I am an aspiring quant and I've self-studied some stochastic calc and I know some coding languages and I'm starting to look into what the job actually entitles. I know that there's a lot of stigmatism in the field so I haven't actually been able to find answers to questions like these: What kinds of questions would a quant actually answer when working a job? How can you use stochastic calc on real finance? (Most of what I see is proofs and different tools like Ito integrals and expected value things but I don't see how you could use that for real-world data) What non-math-proof things should I know before getting into college for going into quant finance? My plan is to go for a quant but I know that a good backup is being an actuary, so that's my contingency plan. I'm a little bit early (going into 12th grade) so any answers or help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!