Advanced Degree Paths into Trading

[chisness]

I know David Shaw and James Simons both have very advanced quantitative degrees. I think I've read that trading is expected to get more and more quantitative as time goes on.

Right now I'm an Electrical Engineering undergrad so have some quantitative knowledge -- what would be some recommended paths to getting into trading?

Few thoughts:

1) MS in Financial Engineering -- some top schools like Princeton and Columbia have programs, along with others like UIUC. Seems like a nice intro to get into trading job, but 1 year isn't that long. Maybe couldn't get hired as a quant since not a PhD, so starting off where I would without the degree?

2) MBA with focus on quant stuff -- if I'm gonna get the MBA anyway, does this kind of ruin the purpose of the MS?

3) PhD in Operations Engineering (or maybe math or stats or something) -- Takes a LONG time and seems like a lot of extraneous work for someone who just wants to go into trading or something similar.

4) Straight into trading -- I'm not clear on what goes on, but I feel like quants often get "used" for their intelligence, but not really paid that well for what their work can accomplish. However, the guys who run some of the top HFs have PhDs. Can someone clarify this -- do most top guys have advanced degrees? Is this really that helpful or can you just hire the quants (unless you're so smart that you can devise your own models)?