daffodil5435

Like everyone said, your GRE is on the lower end. Boost that up and your profile could be competitive given you have some research experience, publications etc.

How will survive the math in the masters program ? Most importantly how do plan to convince the masters adcom that you can handle the math ?

It depends on the program. Try and find a post by rsaylors , his signature has a link to search schools based on GMAT scores.

Programs have a 4-5 years timeline because people spend the first 2 years taking core courses and then start working on their dissertation. If you already have 3 working papers, you only need to clear the comps (which btw someone I know did in 1 year). There are no hard and fast rules with regards to the timeline. You should contact PhD advisors at schools and assess their interest, some might be interested in taking you on.

Take this advice with a pinch of salt. I don't mean to discourage you in any way just providing honest advice. BS and MS in Finance don't really cut you for derivatives. Plus, derivatives as a field is very hard to get published in. You'll need a very very solid background in physics or stochastic calculus to be even remotely close to cutting edge work. For a start, got to ssrn.com and look at papers being published in this area, note the authors and where they come from, especially working papers, see if you can get the hang of it. If you really feel that is something you'd like to do and which you can handle mathematically then you'd also realize the skills you need to succeed in that field. As far as schools are concerned, here are a few thoughts: UH: They do a lot of asset pricing but aren't really strong in derivatives. CUNY: I'm assuming you are an international student. Consider living on 20-30K a year in NYC, it's not that easy with the amount of work involved. FSU: Like Viking said, also a corporate finance school, maybe a bit more towards financial intermediation. BU: Has a strong mathematical finance PhD program, that is something you should look into. :encouragement: SUNY: Limited financial assistance Also, derivatives is a field that has a lot of influence from the industry, unlike corporate finance (I'll just agree to disagree with others). So take a look at Rutgers, Penn State, UConn and others close to NYC.

Get another Masters in Econ or Statistics, it improves your GPA, helps you get good letters of recommendation and during that time find a professor with whom you could work as an RA. Research credentials are a valuable asset, but unless you have a good GRE/GMAT score and a good GPA your profile gets chucked in to the "No" pile. Remember schools get 200+ applications for 2-3 positions and most will use your scores at the first level of cutoff.

Pittsburgh is a corporate finance school

DBA is designed to train you to do research in an industry PhD is designed for academic research. There is another post on the forum where the OP was invited to apply to the Accounting PhD program at harvard

Not from Harvard, but I received these mass emails from lots of schools when I was applying. On the other hand, Harvard is inviting you to applying, I'd say go ahead, I would've :encouragement:

You have a good profile. 2/3 strong letters are good enough. Work on your SOP and apply widely, the norm is to apply to 15-20 schools across rankings.

There must be a few areas which interest you more than others, as you progress in the program your research interests will get refined over time.

For Finance, you also have the ASU rankings https://wpcarey.asu.edu/finance-degrees/finance-rankings

Just drop an email reminding him .....

It's more important that you apply to schools that fit your research interests instead of purely going by the rankings. PhD is not an "advanced masters" and eventually your success is defined by what you publish, which in turn depends on what you find interesting. You have a strong profile, spend some time studying some papers to see what topics interest you.

So essentially you're looking for a list of famous professors who work in this field. That kind of defeats the argument below

I'm not from marketing.......but all business PhD programs in the US are fully funded for the entire length of the program (usually 6 years)...unlike Europe or Australia you do not have to look for scholarships....

That should be fine since a research methodology can be applied to multiple areas.......and the fact that you've though about it should reflect well in the SOP...

You could reach out to the professors....though in my experience very very few would reply....You could mention in the SOP who you'd like to work with...but be careful...you want to be specific in your SOP ...but also want to be receptive to other ideas... Once you're in the program ....and the more you are exposed to research topics...there's a good possibility your research interests might change......so just don't be hard bound to one faculty or a topic.. good luck !

You should see which is a better fit in terms of your research interests, german programs or US programs. If your MSc profs are willing to provide letters for next year, I would suggest take the offer you currently have and still apply to US programs, one caveat though, you would need a good reason in your SOP why you are quitting your current program and joining the US schools.

It is possible...have seen it on a number of occasions, but that was mostly because the candidates research interests were more closely tied to accounting research ....I know one guy who was more interested in corporate finance and was in a department that was heavy on asset pricing made the switch.....but he was able to find advisors in the accounting department that were willing to work with him. If the only reason you want to switch is because of job prospects....I don't think thats a good idea....plus you have another 2-3 years to go....

IMHO : Don't do a PhD in Finance....you're getting in for the wrong reasons.....you'll end up being a classic case of "High Quant..Low Intuition"..... The good news.....Adcoms love people with your profile........so you will probably get an admit....

An MBA won't help you....do a quant heavy masters like economics, statistics or mathematics..

Second this thought. .......and sometimes this part can do wonders....!!

it is not unusual for profs to send in late LOR's and the adcoms know that. I think it's most likely a system generated update to your profile. I would contact the admin and they would probably manually change the status. In one case my GRE scores didn't reach the program or got lost somehow. I got an email from the program director that they were considering me for an interview but my file isn't "officially complete". I sent the scores again and they sent the interview mail. And this was like 2 months after the deadline. So...Nothing is written in stone.

Yup...thats what I did...most schools replied....."See you in 5 years"...btw congrats on the admits...