Advice for Finance PhD SOP

[nag]

I have posted this question before and have been encouraged to start a new thread. I am applying for Fall 2011 admissions to a finance PhD program and would appreciate any advice on the required SOP.

I have gathered that the SOP for finance needs to be quite specific vis a vis research interests. I have questions as to the balance we need to strike. Should we reference actual published papers that we have read? Term papers that we have written? What if I do not have a single narrowed down sub-field of finance that I know I want to conduct research in? Is this a problem? Do I need to identify open questions in the field that I want to work on during my PhD years? When we mention our research ideas, should it be along the lines of a proposal (i.e. statement of question, methodologies you want to use, etc.) or is that too detailed?

Any help would be appreciated.

[AppleAndOrange]

Above all, prove your worth. You will be getting tuition and a salary---not to learn---but to do work.

[gregc1213]

A lot of good questions, especially as application season begins. I'll offer my perspectives but again, they are just personal opinions:

- I think you do yourself a huge disservice if you don't tailor your SOP to each school you apply to (making it all the more important to be efficient in identifying the right schools for you as opposed to just a large volume)

- I think you should definitely do your homework in knowing about faculty research and school specialties but your SOP should still be well-written and tell your story. Name-dropping papers alone won't accomplish that or make a very captivating read. If you can incorporate the papers you've read into the natural flow of your SOP, then you've accomplished something (e.g. I've spent a lot of my career working on yy which is why I was really intrigued by Professor xx's research on topic yy, etc.).

- I think that you should know general areas you want to specialize in but don't need to propose specific research questions. For example (and I don't know finance topics all that well), you could write about your interest in derivative markets because of xx and you were really intrigued by Professor xx's research on the topic. Specifically you were really captivated by his perspective on the way xx are reported and would be interested in exploring that topic further in your doctoral studies.) I think it's a good idea to show you know research and the general areas of interest but I think you also want to appear open to your advisors - after all, presumably you want to go to a specific school to work under these individuals so the balance is in showing you have independent thoughts to offer but are still open-minded.

But hey, those are all just my opinions and I'd be interested in hearing others as well - Best of luck!

[Fantiki]

Yeah, is always a tough question about how specific you should be about research in your SOP. The general advice which I got from my professors was to be as specific (but not wordy!) as possible about research you have done, and, in particular, about its contribution, so that adcoms will understand that you are able to do research and is excited about it but very inspecific about research you would like to do in the grad school so that nobody will reject you because of interest misfits. You can find my SOP and the SOP of a guy also accepted at a top business school here http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...-sop-here.html (Post your statement of purpose (SOP) here) .