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longwayhome

本科金融，加拿大前10学校

Overall GPA: 3.8  

Core GPA 3.9: Econ, FInance, Math

Econ courses: Up to intermediate micro/macro, intro quantitative methods in Econ, Intro Econometrics

Math: One year Intermediate Calculus, Linear algebra, Diff Equa, Partial Diff Equa, Real Analysis (will be taken in the coming fall)

no paper

Two courses TA experience: FIN 413   Risk Management

                                              FIN 301   Intro Finance

GMAT: 720

GRE: 650V/800Q/600A

LORs:  One letter from former Deputy minister of Finance(Eon professor), two from Finance professors i work with

List of Schools:

PHD finance program in :  Rochester(no fee required), Emory, U Florida, U Iowa, UC Irvine, U washington

I know i may seem overly ambitious. anyway,  can anyone evaluate my profile? thank you so much.

xulei841108

i am wondering why don't you have paper?

stokowski

It depends on how good the committe assume your under program is.
In fact, an outstanding under student won't be neccessarily worse than grad applicants.

So just give it a try, also you can try the most well-known Pre-PhD master program -- Princeton -- where can guarantee you to get nice finance phd offer if you perform well there.

It seems like you want to focus on Corp finance then U of Oregon would be a good safety net school for you.

longwayhome

To xulei:

  It is tough for Undergrad to have papers published on top journals

To stokwski:

 Funding is my priority. I can not do anything without financial aid from the school. in terms of research interest, i love to focus on Market Efficiency, financial institutions and transition mechanism, capital structure and dividend policy. I am also diversifying my portfolio by including some MS/MA programs in my list. on the top, i have no idea how competitive it is for Grad Schools? is holding a MA/MS degree a bing plus? what kind of qualification could make a undergrad stand out? My GPA and other test scores are fine, and i have TA experience. expecting somewhat strong LORs from my profs. one thing i worry about is the PS. I dun have in-depth knowledge about the topics, which is reasonable for a undergrad, i guess. in this case, how could i bright my perspective in the PS?

  Thank you for all your reply and information.

stokowski

Don't worry about Journal publication, it's tough to get top journal publication even if you are in top phd program.

Since your under is in Canada, I assume you won't have English problem.

Competition in finance phd application is the toughest in the world.
In order to get into top programs, you must be perfect in stead of fine.

It's reasonable to say your chances now in top school is close to zero.  (But you can still try one or two of them)
It's hard to say your chances would increase significantly if you have a master degree.
Only the top performance in top-3 Econ or Finance master programs can really makes committee in top school believe that you are good, and one mistake in these programs could ruin your chance.
So it's a return and risk relationship..

It all depends on what your expectation after graduation.
If you do love research and it's very important to have chance place in research school, then top phd program is worthy investment.
If it's ok for you to teach in teaching school and enjoy the annual salary below 10k, you can shorter time by get into some programs which themself are reseach schools but their graduate placements are not.
But remember, only some scholar in top-5 or top-10 finance phd programs have the power to help their students to get a research school position if the students have no published or forthcoming top journal publications.
After you are in the PhD program, the meter is no longer what school you are in, but is how the quality and quantity of your paper is.


I think you will have chance in programs like: UC Irvine, U of Oregon; however, their placement are not that good though.
I don't know about applying U Iowa and U Florida, but their placement is up and down.
The chances to get in U Washington and Emory would be slim.
Rochester is the No.1 program in Corp, and it's a small program, so..
You may also want to check Purdue (Another prestigous program in Corp).
All I can say is now you may have chance in schools around 50, a great master performance can surely increase your chances in 30-50 school, but I cannot tell how does it help on top programs..


Since I am not good enough to get in top programs, I really don't know what they want to see in PS.
Most of my professors told me that they don't care about PS, especially your premature research interest.
(Well, but they are NOT professors in top schools)
So you need not to come out a specific research interest or a "topic".

But it's good to write something showing that you did read some papers.
Since you said you worked with professors there, it would be good to tell something about how these experiences would help you on research.

lixiaoyang

If you are from U of T or UBC, you can have a try; if not, better try a MA or MS.

If your referee is famous, your chances are bigger; if not, try to get one.

You can increase your chance by getting as high a score as you can in Real Analysis.

longwayhome

thank you for all your modest advice, i think they are all reasonable. My focus is also on good MA/MS programs in school such as UT and UBC. I am really aiming at those around 50 for PHD Finance program cuz i clearly recognize my deficiency. My career goal is to get research oriented jobs in the private sector. I am also trying to get into those big business schools, not necessarily highly ranked.

Based on my profiles, what is my chance if i aim at PHD Econ programs?

It seems i really dun have much choice in the U.S. It is hard to find good MA/MS programs while competition for Finance PHD program is stiff. It wont help much even if i manage to get into some modest MA/MS programs.

what should i do?