Which programming language is best for college students?
Education
In my first semester of classes at USC, I took two courses. One of them was to deliver basic programming knowledge. This class was due both Java and C++ in one semester, so I felt that the course schedule was a bit tight. Because the java class was a little longer, I felt like I had a better grasp of it. The content taught was mainly data structures, such as array, linked list, HashMap, stack, etc. In terms of algorithms, only binary trees and recursion were covered. Although my undergraduate degree was in financial engineering, programming was not taught.
So, I took the programming course immediately in the first semester. In fact, according to the advice of the advisor, I should have taken Probability Theory, Corporate Finance, and Mathematical tools for financial engineering. But, in fact, all three courses I took in undergrad were basically the exact same course, even the textbooks were the same. Unfortunately, I tried to apply for exemptions from these classes, but my advisor wouldn’t allow it. He told me that these courses are graduate level. However, based on my experience taking probability theory in my first semester, these courses are still repeating my undergraduate content. Probability theory starts with discrete probability, followed by continuous probability. Continuous probability in turn starts with one random variable, followed by binary random variables, and then vectors. Finally, it involves the knowledge of t-test and f-test in statistics.
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This semester, I’m taking corporate finance, mathematical tools for financial engineering, and quantitative investing. I’m using the same books for the corporate finance class as I did for my undergraduate degree. The good thing is, I personally prefer the quantitative investing class because it teaches about python. And that’s what I need. Although, the teacher mainly teaches the package of pandas. This package becomes also frequently used in finance work, so it is very practical. And that math class, starting with differentiation and integration. After that, it is about bond, portfolios.
My current personal intention is to work directly after graduation, and I have no plans to further my education. So, from a practical point of view, I prefer to learn some skills that I will use in the workplace in the future. For example, next semester I am going to take a course called data mining. This kind of skill for data processing is needed in the process of job hunting, likewise, I personally feel that I am not very skilled in programming.
So, I hope to learn more algorithms. But unfortunately, I can only choose one of the school’s algorithms and basic programming classes for my credit. The good thing is, there are many ways to learn algorithms, and it is the same to learn by watching videos and doing leetcode by yourself. I also hope to learn some cutting-edge knowledge about derivatives. As what is taught in textbooks may become outdated. Because I’ve heard that doing quant work on pricing, the derivatives priced are much more complex than options that depend only on equities.
Written by Hao Chen
Which programming language is best for college students?
