Does master's university prestige still matter with FAANG + quant internships?

[u/LegitimateChimp772]

For some context: I’m from a European country, but not one with top-tier education (not UK, Switzerland, France, or anything like that). I’m just finishing my bachelor’s degree in computer science at the top university in my country, which is around top 200 worldwide.

I’m deciding between doing my master’s at my current university or at a different one that is slightly worse (around top 400 worldwide) and not really as well known as my current one. My goal is to intern at one of the top quant firms next summer as an SWE, but I’m afraid this might lower my chances a bit.

I already have some internship experience, and by the end of summer I’ll have had 2 FAANG internships plus 2 quant SWE internships (not top-tier ones, though). I’m wondering whether choosing the “worse” university will lower my chances of getting interviews in any way. Do recruiters care about this if it is not a top-tier university like ETH or ICL, especially when I already have some experience?

It is not like the other university is bad or anything. I know at least a few people there who got internships or new grad offers this year from companies like js/citadel/hrt, but it is definitely not as respected as my current one.

Thanks

[u/sh1bumi]

You are overthinking this.

The university doesn't really matter in Europe..much more important is work experience and a way to show "passion" (for example years long steady stream of open source contributions etc).

I saw people with very good university degree + grades getting reject and I saw people with bad grades and degree getting hired.

For example, I studied ~10 years at TU Clausthal (a small technical university in Germany nobody ever heard about) and finished both degrees with bad grades.

What I did instead was:

1. Focus on open source contributions
2. Focus on topics I found interesting, back then that was Linux, Containers, Cloud Native etc.
3. Lots of experience as work student, Google Summer of Code Internship, etc.

[u/LegitimateChimp772 → u/sh1bumi]

You're probably right that I'm overthinking. However, afaik the trading companies care more about your university, hence why I'm asking

[u/Own_Lake_276 → u/LegitimateChimp772]

On LinkedIn I always see people at top trading firms from no name Eastern European universities, so I think in Europe even these firms care less

[u/fruini → u/LegitimateChimp772]

University name is only relevant in research or when fast tracking executive positions (very rare in Europe anyways).

Otherwise it's only relevant at the start of the career. Typically a big tech or quant role will outweigh your studies.

[u/Djekob]

FAANG + quant internships >>> education for most roles / companies

[u/Rude-Fold7328]

Not overthinking. In the English speaking world, yes it matters a lot. Not much continental Europe. Matters a lot in MENA. Matters a lot in Asia. 

[u/LegitimateChimp772 → u/Rude-Fold7328]

Well, my goal is to get into the English speaking world companies (London) or maybe Amsterdam. However, I'm not from an English speaking country myself.

[u/WunkerWanker → u/LegitimateChimp772]

Amsterdam is just like the rest of continental Europe. Experience matters. Connections matter. (And speaking Dutch matters for more and more companies nowadays, the shortages in IT are over).

[u/ManySwans]

if your goal is trading (it should be) then your internships carry more weight. target unis are huge, but it's limited to like 10 in Europe; going from one outside of this group to another is meaningless to them

[u/QuantGrindApp]

You kind of answered your own question. If people there are landing js/citadel/hrt then the school clearly isn't working as a filter. And for SWE specifically, once you've got FAANG plus a couple of quant internships the screen is mostly reading off the experience anyway. Top 200 vs top 400 is noise at that point. I'd just go with whichever program you'd actually do better at.