The Financial Mathematics Program, in consultation with an industry advisory board composed of leading quant finance firms - Millennium, DRW, and Chicago Trading Company - has designed an applied certificate combining key engineering and finance topics needed to succeed in the field of Quantitative Development.
Who Should Take These Courses and Why
The Quantitative Development Certificate Program is designed for current University of Chicago graduate students (master’s and PhD) studying technical fields and seeking career opportunities in quant development.
Quant Developers partner with quant researchers at leading finance firms, like hedge funds, prop trading firms, and investment banks to turn mathematical models and trading strategies into high-performing execution systems.
Certificate Requirements
All graduate students in degree-granting programs at the University of Chicago are eligible to pursue the certificate, which will appear on their transcript. For F1 and J1 students, it’s important to note that the capstone should be completed no later than the final quarter of the program end date noted on your I20 – the certificate is not currently eligible for an extension of status (EOS) for the student visa.
To do so, students must complete 300 units of coursework (quality letter grade only - no pass/fail option), plus a 100-unit capstone project with presentation to industry professionals at CTC, DRW and Millennium.
Production (100 units)
Courses cover the full production life cycle, featuring machine learning, cloud and data pipelines, and model validation. Choose one of the following:
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FINM 33140 – Machine Learning Operations and Inference Engineering
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FINM 32900 – Data Pipelines for Quantitative Research
Computing & Markets (200 Units)
Computing courses (at least 50 units required) cover the primary programming languages used in quant finance as well as low-latency systems and accelerated computing. Choose from the following:
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FINM 33500 – Systematic Trading Strategies
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FINM 32700 – Low-Latency Trading Systems
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FINM 32950 – High-Performance Numerical Computing for Finance
Markets courses (at least 50 units required) cover a focused overview of key financial products. Choose from the following:
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FINM 37400 – Fixed Income
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FINM 32000 – Options: Numerical Methods
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FINM 37000 – Futures & Derivatives
Capstone (100 Units) – Students who maintain an average GPA of 3.5 across the 300 units of certificate coursework may advance to the co-curricular capstone requirement, which ties together the concepts covered in the classroom. Students deliver the results of this project to faculty, industry representatives, and fellow certificate students.
Foundations Course: All students will also complete a 0-unit, tuition-free foundations course and assessment – Financial Markets for Quants – providing a markets overview for quant developers across major asset classes: equities, rates, bonds, commodity futures, and currencies. Students may choose to attend live sessions, offered throughout the academic year, or complete asynchronously.
In-Person or Online Courses: Students in in-person programs must complete in-person modality courses. Students in online programs must complete online modality courses.
Application Details
Students interested in this certificate program should complete the Quant Development Statement of Intent Form and upload a resume. This resume may be shared with the industry advisory board and may be used for internship/full-time job recruitment by these firms.
After we receive your statement of intent and resume, Hope Kennedy on our Academic Services team will reach out to share information on the Financial Markets for Quants resource and certificate course planning.
Upon completion of the 300 units of required coursework and Financial Markets for Quants, and by the 1st day of the quarter they intend to complete the capstone project, students will complete a certificate application and submit a transcript and updated resume to Hope Kennedy in the Financial Mathematics Program. An average GPA of 3.5 is required across the 300 units of coursework.
Important Note for MS Financial Mathematics Students
Course taken to fulfill the core requirements of the MSFM may not be counted towards the certificate. However, elective courses may be counted towards the certificate.
Questions
Please contact Hope Kennedy, Assistant Director of Academic Services, at hkennedy1@uchicago.edu for questions about the Quantitative Development Certificate Program.
