kansrini

Congrats Rohny!

If you have done a graduate course in real analysis, then you should be able to manage. Numerical analysis will not help much. You are better off doing econometrics. Take a PhD course in microeconomics/game theory and get a good grade - that is a good signal for any admissions committee.

Very useful advice! I am 2nd year, finance. My school has packed too many finance courses this semester (we were wandering into other departments the previous one, I have no idea why) Here's an awesome article (recommended by my Prof) William Shockley on what makes a person who publishes a lot of papers (and the superstar researcher system) | Dynamic Ecology

What does this mean? In any case, why do you want to waste your time doing 2 years of coursework in another PhD? You are better off trying for a post-doc position (US or Europe), getting some publications and directly applying for tenure-track jobs. A better strategy than starting a PhD (especially if your school doesn't give you course waivers)

I don't see why it should be a negative. ANY research experience >>> no research experience Just make sure that you keep your SOP broad enough.

Here's a suggestion. Read ANY 5 papers (yes, any) in the Journal of Finance. If you manage to do that, you will realize how vague and generic your question about statistics is. You seem to have no idea of finance research (which is totally fine BUT), you need to get SOME idea otherwise you will continue to think the responses above are "unhelpful".

Agree. I look at asset pricing as mainly the study of risk. How do we measure/characterize riskiness of financial assets using our understanding of macro-factors (interest rates, consumption patterns etc) ?

Unfortunately, this will really work against you. But your RA and MBA GPA will mitigate it to some extent. You should apply widely. Top 10 admissions is more competitive/random than you think.

+ UC Berkeley Nobody conducts a 'stress interview' for PhD admissions (and interviewers are much much nicer than corporate guys!). So you really shouldn't be anxious about them

I think the problem with economic theory is that behavioral ideas (loss aversion etc) are relegated to the background. They are not as actively studied as they should be, IMHO, because they are not easily "mathematizable"

Don't waste your time getting corporate references. It will count next to nothing. However, your corporate experience can be used in the SOP. During the interview with an adcom last year we spoke about research questions/ideas that were motivated by my corporate experience

Interestingly, the field of asset pricing was largely created by people who started off with degrees in physics ( Steve Ross, John Cochrane etc...)

Totally right !

Agree with rsaylors above. It is much easier to leave US than to enter it. Also, you have a larger research community (sheer size) , so that should make collaboration easier.

. I don't intend to scare you away, but my spouse is on F2 and I can tell you that it is very difficult to get sponsorship for H1B. But you are certainly not "doomed for life" on a 20K stipend. A colleague of mine who is from a European country was telling me about the J1 - J2 option. So it is definitely worth exploring that further. Good luck!