Just another question popped into my mind and I hope you could share some insight on this!
With regards to the mathematic skills one needs to get admitted into PhD Finance vs. PhD Economics, what do you think are the key differences? I know you touched on this briefly on your previous post but I'm hoping you could expand on it.
And yes, I do realize that most programs' official prerequisites are just multivariable calculus, linear algebra, statistics and maybe real analysis. But "realistically speaking" (i.e. to have a realistic chance of getting in), what additional math skills do we need here? Specifically what are the differences and similarities for PhD Finance vs. PhD Economics? (i.e. Does Finance prefer candidates to have stochastic calculus whereas it may be not so important in Economics? Conversely, perhaps Economics prefer people to have greater skills in ODE than in Finance?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Teazer
I'm just coming to the end of my first year in a phd finance program, so here's what I've learned so far....
The % admittance to finance vs top econ schools is similar but there's a huge difference in level. Finance programs are much much smaller. That means even if you're really well qualified for a finance program, it is still very likely to get rejected. If you go that route, apply to a lot of schools. I did about 12 & that almost wasn't enough! Once you're in though, they want you to succeed too.
Econ departments have less of a random factor in the admittance part - they figure once you're in they'll see if they like you and if not cut you out in the first couple of years. Once you're in, you also need to do better than other students to stay in.
Depends on the program, but in mine the first year is basically the same as for first year econ students. They have to do macro in the 1st year, whereas it is an elective for us in the 2nd year & we have some finance seminar courses instead, but pretty much if I & an econ student planned our electives right, we could end up both doing exactly the same courses.
The problem is the randomness of the process. To get into finance you need to be good + be very lucky, or apply to a much large number of schools to have a good shot at getting in somewhere.
Business schools are more likely to value some pertinent non-academic work experience on the whole, particularly if it gives you inside knowledge of some area of industry. As far as math ability, in econometrics classes, the finance students tended to usually be towards the top of the distribution in such exams. Econ seems fine with a good knowledge of calculus, maybe some ode's for macro, linear algebra & analysis. If the finance program specializes in asset pricing, they'll probably also be looking for more of the wacky math at admittance - other kinds of analysis, stochastic calc. pde's etc as well.
Yes, yes & no in that order at least for me! For other data, I had 3 years of academic research + several years banking industry experience.
|