Finance/Business School (PhD level) applicants - profiles/stats

[corpfin2006]

So, why not a whole new thread for us b-school applicants? Although Econ and Finance are closely related to each other, Econ applicants are mainly interested in the graduate school, while Finance applicants have the choice between applying with the graduate school or the business school of a given university. This thread should be solely dedicated to those who have decided to apply for a PhD in Finance (or any other business-related discipline) at business schools around the world.

Has anyone already heard anything? The first deadline was Stanford (December 1st, 2005), as far as I know.

As for my profile (applying for a PhD in Finance):

- Undergraduate and graduate studies in Business Economics at Germany's #1 graduate school of management in three semesters and two semesters, respectively (two times as fast as the common German graduate, if I exclude my exchange semesters)
- Exchange semesters at the Sciences Po in Paris studying Political Science, at the Ohio State University studying Finance and at the EDHEC Business School in Lille studying Business Administration
- Focus during graduate studies: Corporate Finance, Capital Market Theory and Entrepreneurship
- Courses taken: Continuous-time Finance, Econometrics, Capital Market Theory I & I, Corporate Finance I & II, Fixed Income Derivatives, Derivatives, Empirical Finance, Real Options, seminars and courses in Industrial Organization, all Maths courses available, all Statistics courses available etc.
- GPA (converted): 3.9/4.0 (1st out of 81 at the time of the application), fastest student in my class
- LORs: two from the Ohio State University (one Professor is extremely well-known in the field of Corporate Finance and Econometrics), one from my home institution in Germany
- Publications: I published a book on the basics of Corporate Finance for graduate students applying with investment banks (1st edition: 4,500 copies)
- Teaching: I was the lecturer for the Corporate Finance training for a top 4 consultancy
- Research: two theses (one in Finance, another one in Industrial Organization and Corporate Finance (hybrid topic :-))
- Test scores: GRE Q800, V320, AWA: 6.0/6.0 - I did not care about the verbal part, so I more or less "skipped" it by clicking through the questions; GMAT Q49 (90%), V40 (91% - there you go ;-), essay: 5.5/6.0
Internships: several (top 4 consultancies, investment banks, rating agencies etc.)

Institutions I applied with: Chicago GSB, Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU Stern, Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, UCLA Anderson, UC Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, INSEAD, London Business School.

Fingers crossed.
Over to you.

[corpfin2006]

Double post, sorry.

[ramlau]

Applying to the Econ and Finance PhD Programs. My profile looks decent in general:

Georgia Tech CS/Econ double major
GRE: 630V/800Q/5.0AWA
GPA: 3.79 Overall, 4.00 Econ
Math: Multivariable Calc (A), ODE (B), Combinatorics (A), Prob and Stats (A), senior-level Linear Algebra (A), Real Analysis (C, alas), will take Stochastic Processes and more stats next semester (and will do well)
Econ: Intermediate Micro (A)/Macro (A), Econometrics (A)

TA Experience: 6 semesters of teaching twice-a-week recitations (from Pre-calc to Multivariable Calc), graded homeworks and tests for some upper-level math classes
RA Experience: Awarded 2 internal undergraduate research grants working on economic research since 2004 ($3000)
Related stuff: 6 full-time semesters of Co-op internships as a SAS programmar/analyst for the Insitute of Nuclear Power Operations (established after Three-Mile Island in 1979)

B-School list:
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
University of Chicago
New York University (Stern)
Columbia University (NY)
Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)
University of California–Los Angeles (Anderson)
Harvard University (MA)
University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
Duke University (Fuqua) (NC)
Cornell University (Johnson) (NY)
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

[gtandon]

I have not heard back from any business school phd program - has anyone heard back ?

Thanks
gtandon

[reactor]

Can you guys post your preference ordering?
Good luck to everyone!!!

[vbrooksutk]

I'll probably get some flack because I don't look like a lot of people on this forum as far as stats are concerned but whatever. I'm happy.

GPA 3.61/4.00 in Business Adminstration (Econ), minor in Latin American Studies. From University of Tennessee, Knoxville - TN's flagship giant state U.
GRE 520V/750Q/5.5W (so basically I don't use big words but I can write well?
Study abroad: universidad de puerto rico, 1 semester
3.5 year marketing internship
Entrepreneur, 2 small businesses
Econ classes: intermediate macro/micro, monetary, mathematical econ, econ development, international econ, firm in the global context, regional and urban econ, econometrics
Mathish classes: calc 1 and 2, linear algebra, math econ, corporate finance, financial accounting, managerial accounting, statistics, econometrics

I've applied to programs at:
Brandeis-Internat'l Econ & Finance)
Georgia-Econ
Kentucky-Econ
Texas-Econ
Illinois (UC) - Econ
Nebraska (Lincoln) - Econ
Syracuse - Econ

If I do not get into econ grad school, I will be applying for either a Ph.D. in business admin or my MBA next year. Since my degree is actually in business administration, that'd be OK by me but econ really is my first choice. I'll just get a job locally and save some cash in the interim.

But I'm hoping to get in! Haven't heard from anyone yet... no news is good news, right?

I'm hoping my locale (Tennessee) and gender (female) will help me out in the diversity aspect. Whee. Best of luck to everyone!

[housecleaning]

..., fastest student in my class ...

Sweet!

[EE570]

Wow you guys have some good stats. Should be competetive. Have you heard anything yet? A few people over on the B-week forums have had some interviews at a few places. I am mulling over applying to a PhD in Finance next year but plan on doing a MSc in Mathematical Finance first. Keep us informed on how the admissions go.

[vbrooksutk]

That's a huge list of places that you applied to. My $8/hr internship didn't really allow for even the 7 that I applied to, but yay debt!!! If I don't get in, I'm going to work for a year to save up money for next year's applications. Woohoo! Best of luck

[finphd]

i have also applied to finance phd programs

stats: GRE: 800 Q, 730 V, 4.5 AWA
TOEFL (CBT): 290
BTech, MBA (FInance), good grades in finance courses from top university in my country

ramlau u have a strong profile....by the way which are the universities u have applied for phd in finance.....since u r strong candi,i wanted to know whether u heard anything from anywhere?