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Reject PhD offers and re-apply in this December?


iamlyx

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Hi everyone,

 

I have finance PhD offers from UBC Sauder and Rochester Simon, but now I have a chance to work as full-time RA for an institute led by Prof.Thomas Sargent and will hopefully get a letter from him if I re-apply for finance PhD this December.

 

I know there is some opportunity costs and I might be rejected next year due to all possible reasons and the subjective perception of being rejected once. So should I reject my offers and re-apply?

 

And if you were me, which school would you choose? Why? Any advice will be immensely appreciated!

 

BTW OP is a applying with a master degree from China.

Edited by iamlyx
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If you were doing econ I would easily say to do the RA. I don't think you will have worse outcomes next year with the RA under your belt, so your are probably fine taking it. Also, if you are interested in asset pricing you are probably better off doing the RA than if you want to do corporate finance.
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If you were doing econ I would easily say to do the RA. I don't think you will have worse outcomes next year with the RA under your belt, so your are probably fine taking it. Also, if you are interested in asset pricing you are probably better off doing the RA than if you want to do corporate finance.

 

Thanks very much YaSvoboden. I have more research exposure in corporate finance (already have a conference paper presented in many schools) and some exposure in asset pricing (e.g. collecting data and constructing variables in AP projects). But my research interest is still open.

 

BTW do you have any suggestions on the school choice between UBC and Rochester? Thanks!

Edited by iamlyx
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Finance PhD admissions are very random having gone through this myself. There is no guarantee your odds will improve next year and from what I understand you cannot defer funding for the Simon offer for a year. So I would stick with Rochester, it is a good school in Finance and it controls the JFE, one of the top journals in Finance.
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I am currently a full time RA at a top 5 econ department and have gone through finance phd application this year.

 

Before you make your decision, you might want to make sure that you know who exactly you will be working with. The institute you referred to probably has a few professors. And how enjoyable and rewarding this RA experience will be therefore can vary a lot. So I suggest you contacting the program coordinator/ assistant to find out. Then you want to ask the program assistant or current RAs where the previous RA have been placed. These are all very reasonable questions.

 

Given my personal experience and what I have seen from my colleagues, RAship is weakly more helpful for those who want to do empirical corporate finance.

 

I was in a similar situation as yours and I never regretted my decision. I agree that it will come with risk, but you would have a good idea how big the risk will be once you find out who you will be working with and where former RAs were placed. Rochester is a decent program, but with a top-tier RA ship you will get a decent chance to get in top 10 or even top 5.

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I am in accounting, but I think that Rochester is significantly better for finance as well as accounting. You could even talk to Rochester about deferring admissions and reapply with Rochester as your worst possible outcome.

 

Thanks for your reply YaSvoboden. But the recent placements of UBC finance are very strong (UC Irvine, Columbia Business School, UVA Darden) while Rochester' are relatively weak. So I really have a hard time making my decision.

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Finance PhD admissions are very random having gone through this myself. There is no guarantee your odds will improve next year and from what I understand you cannot defer funding for the Simon offer for a year. So I would stick with Rochester, it is a good school in Finance and it controls the JFE, one of the top journals in Finance.

 

Thanks, ted23. Yup, I agree that Rochester probably has the strongest legacy and alumni network outside of the top 10 schools.

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I am currently a full time RA at a top 5 econ department and have gone through finance phd application this year.

 

Before you make your decision, you might want to make sure that you know who exactly you will be working with. The institute you referred to probably has a few professors. And how enjoyable and rewarding this RA experience will be therefore can vary a lot. So I suggest you contacting the program coordinator/ assistant to find out. Then you want to ask the program assistant or current RAs where the previous RA have been placed. These are all very reasonable questions.

 

Given my personal experience and what I have seen from my colleagues, RAship is weakly more helpful for those who want to do empirical corporate finance.

 

I was in a similar situation as yours and I never regretted my decision. I agree that it will come with risk, but you would have a good idea how big the risk will be once you find out who you will be working with and where former RAs were placed. Rochester is a decent program, but with a top-tier RA ship you will get a decent chance to get in top 10 or even top 5.

 

Please see below

Edited by iamlyx
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I am currently a full time RA at a top 5 econ department and have gone through finance phd application this year.

 

Before you make your decision, you might want to make sure that you know who exactly you will be working with. The institute you referred to probably has a few professors. And how enjoyable and rewarding this RA experience will be therefore can vary a lot. So I suggest you contacting the program coordinator/ assistant to find out. Then you want to ask the program assistant or current RAs where the previous RA have been placed. These are all very reasonable questions.

 

Given my personal experience and what I have seen from my colleagues, RAship is weakly more helpful for those who want to do empirical corporate finance.

 

I was in a similar situation as yours and I never regretted my decision. I agree that it will come with risk, but you would have a good idea how big the risk will be once you find out who you will be working with and where former RAs were placed. Rochester is a decent program, but with a top-tier RA ship you will get a decent chance to get in top 10 or even top 5.

 

Thanks for your helpful advice, Balapan. Part of the reason I'm considering re-application is due to some family reasons. And it's hard for me to have a better idea of the risk because the institute is new and only one student has applied Phd (admitted by Stanford operation research phd).

 

BTW do you mind sharing your application results? You can just PM me. Thanks

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A bird in the hand is worth like 6 in the bush.

 

Yes, a top x offer is worth like 6 top x interviews. Not sure whether it is a good metaphor here.

 

Btw, between Rochester and UBC I would probably choose UBC, if I don't have any location preference. Personally I think the non-US school gives you some arbitrage when you are comparing a US vs. a non-US one at a similar level.

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Yes, a top x offer is worth like 6 top x interviews. Not sure whether it is a good metaphor here.

 

Btw, between Rochester and UBC I would probably choose UBC, if I don't have any location preference. Personally I think the non-US school gives you some arbitrage when you are comparing a US vs. a non-US one at a similar level.

 

Hi Balapan, OP here. I have replied your previous post but somehow my replies are not shown. From recent placements, UBC dominates Rochester and I am leaning towards UBC. But I am curious why many people think Rochester is the significantly better choice.

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