The Avis of Quantitative Finance

Following up on my previous "QuantFinance - for VIPs only" post, I just read the following quote by CMellon's great Steven Shreve regarding their world-renowned computational finance program: "I think this happens because we're like Avis -- we're not an Ivy League school, so we have to try harder and we have to be better to get the same recognition."

This goes to the heart of why a quant degree makes sense for CMellon, but not for most other institutions. In the case of CMellon all the stars are aligned right. They NEED such a program in order to gain outlandish recognition that keeps them among the academic elite (as Shreve says, Harvard does not need to be that innovative and forward-looking; no one would point fingers at Harvard for not having developed a new quant program, they do more than fine with their MBA, thus the inescapable priority is to safeguard that). And they CAN design a program that can successfully compete for top dog status.

In other words, for CMellon not offering a quant program would be the crazy thing to do. Akin to missing out on a unique opportunity to become world leaders in an important field. A grand waste of resources. CMellon is of course one of the world´s leading scientific universities and its b-school is more than decent. The place has always prided itself on inter-disciplinary collaboration and it encourages entrepreneurial spirits.

But the (ideal) conditions present at CMellon are not found at most other places. Very few can boast truly outstanding expertise in the sophisticated tools and their financial applications. Very few have a need to portray themselves as leaders in such a specialized field. Extremely few combine both attributes. That is why I believe that in the world of quant education Charles Darwin would feel right at home, for only the fittest can survive.

ptriana@profesor.ie.edu