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Diana Zhao hit two milestones in 2025. She graduated from WorldQuant University with a Master of Science in Financial Engineering and became a mother.

“During the last leg of the program, I was going through the late stage of pregnancy,” she said. “And I was able to finish the course two weeks before the due date.”

Diana was also working full-time as a portfolio valuation manager at Millennium, a global investment firm in New York. As a woman working in tech and finance, she is used to being in the minority.

“One challenge is to balance family commitments with work, especially in a male-dominated field,” she said. “Women will have to start by taking steps and then eventually over time and over generations, hopefully we will gain equality.”

Diana’s path to Wall Street started 7,000 miles away in Shijiazhuang, China, where she was born and raised. She came to the United States to study and earned a degree in mathematics and economics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduation, she came to New York and got a job on Wall Street at Deutsche Bank before moving to Millennium.

“My career experiences at Deutsche Bank and Millennium deepened my passion for quantitative fields, including finance and mathematics,” she said. “WorldQuant University provided a great opportunity for me to take it further.”

She said she worried about the time commitment but was reassured by the promise of no tuition or fees. She told herself that if she became overwhelmed, she could drop out at no cost.

“It took me two-and-a-half years to finish, but I’m glad I did it,” she said. “A degree from WorldQuant University is an acknowledgement from a high-quality program that I can accomplish something difficult while following my passion.”

Now she recommends WQU to anyone who asks.

“What I would tell my friends about WorldQuant University is that it offers completely free online programs that are as rigorous and credible as programs at any other university.”