BS Finance to Finance PhD

**200proof** · 09-29-2010, 03:49 PM

I'm a senior at Clemson and I'm looking to go straight into a PhD program. I'll here for another year finishing up a math minor that will get me through linear algebra, stochastic cal, and maybe real analysis. I'm also an econ minor, so I'll have econometrics I and II. It looks like I may have the opportunity to be an RA for a semester or two as well.

I'm positive that I want to stay in academic finance, and I would like to end up teaching/researching at an ACC or SEC school.

I'm just wondering if any of you have had any experience or thoughts on making the jump from BS to PhD?

**gregc1213** · 09-29-2010, 06:27 PM

I'm sure there are threads out there - the basic advice is that it does happen but looking down the list of general admission considerations, you will have zero relevant work experience and zero graduate coursework - so you face an uphill battle as most applicants will have one or both of those. I think a BS in finance w/ minors in math and econ is a good prep - but you have almost no margin of error in the rest of your application - but with a great GMAT, great letter of recommendation's, and a compelling SOP, you have a good shot. Maybe one of the best things you can do now is join some professional organizaions as a student member, subscribe to some pertinent periodicals, and really familiarize yourself with professional issues and academic research so you appear less green in writing your SOP's. Good luck

**200proof** · 09-29-2010, 08:28 PM

Thanks greg. I guess I should have given a little more information. I have spent 2 summers at a small hedge fund working with commodities trading, options hedging, portfolio management, ect. One summer at a tech firm working directly with the CFO as they were preping to go public. And this past summer at BoA in Charlotte, Large Corporate and Financial Institution banking. Basically making pitch books, ect for many private equity firms. This summer I'm looking at the gmat, as I'll still have one more year of undergrad to finish the math. letter of recommendation: HBS alum, and hopefully two of my professors, one runs the endowment.

Do you think that is enough "real world" experience? I know that they were just summers, but I started interning the summer before undergrad. I have wanted to research and work with portfolio management, derivatives, and macro economics since high school.

And, I'm in AFA and AEA, I've been trying to get my feet wet with those journals.

**gregc1213** · 09-29-2010, 09:44 PM

Great - I think coming straight from undergrad, it's especially important to do very well on the GMAT but you have a good deal of time to prep for that.

As far as experience, I think you'll be fine and in fact, a lot of people will tell you experience doesn't really matter in applications. I think it varies by program and you're better off to vet schools to look for which ones seem to place less value on experience (no program will say they don't carea bout experience explicitly but it will be subtle - i.e. some might say all else being equal, meaningful experience is better than none whereas some might say they prefer applicants with 2+ yrs experience but will consider others with extraordinary credentials). I think the more important point is that doctoral programs want people who can contribute fresh ideas and perspectives for research. Obvious sources for for those ideas are real-world experience and grad school though those are certainly not the only sources. I think it's important to develop some in depth research interests that you follow.

**Tangent** · 09-30-2010, 05:50 AM

I graduated from undergrad in May and when I was interviewing last year no one ever brought up the fact that my work experience consisted only of a few internships at banks, all they cared about was my math background and research projects/papers. They didn't care about the finance courses I took or the econ, just the math. Now that I am doing the PhD I see why... Undergrad econ and finance are so so so different compared to the grad stuff, and since I had no graduate coursework, they really wanted to make sure my math skills were sufficient (which I am beginning to doubt that they are...). You will likely face the same problem I did, but you go to a better school than I went to, probably have a better GPA, and seem to have better LORs, so just get 790 or 800Q on GRE or rock the GMAT and things should go alright.

**200proof** · 09-30-2010, 04:01 PM

Thanks guys. This helps a lot. I'll start digging deeper into the specific areas I am interested in. Tangent, congrats on the acceptance. Where did you end up going?

**Tangent** · 10-01-2010, 09:58 PM

CU-Boulder

**finance_guy** · 10-06-2010, 03:40 PM

Hi 200Proof. I went straight from an undergrad in finance in a business school (minors in operations managament and strategy ) to a PhD in finance. It is actually not as uncommon as many think. (I though it was too). A minor in math will definately help. Make sure you get perfect test scores (I wrote GRE, you need top top math marks) otherwise many ad coms don't open your application. Your letter of recommendation and SoP must be very strong as well. My biggest advice is to apply to a TON of schools. the marginal cost of an application is trivial compared to the benefit of getting into a better program. If I cut the number of schools I applied to, I probably would not have applied to the schools where I got my best offers. (I am now at London Business School). Work experience probably won't help much but a good research agenda will definately help for two reasons. 1) it will help show schools that you are serious, and 2) it will help you choose a school which is good for what you want to do and help the school see that you are good for the people that they have.