Is a 690 GMAT score good enough

[grkevin]

this is probably getting off-topic, but i think Hocking's post is interesting. i was interviewed at a school that probably ranked somewhere in the sixties, and their recent graduates were making $140,000-$170,000 at very respectable schools.. my point is that you shouldn't be discouraged if you don't get into a top 50 school, if you're in the top 100, you're doing awesome.

btw, my gmat was 690 (70th percentile Q, 93rd perctile V, 90th percentile overall), and i got into a top 100 finance phd program (some would say top 30, some would say top 50, some would say top 70, etc), and i am very, very happy about that. and if i can do it, so can you.

hope this helps -- best wishes.

anything else, just ask!

[Hocking]

I couldn't agree with you more grkevin. I think people mistakenly believe that they have to get into a top 20 Finance PhD Program in order to do well in the job market. The reason they think this is because this is definitely how it works if you are getting your PhD in Economics. Ranking of Economics PhD Programs are far more important than for Finance PhD Programs. The main reason behind this is simply due to supply and demand. You may have 100 applicants coming out of top 20 Economic PhD Programs in any giving year where you will only have around 20 coming out of top 20 Finance PhD Programs in the same year. Therefore, schools are forced to recruit from all finance schools if they want someone with a Finance PhD where they can easily find someone from a top 20 Economics program if they want someone with an Economics PhD.

This drives up everyones salaries in Finance, and keeps a tight lid on salaries in Economics. So, be proud if you get into any Finance PhD program.

[RamKumar]

Hocking, I'm curious why there'd be so many people going for Econ PhDs if the job market is so tilted towards finance, especially given the two areas are very inter-related. Do you have any insights? I'm currently going through the process of deciding between finance, economics and business/financial economics programs.

[Bloomsbury]

the problem for foreign applicants, is that not all the schools are well known outside of the US, most of us need a big name rather than a big ranking, and big names it's only 15 schools

[AstralTraveller]

Originally Posted by Bloomsbury

the problem for foreign applicants, is that not all the schools are well known outside of the US, most of us need a big name rather than a big ranking, and big names it's only 15 schools

If the well-known US finance PhD programs are 15, and they admit in average 4 people each, it would give us a rough total of 60 slots available worldwide!

I tried to count by prestige only (by memory), and I ended up with roughly 15 "big name" schools. Of course it has nothing to do with quality of education (i.e., few people might know beforehand a program from McCombs or Fuqua, despite they both being first class programs). Your usual (non american) granny will still be proud of their youngster going to Stanford, Kellogg or an Ivy, and not have the slightest clue about the quality of McCombs (UTA), Smith (Maryland), Fuqua (Duke) or Simon (Rochester), which might even be better suited for the specific individual than some ivies (like Princeton's ORFE, or Johnson at Cornell).

Why am I talking about this....I did not even apply to anything related to finance!

[Bloomsbury]

I agree with what you said, but for many research positions out of the US, they will give priority to a big name rather than well ranked school. However, I included McCombs, or Fuqua in the prestigious ones

I hardly figure out how to present more than 15 universities... it must be logistically hard

[doubtful]

from Abroad... do you know better McCombs-Utexas or Goizueta-Emory?

[Hocking]

The main reason you see so many more Economics PHD's out there is because each Economics PhD Program accepts anywhere from 25-30 people into their programs each year. Finance PhD Programs only accept about 2 people per year on average. This makes a huge difference when you consider the supply of each group.

Furthermore, Economics is a very popular field among international students coming to America to study. So, you naturally have more people applying to Economics PhD programs than you do to Finance programs. It is still much harder to get accepted into a Finance PhD Program than an Economics PhD program regardless of how you look at it. In fact, they say the hardest part about getting a PHD in Finance is getting into a Finance PhD Program.

In the end, you should go for what interests you the most rather than what pays the most.

[Bloomsbury]

Originally Posted by doubtful

from Abroad... do you know better McCombs-Utexas or Goizueta-Emory?

I know better Emory, but both are famous, and I know Emory's phd programme is younger than mccombs

I didn't know that finance phd programs were even more selective than econ phd, is it the same in accounting for example ? I'm more interested in corporate finance, and might go for an accounting phd. I saw some statistics for a few programs, but for most of them I have no clue about if they are more selective.

[doubtful]

Originally Posted by Bloomsbury

I know better Emory, but both are famous, and I know Emory's phd programme is younger than mccombs

I didn't know that finance phd programs were even more selective than econ phd, is it the same in accounting for example ? I'm more interested in corporate finance, and might go for an accounting phd. I saw some statistics for a few programs, but for most of them I have no clue about if they are more selective.

yeah.. actually I am 50-50 towards those school.. I have been living in Atlanta for a while and I liked the city a lot. Emory seems pretty safe in terms of placements even if the programs are quite new.
Vice versa McCombs has a longer history, the business school is humongous (I have never been to Chicago GSB... which is the only one I think it might be even larger) , and the program is very flexible.