A double degree in Quantitative Finance at ESE Rotterdam

Antoni Guàrdia, a Data Science engineering student in the class of 2026, is pursuing a double degree at the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam. In addition to his training in the Master’s in Quantitative Finance program, this experience at the Dutch university gives Antoni access to a wide range of professional extracurricular opportunities.

The Erasmus School of Economics is one of seven faculties at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Every year, 7,000 Dutch and international students study there, including ENSAI students, either as part of a dual degree program like Antoni or as Erasmus+ exchange students.

My background

Antoni Guàrdia : “I joined ENSAI in 2023 after completing three years of preparatory classes in MP. I have always been very interested in everything related to the world of artificial intelligence; for example, the two TIPE projects I carried out were related to this field. So, the decision to join ENSAI at that point seemed the most logical one to me.

Later, as I progressed through ENSAI, I realized that the courses I enjoyed the most were those related to economic modeling, particularly the microeconomics course. This motivated me to choose the pre-specialization in Risk Management in the second semester of my second year, where I was particularly fascinated by the course on Risk Economics.

At that point, I was already considering the possibility of pursuing a double degree at the Erasmus School of Economics, particularly because of the university’s reputation and its strong international focus, but I didn’t yet know which program to choose. I hesitated between the Master’s in Econometrics, but ultimately opted for the Master’s in Quantitative Finance, as the course content was more in line with what I had enjoyed most at ENSAI.

The Master’s in Quantitative Finance at ESE

I am currently pursuing a double degree in the Master’s in Quantitative Finance program. This program covers all areas of Mathematics applied to Finance: from financial option pricing to asset management and risk management. Econometrics is not neglected, with courses such as Bayesian calculus and advanced time series, which deepen and extend the models already studied at ENSAI, but always with a view to their application in the world of finance.

After theoretical foundations, a practical seminar

In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of the program is the courses taken during the first half of the year, which serve as the basis for choosing a seminar topic in January, followed by a thesis topic. A seminar is a research project carried out in groups of four students, supervised by a company (in my case Optiver) and a professor.

The value of this project lies in applying and expanding on the knowledge acquired during the first semester, while deepening it through the study of recent research articles. For example, our project aims to model the temporal and cross-sectional dependencies of the implied volatility surfaces of 14 assets, such as Apple, Tesla, and gold.

We spent nearly two weeks reading and analyzing research articles to understand how to parametrically model these curves, which dimension reduction methods are most appropriate, and how to model these dependencies. Even though the content of these articles was not always entirely clear at first, all the concepts learned during the first semester proved to be fundamental.

My student life in Rotterdam

As at ENSAI, student and club life is very active, with the difference that, as the university is much larger, the diversity of activities offered is also greater. As at ENSAI, there are student associations that bring companies and students together, such as FAECTOR, of which I am a member as an econometrics student.

To join, you must pay an annual membership fee of around €10, which allows you to apply to participate in the various events organized. The main event is Econometrics Days, a week during which all the rooms in a hotel are rented out and companies from a wide variety of sectors, such as APG, ING, Allianz, and Optiver, come to present their activities, explain how they work, and offer a full day of practical work.

In January, in-house days are also organized, based on the same principle, except that this time groups of around 15 students visit the companies directly. These events usually end with a friendly get-together over drinks, providing an opportunity for more informal discussions with professionals.

There are also associations that are more focused on the practical application of the knowledge learned in class, such as B&R Beurs, an organization that organizes trading competitions between students over a period of two to three months.

I decided to join one of these teams, AdAstra, made up of many students with experience in this field. I joined the quants team and contributed to the development of a portfolio management algorithm to help the association’s traders in their decision-making.

In addition, there are also associations that are more focused on leisure activities and regularly organize festive events, much like the ENSAI Student Union.

Work pace and academic requirements

In terms of academic work, the system is quite different from ENSAI. For example, last semester, which was the one with the most classes, I only had 21 hours of class per week, which left me with Tuesdays and Fridays free. This is because there are no tutorials or practicals: all the work is done independently. Discipline and consistency in studying are therefore essential to avoid finding yourself two weeks before exams without having sufficiently assimilated the concepts.

Future plans and advice

As for the future, I don’t have any specific plans yet. It’s clear that the dual degree opens many doors for me internationally, and I would like to take advantage of that. However, whether in France or abroad, my priority is finding a truly interesting professional opportunity. Ideally, I would like to work in quantitative research within a company, but that remains to be seen.

My advice to ENSAI students who want to pursue a double degree at ESE would be to make the most of this opportunity by trying to take advantage of all the possibilities offered by the university and its network of associations. This allows you to build a wider network, which is always useful for the future, while developing soft skills and improving your English.”

Interested in a dual degree? Find out more about ENSAI’s international partners.