PhD Finance - profile evaluation please, thank you very much

[qtle]

Hi everyone, my name is Quoc and I am applying to PhD Finance 2010. Below is my profile. Please take a look. I appreciate any comments.

Undergrad GPA: first two year at community college 3.77, last two years at private university Quinnipiac University 3.92. Major: Mathematics. Minor: Finance. Major GPA: 4.0. Overall GPA: 3.86. I graduated in August 2009.
Math courses: Probability and Stats, econometrics, Calculus I,II,III, differential equations, Linear algebra, math modeling, abstract algebra, discrete, advanced calculus
Finance courses: Finance modeling, investments, analysis, markets and institutions, portfolio management
GRE V600/Q800/W4.0
LORs: one from the math chair, one from the finance chair, and one from a math professor who taught a couple of my math courses. They are very supportive and do know me very well.
Research interest: mathematical finance, derivatives, risk management, corporate banking, and venture capital.
Experience: I am wokring for Kaplan Premier as a math instructor/tutor.
Paper: I coauthor a math paper in probability and baseball streaking. It wont get published in well known journals. I am submitting it to AMA journal.

I know my profile is not at all impressive. The community college thing will probably be a disadvantage to me, but it was a financial issue that made me go there. I could justify that on the statement of purpose. Most of important classes (math and finance) i took at Quinnipiac University. I took 11 math courses in 1 year and got all As, hopefully I could mention that. In terms of progress, I did not take it so seriously during the first two year, but one can clearly see the progress on the transcript. My senior year I got 4.0 GPA. I always have interest in both math and finance but I could not find a good fit to use both. Lately I developed an interest in teaching and doing research, I want to go back to my country and open a little institute for finance education for those who cannot afford to study abroad.

I am crossing my fingers for Ohio State, Uni of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, Boston Uni, Illinois Urbana, and Southern Cali Uni. I stretched a little bit for Columbia, Northwestern, Duke, and North Carolina and I also have U Pitts at the lower end. I hope to receive comments from you. Please feel free to ask questions, I will try to clarify them. Thanks again.

[qtle]

Please take a look at my profile, thanks

[sah.nilesh]

Folks please help me evaluate my profile too for PhD in Finance:

My GMAT score is 660 and I took my GMAT on 26/09/2008(dd/mm/yyyy).

• Scaled score of 49 in the Quantitative Section.
• Scaled score of 30 in the Verbal Section.
• Analytical score is 5/6.

I have completed my Master of Business Administration (M.B.A) program (Specialization: Finance) at Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD). This college is a constituent of Symbiosis International University. It is one of the elite B-Schools in India and is constantly ranked in the top B-Schools of the country.

I have also completed my Bachelors in Technology (B.Tech.) in Electronics and Telecommunication (June 2007) from College of Engineering, Pune. My alma mater is ranked 1st in the state of Maharashtra and is one of the oldest and finest engineering college in India with a legacy of 150+ years.


I have a few Queries regarding my GPA:


For my Graduation Program in Engineering:


Engineering, my GPA was 7.11 on scale of 10. Now, that is First Class in India and which means that it's almost 4 on 4 as per the USA grading system. I would also like you to bring to your notice that one of my batch-mate who is now studying in Duke University in USA had a GPA of 6.89 on 10 and when they converted it it was taken as 3.7 on 4.


For my Post-Graduation Program(MBA):

My MBA GPA is 2.65. But, for MBA the maximum aggregated GPA for my batch of around 200 students is 3.29 on a scale of 4(I also have a letter in this regard from my School).


Also I would like to mention the grading system in INDIA, also at my college(SCMHRD-Symbiosis International University), is completely different from the grading system in USA. The common scale range of 4 is misleading.

Work Experience:

1. Pramod’s Coaching Classes, Mumbai, India.

Employment Details
Dates of Employment : January 2004 to March 2007.
Job Title : Part-Time Teaching Assistant(At a Coaching Class n not a School/University).
Estimated Employees : 20.
Responsibilities : Conducted Lectures and Seminars in Mathematics for:
¨Grade 10 students : Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry
¨Grades 11 and 12 students : Vectors, Calculus and 3-D Geometry
Average number of Hours worked per week : 12-14 Hrs.

2. Central Bank of India (A Govt. of India Undertaking), Mumbai, India

Employment Details
Dates of Employment : June 2009 till Date.
Job Title : Risk Manager.
Estimated Employees : 35000.
Responsibilities : Placed in the core Research Team for:
¨Development of Tool for Probability of Default (PD), Exposure at Default (EAD) and Loss Given Default (LGD) calculation.
¨Modified Duration Gap Analysis (MDGA) for ALM.
¨BASEL-II Compliance monitoring and adherence.
Average number of Working Hours per week : 50 Hrs.


Internship Details:


HSBC-Global Asset Management, Ahmedabad, India.

The project was on Strategic Management and consisted of mainly two parts:

• Study of mutual fund market in INDIA with focus on HSBC Mutual Funds (Equity products) along with the Competitor analysis.
• Study of the IFA sales and distribution channel and to conduct a market research to find out the requirements and problems of IFA’s with regards to HSBC Mutual Funds (the various financial instruments offered by HSBC investments). Substantiate the research by means of suggesting changes in the existing IFA loyalty program (HSBC Masters).

Certifications / Corporate or Industry Training :

1.Completed the following certifications offered by National Stock Exchange Of India:
·Financial Markets: A Beginners' Module
·Capital Market (Dealers) Module
·AMFI - Mutual Fund (Advisors) Module
2.Completed Six-Sigma Green Belt Certification offered by Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.
3.Completed a course in Organizational Safety and Health Environment (OSHE).

Research Projects(ONLY AS A PART OF COURSEWORK):

·Impact of American Sub-Prime crisis on Indian Stock Market with emphasis on change of Investor Perception.
·The analysis of financial statements and annual reports of Idea Cellular Limited (A leading GSM operator in India) in order to project its earnings and price of common stock.
·Study of the impact of Foreign Direct Investment on the GDP of India and prediction of the Indian GDP for future.


I have heavy exposure to Mathematics, Quants and Calculus during Engineering as well as MBA.

People, my pool of schools are as follows:

Stockholm School of Economics
University College Dublin
IE Business School
EDHEC
ESSEC
Swiss Finance Institute
University of British Columbia, Sauder
University of Alberta
Univerty of Maryland, Smith
Univerity of Rochester, Simon
University of Wisconsin Maddison
Washington St. Louis
University of Pittsburg, KATZ
Univerity of Missouri
Rutgers University NJ
SFU,USA
SMU,Singapore
NTU,Singapore

Please help me evaluate my chances and also help me to Add/ Delete any schools from my list.