jmeister

That is a fair assessment but how about an alternate interpretation of my proposal = I'm really keen on a PhD and am trying to make best use of the job opportunity to prepare for a PhD? Part-time coursework seems much better(cheaper but harder) than other options to boost my application, like a masters degree or a research internship. Mine is a mid-office role, not a desk-quant role, and I'll be working 50-60 hours/week. I do not see myself continuing in this role for long.

I plan to pay for the courses. I could also potentially get my employer to sponsor some of the courses relevant to my job, especially in statistics/econometrics. And yes, it seems I was overestimating the coursework that I could do part-time. Firstly, as you point out, it may be logistically impossible to undertake many of them. The core courses at e.g. Stern's finance PhD program, NYU Stern | Error, are different from the MA ones which are typically offered in the evenings, despite having similar course names: http://econ.as.nyu.edu/object/economics.0812.ma.courseofferings. Secondly, full-time job + PhD level coursework may be too intensive. So at best I could probably do two/three courses per term among the few core + elective courses offered in the evenings.

Thanks for your reply. I understand that it's impossible to complete the coursework in 2 years part-time - maybe I'll be able to do 50% of the courses in 2 years, maybe 75% in 3 etc. I'm interested in the option because it seems to be the best way to leverage the pay+location of my quant job to boost admission chances as well as reduce PhD workload. Regarding why Ph.D: I am interested in a research career. I was going to do an applied math PhD right after my engineering degree but decided to "try" out quant finance and found it interesting - derivatives pricing, market microstructure, and statistical modeling in general. It seems natural now to pursue a business PhD in one of these areas.

I am interested in getting a PhD from NYU Stern/Columbia GSB in finance/statistics/decision theory at some point in the future. I have an offer to work as quant at an IB in NYC. I'd like to know if undertaking courses at NYU/Columbia from the PhD curriculum part-time to the extent possible, would a. Strengthen my application(I have an undergraduate+masters in engineering + some quant experience) b. If admitted, reduce the time I spend completing the PhD, full-time, to 2-3 years - assuming I manage to do most of the coursework in the curriculum part-time while working. More generally, how could one utilize a few years spent as a quant in NYC to prepare for a business PhD? Apologies if this question has already been asked/answered before - forum search didn't return anything relevant.. Thanks!