Should the city where a US university is located influence which schools an Indian quant finance student applies to?

Yes, especially if part of the plan involves building US work experience through off-campus firm access during the degree. For quant finance and capital markets roles, the proximity of the university to financial industry hubs matters practically. UC Berkeley puts you within commuting distance of Bay Area firms in San Francisco, roughly 30 to 40 minutes by car. Princeton puts you close to New York, where the density of finance firms is the highest in the US. Some universities sit in isolated locations where there is limited financial industry nearby, which forces reliance on virtual internships that carry less weight on a resume.

• If you are applying to Berkeley, adding UCLA to the application costs relatively little since the UC application system overlaps.
• UCLA has strong mathematics and actuarial faculty, and Los Angeles has its own finance and investment ecosystem that is often overlooked compared to the Bay Area and New York.
• Applying to both in the same application cycle gives you optionality without significant additional effort.