Please evaluate my profile

[financePHD2007]

Under: Applied Math with gpa 3.6; co-author of a paper
Grad: Quantitative Finance with gpa 94/100 (Canadian University); 1.5 yrs research experience with a big name in financial engineering
GMAT: 720
Work experience: 4-month internship at a hedge fund; now full time at the HF
Reference: 5 good references from my Grad program
Target: top 20 US finance phd programs

what do you think?

[EE570]

Sounds like you have a good chance. Where did you do your grad studies and work with a big name in Fin Engineering in Canada? U of T (Hull or White), UWO (Davison), or U of C (Elliott)?

[financePHD2007]

Sorry, none of the above names. Then it might not be a big enough name in FE. I did my grad at Waterloo

[walidreza]

I beleive waterloo's prog is quite rigorous. Did you write a thesis? I am doing MSc in Finance at Usask. Which unis did you choose for Fall 2007?

Canadian schools offer good MSc Finance degree and no wonder that many of the students indeed go to the top 20!!

[EE570]

Financephd2007,

I forgot about Waterloo, yes it is a good program indeed and there is a famous professor there. If I remember correctly he won the financial engineer of the year award not to long ago.

If you wrote a thesis and did research there, then you have a really good chance at most of the top schools.

Good luck with your apps. And if you are considering a PhD where you want to focus on Quant finance, then definately look at U of T...

[financePHD2007]

Thanks for all the replies! I want to work on incorporating corporate finance into asset pricing, long way to go.

I applied to 14 schools (the top ones you can imagine); really need luck. The lowest ranked school I applied was Minnesota. I applied to U of T in canada as well.

[biswonath]

Btw, do you have a list of "top 20 finance PhD program"? I seem to find only MBA program's ranking.

[GradCanada]

This is a publication and research based ranking for schools around the world.
1NYU172.063703521.862U of Penn137.082813179.403U of Chicago95.971872343.714Harvard U84.151652260.555U of Michigan97.001792117.436UCLA91.751731984.697Columbia U86.921601801.168Northwestern U62.791281561.619Ohio State U69.291421557.1210Duke U61.971251543.1311Cornell U75.251461482.9612U of Illinois74.281681445.8813Stanford U56.791051347.5214U of Rochester50.12931222.3615MIT49.83981145.6316Indiana U57.831071128.7217U of Southern California49.50981126.5718UC-Berkeley49.83851097.3919Boston College49.17971029.8020U of Texas-Austin
If you like to see the rest you should check this link:
http://academic.udayton.edu/CarlChen/Chan%20Research/923A.htm

[biswonath]

Thanks. I didn't know UC Berkeley ranked so low, and Ohio state so high.

[shootermcgavin7]

Originally Posted by biswonath

Thanks. I didn't know UC Berkeley ranked so low, and Ohio state so high.

The only problem with the rankings for Finance; is that departments tend to be small and rankings by faculty output tend to range wildly depending on what years are selected.

I think placements are probably a better measure of a program's strength in this arena.