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YaSvoboden

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YaSvoboden last won the day on February 22 2017

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  1. Hi. I don't get on here often anymore. I remember you from a few years ago. What you are describing isn't uncommon. Life happens, and it's hard to know everything that a Ph.D. entails going into it. Previous recommenders are fine. A more recent professional reference would be okay. Getting a letter from your first program could help a lot. Schools will be interested in what happened, and assurance from someone at that program could go a long way. Your personal statement will probably be much better at this point too. You know what you are getting into and still want to do it. You can message me if you'd like.
  2. Still a crapshoot. And those things alone do not make you highly competitive. They are good, but some exposure to research and a successful researcher as a letter writer are very important too.
  3. I'm in accounting, but I'll take a shot at your question. At a minimum, you need probably 6 courses. Calc 1, 2, 3, Linear Algebra, Intro to stats (calculus based), Intro to probability (Calc) You could also really use a proof based class or two. Real analysis would be the standard, but there are several courses that look like an intro to proofs, i.e. bridge to abstract mathematics. These would meet the math minimum for most finance PhDs. I think a full bachelor's degree would be overkill. The same courses would also be good prep for the MIT micromasters. I hadn't heard of that program, but it seems good. If you could have contact with the professors and possibly get a letter of recommendation then it would be really helpful. I will also say that microeconomics is very necessary for a PhD. Macro is a big deal if you go into asset pricing. It looks like MIT has a couple courses that would be really good in their DEDP micromasters. I hope that helps.
  4. There is variance in the amount of math required for sure. Behavioral / experimental is less math intensive, but will require building on psychological theory. Programs that have more of a behavioral emphasis can have less math intensive coursework as well. The PhD Micro and econometrics classes are the biggest math hurdle in most programs. If you don't have to go through those, it will be easier in some ways. I could go into more detail, but need more context.
  5. Congrats! There is a lot of focus on R1, and I don't think that's wrong. But people should know that life at a mid-tier university in an area you like is really good.
  6. Honestly, below 700 will be a problem at a lot of schools. If your are thinking top 10, I would put that number at more like 750. Quant is more important, but both have to be very good to get a score that high.
  7. Yes, you should mention it. Most applications ask for all post-secondary transcripts, so that would be included. A letter from one of the professors at the old program would probably be necessary. It's not terribly rare to take a second stab at a PhD program, but you need to explain it.
  8. Welcome! This is a stressful time. You should definitely get an admit from that many interviews, but interview costs are lower, so maybe schools are giving out more. I don't know about Yale's yield rate. You would think it's high, because it's Yale, but they are probably admitting some of the same people as Harvard, NYU, Stanford, etc. and people could choose those places. The econ subforum here has a lot of stuff from Finance PhDs sometimes. I haven't checked in on it recently. Hang in there. Things will start resolving soon.
  9. I'm sure this will vary. For most, I would guess that you are expected to be there in person, but they will be flexible. We had a first year come in this past year with visa issues. Everything was remote anyway, so he just joined in from his home country. The fall should have more in person activities, and I would expect PhD seminars to have fairly high priority for that because there is an advantage in being face to face.
  10. Congratulations on where you are. My wife was pregnant with our first when I started my PhD and we had kids the second summer and third summer. So 3 kids in the first 3 years. It was hard, but doable. My wife didn't work and we actually lived pretty comfortably. I was in the Midwest, which really helped. I rented the whole time. An apartment to start and then moved into a 4 bed house that we rented and got a good deal on. I considered buying early on, but am happy I didn't. My family situation changed enough that I wouldn't have bought the right house. Also, I was able to rent a bigger place than I could have bought. My university did have child care available. I didn't use it, but another student did and I think it was like $1,400 a month per kid. Something to consider is healthcare. I had an offer from a school that covered my health insurance 100%, but adding family insurance was like 6k/year. Which isn't a terrible deal, but a lot of money as a student. The school I went to covered 85% of the premiums for my family, so it was quite affordable. We actually ended up qualifying for Medicaid after having a kid, so it wouldn't have mattered for too long anyway. SNAP, WIC, and the EITC were other benefits of remaining low income while having kids. It created a pretty strong incentive for my wife not to work, but that's probably what we would have chosen anyway. I just mention this because it sounds like you aren't sure if your wife will be working. You can PM me if you want details about this kind of stuff. Taking out some loans isn't a big deal if you have to. Definitely talk to students with families at prospective universities. You can even go to other departments in the B School, because the details will be pretty similar between programs. That's money. Another issue is time. A PhD can easily fill every waking moment. You have to put in a lot of time, but you have to carve out time for other stuff. Make time for your family, spending time with your kid, etc. You will definitely regret not doing this. Also, you need to make some time for yourself. I didn't do this and it really ended up getting to me near the end of the program. Carve out time on a regular basis for a little exercise and doing something you enjoy that isn't mentally taxing. You'll be much more productive and a better husband / father if you are mentally healthy. TM's advice on boundaries sounds good. I'm happy to answer more questions, but students at prospective universities will be your best resource.
  11. I agree with the above. Both are great options and where you will do best depends on how well interests align with potential dissertation chairs along with factors like location preference, how well you get along with your cohort, location preference, etc.
  12. Congratulations! Those are some great choices. I think the choice is between BC and Minnesota. Maryland is good, but doesn't have as large of a faculty and doesn't have as good of a record of placement. I went back and looked at your original profile. If you are interested in banking and debt contracting, Minnesota is one of the best schools you can go to. The strong theory training will really help in that area too, as the empirics are very driven by theory. I personally would lean towards the faculty at BC, but that speaks to my research interests. The lack of placement history is somewhat concerning, but they have great faculty. I would actually be more concerned about how they are teaching the Micro theory and metrics courses. Minnesota has a good econ PhD program to leverage for those things, BC's econ PhD isn't quite as good. Of course, the courses that the business students take may be much better at one over the other. I didn't find metrics from the econ department to be too useful. Ask current students about this stuff. BC also is in the Boston area. I don't know anything about the dynamics, but having so many other good schools around might be an advantage. Again, current students are a good resource here. I think it comes down to preferences and who you can envision working with. I lean towards suggesting Minnesota for you, but it's close.
  13. I'm in accounting, so my perception might not be perfect for finance, but I would choose Booth and it's not close. A big part of that perception is because Chicago controls JAR, which is a top 3 journal in accounting. I believe Oxford controls RFS. If there is some really useful connection with LBS there it might help sway things, but I doubt it. Chicago has the current editor of JF and people on boards at every good journal. I'm also American, so there could be some bias there. I think most people would say Chicago.
  14. This very well may be true for USC. I don't have any insight into what they are doing. However, I know that it isn't rare for programs to start looking at applications before the deadline, especially if it's a later one like 1/15. I wouldn't put everything off until the last minute. Most of the work is repeated for schools anyway, so once you start turning in applications, keep it up and finish.
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