Profile Evaluaiton: Finance PhD 2019

[mkumar49]

Hi Everyone,

Here's my Profile:

Indian, 23, Male

GMAT: 760 (Q50,V44) 99%ile

Undegrad GPA: 4.1 out of 4.3 (1st in Class, Academic Medal, Dean’s List in all Semesters. Full Tuition Fee Scholarship for undergraduate)

Undergrad Major: Mechanical Engineering (w/ Minor in Business Management)

Courses: Advance Mech. Engg courses (which I hope substitutes for Math requirements), Programming Courses (VBA, C++ etc. also proficient in Python) Broad fundamental courses in Accounting, Finance

Research Experience: Undergraduate Engineering Research

Work Experience: Working in Transaction Banking Graduate Program (2 years by Fall 2019) in Hong Kong.

It will include 6 Months of work experience in London. Mostly sales, business analytics etc. related rotation.

 

Concentration Applying to: Finance

Number of programs planned to apply to: T10-50

 

What made you want to pursue a PhD?: Strong Research Interest, Interested in exploring various models to predict industry returns.

 

 

Questions or concerns

Ideally, I would want to pursue PhD in Finance and have an academic role. However, for want of enough Finance/Math research experience, I believe getting into Top 20 Finance PhD programs would be tough. So, in such a situation, should I target Top 20-50 Finance PhD Programs?

 

Or are there any Masters in Finance (M.Res. or M.Phil) programs which can help my cause in getting into a better Finance PhD program after?

 

Or should I instead go for a Quantitative Masters of Finance Program and keep my options of working in the industry and going back to academia (if I still want to).

[are]

I think admissions will like the quantitative engineering background you have, but you'll need to clearly articulate why you're looking to go into academic finance. If you have a recommender from economics/finance, that could help compensate slightly.

 

On the master's front, I hear that Quant Finance master's are so pre-professional that they don't really help your application - unless you get stellar grades and great recommendations.