes is ideal. I like to be around people who are way smarter than me as well lol. I also don’t plan on joining a fraternity, but do like to go to parties

[lone tendon]

UChicago is perfect!

Small class sizes

amazing physics and math program

in a city but has its own campus

and in a good market for quant finance!

Weather fits ur thing too

[normal heron]

Ooh I haven't looked much into Uchicago

[lone tendon]

You will get a small class for nearly anything btw, not just Physics and math

cause of how the core works

[normal heron]

I did hear it was a little depressing at first though lol

[lone tendon]

its #6 in the country too if ur a rankings whore

[lone tendon]

it is very tough academically so it gets that rep

[normal heron]

Oh good thats kind of what I wanted

[lone tendon]

although for what you want, nearly any other school will have that same feeling

[normal heron]

Yeah I've visited quite a bit and the only one that really kind of fit was MIT

but I'll definitely look into UChicago

[lone tendon]

UChicago will have smaller class sizes than MIT btw

[normal heron]

That's even better

How is the social life there?

[lone tendon]

Its tough academically but i would say its similar to other Ivys to where its very much still a thing

that being said its not gonna be like a large state school with tons of parties and stuff

[normal heron]

Lmao I'm not expecting that from any of the schools I'm applying to lol

[lone tendon]

For me its a benefit

[normal heron]

do they do EA or only ED

[lone tendon]

EA, ED1, ED2, and RD

[normal heron]

thats so great

[lone tendon]

yeah

If ur serious about Uchicago you pretty much have to apply ED or EA though

they accept most of their class early

[normal heron]

good advice

I was concerned about EA since the majority of schools I really wanted to go to only do ED/REA

[naive eagle]

ik this is def not a safety but if u want small and a super good math program harvey mudd is great (but warm)

[stray mason]

physics + finance, interesting

what state are you in? that's the best place to start for safeties

how set are you on your postgrad plans?

Curriculum: Very rigorous, for math/physics especially I want lots of proofs
hahahahahahahahaha you're not gonna get proofs in physics

[normal heron]

i know lol

with something like math i really aim for it to be intuitive though, so having proofs helps

[normal heron]

i’m pretty confident i will want to go into quant finance

it’s like all the cool parts of physics and finance combined

[normal heron]

I live in NY as well

[naive eagle]

if u r dead set on quant finance r u planning on getting a phd? thats necessary for the vast majority of quant roles to my understanding

if thats the case studying finance in undergrad is probably not very helpful and id invest that time into a pure math major instead

[normal heron]

yeah pretty much

[naive eagle]

honestly undergrad doesnt matter a ton for phd programs outside of the top schools that u like already have on ur list, so id just look into the standard sunys like bing and sbu if u dont already have them

[normal heron]

those are my two safeties lol

[naive eagle]

oop

i would check out rochester for a target tbh as well since it is r1 and pretty easy to get involved in research

also tinyish

[normal heron]

ooh okay

my schools guidance department is pretty bad at researching schools lol, they either send kids to ivies or bing

[naive eagle]

mine was pretty much the same way lol

u definitely have good enough scores for ivies and stuff but it is such a crapshoot now

[normal heron]

lmao fr

my school has a good rep for ivies, but everyone who gets in seems to have some absolutely ridiculous extracurricular

[naive eagle]

LITERALLY like my school used to send like a decent number to ivies every year but last year it was just like 2 legacies and this guy who made a whole organization to combat like prejudice or smthn

its wild out there

[normal heron]

bro the senior class has one USAMO, one USACO, one kid who wrote like seventy speeches for the UN as well as building a school in kenya with their nonprofit, and the 4 time international martial arts champion 💀

[naive eagle]

goddamn ur school is crazy

[normal heron]

and like 3 isef winners

my ecs are definitely not as good lmao

[naive eagle]

dont compare urself to them theyre absolutely crazy

ivies have plenty of normal(ish) kids too

[normal heron]

that’s true

how much do rec letters matter for applications?

[naive eagle]

i have no idea

thats a school by school thing id check the cds

[normal heron]

alr

actually would you mind looking at my ECs in DMs i need someone that isn’t a guidance counselor to give me a realistic idea lmao

[lone tendon]

not true necessarily

[stray mason]

intuitive
proofs
oh boy

[stray mason]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ok

[stray mason]

stony brook is 👌for physics, math; bing is great too

[stray mason]

nah it's not nowadays, especially prop shops

if money isn't an issue, UIUC is strong at physics and recruits well to finance (though mostly SWE from what I've seen)

UVA doesn't recruit as well into quant as it's rank/peer institutions (again from what I've seen)

also if you're already applying to Berkeley, you might as well chuck an apps to UCLA and UCSD (and other UCs, if they interest you, those are just the best quant-ish feeders)

[normal heron]

it kinda stopped making sense after special relativity

tensors 😔

[stray mason]

nooooooo tensors are the intuitive part

tensors are so much better than algebraic garbo

[normal heron]

true true

general relativity is like melting my brain

[stray mason]

UChicago also feeds decently

[normal heron]

actually would you mind taking a look at some of my ECs in dms?

[stray mason]

(ok tbh other than a few idiosyncrasies quant recruiting tracks pretty closely with like us news)

[stray mason]

ok

[verbal shoal]

yeah i feel like college apps r so competitive now, honestly so scared for when its my year to apply 😭😭

like how d'you compete with people who win regeneron sts or do 4 olympiads or some other crazy insane thing