From Academic to Economist: Finding an Applied Quant Finance Career at UChicago
In 2024, Arturo Charleston ʼ25 was at a turning point. Living in Evanston and working as a research assistant at Northwestern University, he had originally planned to pursue a PhD. The academic path appealed to his curiosity, but he longed for a way to apply his economic and technical skills more directly in the finance industry.
That search led him to the University of Chicago’s Master of Science in Financial Mathematics (MSFM) program. “I wanted to do something in which I can apply all the technical skills, working in economic finance in a more applied way in the industry,” says Arturo. “And well, UChicago is a great school for that.”
Learning in a Highly Customizable Curriculum
One of the most significant advantages Arturo found was the program’s flexibility. Rather than a rigid structure, the curriculum allowed him to tailor his studies to his specific career goals by accessing top-tier departments across the university, including economics, statistics, math, computer science, and business.
“I was able to customize my program to whatever I was more interested in,” he says, noting that this was a shared theme among his classmates as well.
While he came to the program with an academic background, others arrived having worked in economics or finance, and were able to each follow a path that met their needs. The MSFM offers concentrations in Financial Computing, Machine Learning and AI, Options and Derivatives, Rates and Credit, and Trading.
Quantitative Training with Context
The coursework was led by impactful faculty members. Arturo calls out in particular Mark Hendricks, Director of the Financial Mathematics program and an Associate Senior Instructional Professor in the Department of Mathematics, and lecturer Ian Wright, who has held positions as a quantitative macro investor at BlackRock in London and as an executive director in the asset allocation research group in the macro department at Goldman Sachs in London. Arturo notes that both were “very good lecturers,” able to keep even challenging content engaging.
He also recalls how faculty applied concepts back to real-world examples. “Most of the professors try to highlight this,” he says. “The program was very quantitative, but they also tried to highlight that data is not everything and that all the intuition and knowledge of the context is also pretty important in the real industry.”
“You need to understand everything that is going on behind [the data] and that most of the things that move, at least in finance, are based on policy. You cannot use only data for that,” he says.
This blend of theory and application reinforced Arturo’s decision to choose industry over academia. As he moved through the fast-paced 15-month curriculum, he discovered “there are interesting things outside of academia” and enjoyed constantly learning new skills he could put to use immediately.
The Value of Chicago and Cohort Connections
In addition to faculty members with direct ties to industry, the program’s location in Chicago, a major financial center, offered Arturo and his classmates access to an unparalleled professional network. Arturo took advantage of organized visits to trading firms, gaining practical exposure.
Arturo also found himself learning and growing through interactions with his classmates. “I really liked my cohort experience,” he says.
“I made a lot of friends during my program, and that was something that I really appreciate,” he says, adding that “knowing people in different industries or even in the same industry working on different positions, you can understand their views and everything.”
Building a professional network that he could carry into the future was something Arturo appreciated about his cohort, but he also saw value in the diversity of thought, background, and experiences.
“The program is very international. I think it's very diverse. You have people from all over the globe with different views, different ideas, and different experiences,” says Aruturo, who is originally from Mexico.
He enjoyed getting to know others in the program and appreciated their perspective. “You learn from your classmates,” he says.
Translating Skills to an Economist Role
Arturo graduated in August 2025 and soon relocated to New York. By October he began a new role with Brevan Howard’s New York office as an Emerging Markets Economist, focusing on Latin America. He secured the position by applying while still in the program and building a relationship with his future manager through proactive networking.
Today, he appreciates how the UChicago FinMath experience prepared him for that opportunity.
His graduate leap has become exactly the mix of coding, economics, and real-time analysis he hoped to find. Now he says "I like that I can combine things that I like and that I’m good at. I work most of the time with data coding, which I learned and improved during my program."
For prospective students considering the same path, Arturo’s advice is simple: plan ahead, be engaged, and make the most of the experience. It goes fast—but, as his story confirms, it can open an entirely new set of career opportunities beyond what you first imagine.
