Please suggest schools.

[CTG1983]

Hi everyone. My profile:

Undergrad: BBA in Accounting. GPA 3.9/4, 2nd highest in a Bangladeshi university
GMAT: 770 Q51 V42 AWA6
Currently enrolled in: MS in Mathematical Finance at UNC-Charlotte with full-funding.

Courses: Calc I,II,III, Linear Algebra. Partial Differential Equations for Finance, Micro and Macro Economics, Stat I and II, Introductory Econometrics, Financial Economic Theory, Derivatives and Fixed Income derivatives.

To be taken: Financial Econometrics, Graduate Econometrics, Differentail Equations, Stochastic Calculus for Finance, Analysis I and II, Numerical Methods, Advanced business forecasting.

Computing Skills: C++, STATA, MATLAB.

Research Experience: Will do some research this summer starting from june 1.



I will apply for finance PhD by Dec this year. Some say I have a pretty good profile, so should apply to top schools. and some say it's so tough to get into top schools so should apply to mediocre schools. I won't apply to more than 6/7 schools. Hope to get good LORs.

I have always wanted to get into very good schools! Please give uour opinions! Thanks.

[desimba]

CTG 1983,

I do think that you have a strong profile. Nevertheless admission at top finance programs is very competitive and even folks with strong profiles such as yourself should apply to a range of schools, including some at the top, some which are in the 20-40 range say and then some which are safe schools- say in the 60-100 range.

In fact, I would also suggest that you consider applying to more than 6-7 schools. I personally had applied to 10 Econ programs in the Fall of 2006 and had been rejected by all but 1. This year, I had fewer constraints of time and money, and so I went ahead and applied to 17 (yes 17!) programs that truly spanned the gamut. I am glad that I did because not only was I able to get into a school that meets my needs, it also helped me get into the school that is best possible with my profile. For instance, having been rejected by Stanford GSB's program in Economic Analysis & Policy during both these years, it is amply clear to me that I simply would not be able to get into that program no matter how hard I tried and that is an important thing to know. Similarly for HBS as well. Moreover there was a great degree of randomness in the process. e.g. I was admitted to Wisconsin Madison's program in Economics, ranked between 10-15 and by University of Iowa's program ranked in the 40s, but rejected by CMU's Econ program ranked in the 30s, and Arizona State University's program, ranked outside the top 50- go figure!

With that having been said, I would suggest you consider applying to say 10-12 schools with ~ 3-4 being in the top 15 or so, another 3-4 in the 20-40 range and maybe 2-3 schools that are outside the top 50. Indivdiual school choices would depend on a host of factors including the likely match with faculty members and locational preferences. For instance, UCLA's finance group has a strong interest in market microstructure. So therefore if you have a strong interest in that area, you should consider putting them on the list. Based on where you are currently studying, I would strongly suggest that you consider Duke and UNC Chapel Hill as well. Both have very good finance programs and you may be able to network with the faculty members at those schools through symposia/ conferences which can be helpful later on during the application process.

Final advice would be to invest time in researching the programs and finding out both the ease of getting in as well as the match with the program should you get in.

[Bloomsbury]

I share the CTG's concern about the difficulty of applying to a lot of schools. In fact, for each school you have to ask your referee to fill in a recommendation form online or on paper, it seems hard to ask them for 20 recommendations, considering the time it takes.

[oldprogrammer]

I was curious about this as well. Seems like a lot to ask of your LOR writers.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by Bloomsbury

I share the CTG's concern about the difficulty of applying to a lot of schools. In fact, for each school you have to ask your referee to fill in a recommendation form online or on paper, it seems hard to ask them for 20 recommendations, considering the time it takes.

I would suggest that it is less of a problem than you might think. The vast majority of recommendations are online and once you are providing a student with a recommendation, the incremental cost of filling out another recommendation are generally pretty low. All of the recommendations have some multiple-choice type questions which ask the recommender some general questions rating you an a scale of say 1-7 and then a subjective section which is essentially the same across all schools. So once recommenders have composed a response to the essay question asking for subjective comments (and which takes some time and thought), it takes far less time to fill out a subjective recommendation.

I have also heard the same thing from my brother who is a faculty member (albeit in engineering and not business). He says that once he has committed to providing someone with a recommendation, he doesn't find it too onerous to fill out more recommendations for him/ her.

[Bloomsbury]

Still. I know it's pretty unusual in my home country, and it will be hard to make my referees fill in plenty of recomendations.

[rsb306]

Your background is impressive. I think the problem is that when you are applying to top 5 Schools, almost all admits have similar credentials. I think one thing that people often overlook when trying to get into a doctoral program is publication.

For example, on these forums you often see high GPAs and GMATs but no one ever states that they have been published even in a lower ranked journal. I think a Top 10 schools would take a lower GMAT and GPA (Not too low) if the applicant had the ability to publish which is the end result of a doctoral program.

[talkdirty]

your grad program is very career orientated. if your school has a strong career service, it would be wise to get a job with your sort of MFE degree.

[hvzw]

Publication is very important, especially in top tier journals.

[Teazer]

Originally Posted by CTG1983

Some say I have a pretty good profile, so should apply to top schools. and some say it's so tough to get into top schools so should apply to mediocre schools. I won't apply to more than 6/7 schools. Hope to get good LORs.

1. Apply to at least 12, preferably more, well spread through whatever somewhat dubious rankings you can get hold of. It sucks, but unless you have very good backup plans in case you get rejected by everyone, the cost of a few more apps is well worth it.
2. Apply early. The mail, transcript offices and everything else will be working against you!
3. For Finance PhD's there is no such thing as a certain backup school to apply to. Take comfort in the law of large numbers.
4. For LOR's, I'd recommend asking your references up front if they feel they can give you a glowing recommendation from what they know of you. If not, so long as you're tactful it would be better to know earlier rather than later.