rejected by British Columbia Finance PhD

leighyao

以下是引用zenger在2006-2-26 12:09:00的发言：

看来要想读书，必须搬家了。

Bro, what do you mean??

stokowski

Although it's common being rejected by those good school for PhD in Finance, to me, the biggest question in your background is that you pass CFA level III.

Why? to get a CFA certificate, you need to be in the industry for couple years, if you don't have related work experience before, to study in PhD means your investment of CFA test would be in vain.

I don't know if you give a good reason for why you want to give up CFA and devote to research life.

If not, that's a big inconsistency in your profile, you don't want to be label as a guy swinging between industry and academic.

Only few schools would accept student who says he/she wants to go to industry after graduation.

To convince committee you got some knowledge in business, CFA level I is enough for undergraduate level, and level II is for those MBA students.

Do top schools care about that you got some business knowledge before you are admitted? I don't think so.

Indeed good business sense may help researchers conducting works, but not for those theoretical works which top schools wants their students to spend time on.

Even though top journals in finance like JF JFE have tons of empirical works, but the hierarchy is there: theoretical guys > empirical guys.

Well conducted theoretical works can be later proofed as useless and threw into garbage can but still get good journal publication at the first place.

adii

部分同意楼上的观点

不过专业不同可能也有所差别。一些会计phd program告诉我他们喜欢有工作经验的人。很郁闷~~~

mechanics

以下是引用stokowski在2006-2-27 2:50:00的发言：
Although it's common being rejected by those good school for PhD in Finance, to me, the biggest question in your background is that you pass CFA level III.

Why? to get a CFA certificate, you need to be in the industry for couple years, if you don't have related work experience before, to study in PhD means your investment of CFA test would be in vain.

I don't know if you give a good reason for why you want to give up CFA and devote to research life.

If not, that's a big inconsistency in your profile, you don't want to be label as a guy swinging between industry and academic.

Only few schools would accept student who says he/she wants to go to industry after graduation.

To convince committee you got some knowledge in business, CFA level I is enough for undergraduate level, and level II is for those MBA students.

Do top schools care about that you got some business knowledge before you are admitted? I don't think so.

Indeed good business sense may help researchers conducting works, but not for those theoretical works which top schools wants their students to spend time on.

Even though top journals in finance like JF JFE have tons of empirical works, but the hierarchy is there: theoretical guys > empirical guys.

Well conducted theoretical works can be later proofed as useless and threw into garbage can but still get good journal publication at the first place.

Having passed CFA level III should not be the reason of rejection. I did not state my background clearly in the post. Actually I have more than 5 years of working experience by now, with 3 years on jobs related to finance. I am currently a fixed-income trader in a local Chinese bank. I participated in CFA program because my manager in my first work encouraged and even sponsored me to do so. I have made this very clear in my statement of purpose.

I am quite sure that my rejection is majorly due to my poor GPA, and I did not give explanation on why my GPA is so poor (I doubt whether there is any good excuse for my poor GPA even if I want to explain about it).

zenger

个人以为，对PHD的申请者来说，过多的工作经历本身是一种障碍，至少大多数学校应该这样。

原因是：

1）学术思考的连贯性——由于有相当时间的工作过程，学术方面的连贯性受到影响；

2）社会性过强弱化学术性发展——通常情况下，假定一个人的总投入有限，如果社会性发展充分，将不可避免影响其学术性的发展；

3）年轻就是优势——相比没有/少工作经历的人选，工作经历是多余的（如果直接取得PHD然后工作，试问学者需要中途从事这么多实践工作吗？）

当然，还有很多其他考虑使具有过长工作经历者的学术风险变大，包括这些人的中途退出的机会。

因此，选择学校时，要考虑学校的倾向。部分学校也很欢迎有强工作背景的申请人。

adii

我觉得楼上说的很对.再补充一点自己的感受。：）

一两年的工作经验可以使PS更加充实。一是放弃很好的工作来读PHD，可以体现对学术的commitment。二是工作中体现自己有创造性的例子比较容易找，而学习过程所经历的事情也是教授们所熟知的，即时在我们自己看来已经有所突破了，但在教授眼里可能真的很浅显。

leighyao

以下是引用zenger在2006-3-29 0:51:00的发言：

个人以为，对PHD的申请者来说，过多的工作经历本身是一种障碍，至少大多数学校应该这样。

原因是：

1）学术思考的连贯性——由于有相当时间的工作过程，学术方面的连贯性受到影响；

2）社会性过强弱化学术性发展——通常情况下，假定一个人的总投入有限，如果社会性发展充分，将不可避免影响其学术性的发展；

3）年轻就是优势——相比没有/少工作经历的人选，工作经历是多余的（如果直接取得PHD然后工作，试问学者需要中途从事这么多实践工作吗？）

当然，还有很多其他考虑使具有过长工作经历者的学术风险变大，包括这些人的中途退出的机会。

因此，选择学校时，要考虑学校的倾向。部分学校也很欢迎有强工作背景的申请人。

Bro. you should have written something more!

mechanics

以下是引用leighyao在2006-3-29 2:51:00的发言：

Bro. you should have written something more!

Yes, I also think so. Zenger should have got an offer, so he can contribute some of his own experience to help those who have left schools for  a relatively long time.