Are Quant Finance Programs A Conspiracy To Keep Nerds In The Shadows?

What´s more important for a finance career, a course on Markov chains or a course on bonds? a course on SDEs or a course on international finance? a course on MatLab or a course on derivatives accounting rules?

If you don´t understand markets and products, balance sheets and regulations (or have the ability and chutzpah to learn them as you go or to make people believe that you have learnt them), and instead specialize on obstruse quant stuff that may or may not be used in the markets, you may have significantly (very significantly) narrowed your future prospects.

By typically (there are exceptions) focusing all their efforts in teaching the (theoretically used by theoreticians) math and neglecting the "softer" side (who needs to know what a bond is when you can C++?), quant finance programs are effectively condemning their graduates to a life of limited possibilities.

Specially (as the Fordham story mentioned in these blogs shows) if you are not attending the 4-5 top programs.