Kellogg Or Wharton for Finance PhD

Mengsk

谢谢 fxygsm，的确是这样的。

shaorubing

"I don't think it is easy to go into a top firm in industry after a PhD since phD's are easily pigeonholed into the quant / research corner with less vertical mobility within companies. So I would do it only because I want to be in academia."

-----
This is very true. Going into industry after studying in one of the best PhD programs in Finance in the world is deviating from the fundamentals of this degree and their initiates to grant you the scholarships. "I would do it only because I want to be in academia" is the difference between those with w/e and those who don't, which is why many PhD programs prefer recruiting students from industry since they know what they will be doing.


"I think MIT Econ > Chicago Finance > MIT Finance.在我眼里 纯学术来讲 MIT Econ >= Harvard Econ = HBS > Stanford Finance = Chicago Finance > MIT Finance = NYU Finance > Duke Finance = Kellogg Finance = UCLA Finance = Berkeley Finance= Columbia Finance = Wharton Finance "

-----
I think all of them is good enough. The rest is on yours.

Mengsk

To edog. Yes, we should definitely get to know each other. I like research and I want to be a faculty. That is for sure. I enjoy academia, otherwise I wouldn't have applied for PhD and would instead gone to banking.

There is also another reason I thought about, I will not hide it. After my banking intern, I figured if I take on a career with an undergrad and MBA, then it will be hard to be very successful in China in the long-run. I felt I can't just do spreadsheets, and then meet clients, cuz in China if I only know how to do that 我永远会是站在官二代后面拎包的. In a messed-up country like China where relationship is everything, I need something of my own that hopefully does not depend on others.

China's finance (in academia and the system) is still pretty much a joke as it is today. I see that as an opportunity I should leverage. For example, in China, insider trading on stock market is just blatant, much much more apparent than in the US market.  A friend and I are working on an algorithm to detect abnormality early and catch insider trades real time (with errors of course). Doing pretty well so far.

Mengsk

但是周忠全很聪明，asset management方面的research也做的很好。我想他的PhD学到的东西是帮了他的。对了，他现在再哪里，做哪个fund？

现在sandy走了以后教授里做hedge fund有一套的好像就都集中在MIT（比如Lo）了吧，不过MIT的那几个好像不带学生。请大家补充。

edog

"我永远会是站在官二代后面拎包的" - that's an interesting observation. There are indeed so many "relationship hires" in investment banks in China. Did you do banking in HK?

Mengsk

yes..but I will not say which bank. it gets quite bad if you look up the ladder.  Everyone has a "background", I dont think I will make it.

edog

True - although to be fair, there are also a lot of people without strong political background who make it to MD / partner

shaorubing

官二代 who is now doing MBAs, PhDs, or doing nothing are also working/thinking hard and thinking about being VERY SUCCESSFUL in China in the long run~ When it comes to the head-on in the real business world, you never know.

Mengsk

To edog...I think to me, I choose to do PhD because it lead to the kind of life I want to live: I want to live for myself, be judged by my own abilities, whether as a researcher, or a fund manager or whatever.

I am still doing undergrad, so I don't see much, but I feel I already see enough of this relationship/disgusting politics thing for me to give up this MBA route. Do you remember the Dangdang thing? I just figured this is what banking is about in China, use your relationships and BS your way through for money. No skill, nothing. This is of course my personal view.

PS: This only applies to IBD. I don't know about other divisions, likely much better.

PS: 这么多人回，真的是太太太太感谢了

sandraiz

按lz的想法，果断wharton啊。。。不知道为什么那么多人拼命唱衰wharton 没看见lz终极目标不是学术吗？？？