When should I expect Finance PhD result to come out

[dandandan]

Hi guys,

 

I'm applying to a several Finance PhD programs this year. Since I think they are quite competitive, I had a verbal agreement with my summer internship company, who allowed me until very early March (01-02 something) to accept/decline my offer. So I wonder if I would know my PhD application result by then so I can safely plan to sign/relinquish the offer?

 

I read around this forum and see that most people get interview in mid-February, so do you guys know how long do I have to wait post interviews to receive the offer ? Thanks in advance.

[YaSvoboden]

Tell any school that interviews you and they will probably accommodate your timeline. You may also ask your job for an extra week at that point if a school is close to deciding.

[dandandan]

Thank you for your reply. Do you think asking the school directly will hurt my chance of admission ?

For my internship company, they extend the deadline for me from January to March already so I don't think I can ask for additional extension now.

[BrazilianPhD]

Interviews start to heat up mid-February, but they can happen much later too. And getting an interview doesn't mean getting an offer right after that, you usually have to wait a little.

 

I think you'd be lucky to have all your results by March 01-02.

 

I checked my emails here, on March 2nd I was still doing an interview. I accepted my offer on March 15, and by then I still hadn't heard anything from many universities.

[dandandan]

Thank you for the answer @BrazilianPhD. Can I ask that by March 1-2, how many school gave you a definite answer on the offer ? I prefer my PhD over industry so I just need only one acceptance by that time, do you think that's reasonable to expect at least some answers from schools around these times ? Thank you

[BrazilianPhD]

I don't remember anymore. I applied to 20 schools, and my guess is that approximately half of them gave me a definitive answer by March 1-2.

 

There is a first wave of rejections, because universities reject a lot of applicants in the beginning. So, early definitive answers are often desk rejections, not offers. After that, definitive answers start to get slow to come, we just keep waiting for them to evaluate the ones who survived.

 

It can happen before March 1-2 for sure, but certainly it can also happen much later than that.

 

I've checked some data I collected from before the year I applied, with a sample of 200 acceptances. Approximately 55% of those acceptances were in February or before that, and 45% were acceptances in March or after that. This is about acceptances, not offers, but maybe it can give you some idea about the timeline.

 

It's also good to remember that most of us don't get many offers. You said you need only one, and for many of us we're lucky if we get one. It's not like they shower us with offers.

[dandandan]

@Brazilian I see. That's some good insight. I think I would be lucky to get one offer too, I just phrased it too optimistically I guessed.

 

Regarding what you said, can you help me understand what is the difference between acceptance and offer ? I'm assuming that by acceptance you mean the school accept the applicant without offering a financial package ? Or do you mean that 55% of the ones who got in accepted the offer before March and if I'm not in that pool then the offer will be in later month ?

[BrazilianPhD]

By acceptance, I mean an applicant accepting an offer he/she received. So, 55% had already received an offer, and also had already confirmed that they accepted the offer.

 

Offers usually start coming in late February, but we don't need to accept an offer immediately. Typically, we have until April 15 to accept any offer we get.