FarTear3

If a school's deadline is January 1st, will they have reviewed every application by February 1st? Suppose I'm waitlisted somewhere -- I guess I'm thinking that it takes 2-3 months for schools to finalize their list of accepted students with interviews etc so I could submit a new score in that time period. I could always apply next year if it doesn't work out (I'm not in a position where I need to go Fall of 2020 though I would prefer to). And I don't see why a school would put more emphasis on my GRE quant score than my grades in actual finance classes at the graduate level. But I guess we'll see what happens

Thanks very much for the advice. I'm actually not concerned about rankings at all, its much more important to me that I get into a program where I feel I'm a good fit. I'm applying to a range of schools across the spectrum of competitiveness (though I think any finance phd program is probably very competitive given the reasons you cited and the low number of accepted students) On the GRE, do you know if schools consider scores submitted after the deadline? My current plan is to submit my applications with my current score so I have complete applications by all the deadlines and then I could potentially schedule a retake sometime in February / March to give me a chance to boost my quant score a bit. I'm not currently working so I think a few months dedicated solely to GRE math would allow to me get a few more points to get in the 165/90th percentile range. Alternatively, I was planning to use this time to take a bunch of math courses online to build a solid foundation that will actually be useful in a finance phd program (unlike mastering the tricks of the GRE). I just don't want to get shut out of some of my target because of a low GRE score that I feel isn't really reflective of my ability to succeed in graduate school math classes (my professors already plan to speak to this point in their letters which is why they said not to bother with a retake) So will schools accept a retake of the GRE after their deadline and is it worth it to do so in my case? Thanks!

Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): Q160 78%, V161 88% (Yep, quant is low...) Undergrad GPA: 3.2 at a Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Liberal Arts major. (Didn't discover my love for finance until a few years after college so wasn't terribly motivated. Also played a varsity sport.) Graduate GPA: 3.75. Top 10 MBA with a Finance Concentration. Received award given to students with above 3.85 in Finance / Accounting courses. Finalist for the top finance student in graduating class (four finalists out of 300 students in the class). Research Experience: Limited but I did an Independent Study under the tutelage of a well-known professor my second-year of business school. He gave me the equivalent of an A and seemed to love the work I did. He's one of my LOR writers and is well-known in the field. Teaching Experience: None (unless you count being an officer in the Marines...?) Work Experience: Worked in Investment Banking at a bulge bracket bank for two years post-MBA. Did mostly M&A work -- lots of financial modeling, valuation, etc. Prior to my MBA, I was a Marine officer for four years. (My recommenders seem to think the military experience will help me stand out -- I'm not sure as I'm still concerned about the GRE score) Concentration Applying to: Finance Number of programs planned to apply to: Atleast 10 Dream Schools: I don't think I have a shot at a top 10 with my current GRE score -- but NYU or Columbia if we're dreaming. Targeting Maryland, George Washington, George Mason, Arizona State, University of California-Irvine. Really just wondering what's realistic for me and where I should be aiming. Other Questions: Don't have a lot of higher level math courses or any programming experience -- I have nine months of free time until I start a program so I can spend as much time as needed building a strong foundation here. I've started taking MIT's math curriculum on OpenCourseWare (starting with single variable calc and working my way up to applied math). Is this the best use of my time to 1) show I'm dedicated to improving this part of my profile and 2) prepare myself for the quant-heavy courses at the PhD level? Anything else I should be doing in the meantime? What made you want to pursue a PhD? Absolutely loved my finance courses / professors in business school and want to dive deeper / learn more. It was the first time I ever really felt incredibly motivated academically. Couldn't stand the life of a banker and missed the opportunity to do research behind theories on asset pricing / valuation / etc. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? My main concern is obviously my Quant GRE. I see a lot of programs with a "minimum" of 160 and I'm right there. My recommenders -- all highly-regarded, well-published finance professors at my T10 MBA program -- all seem to think it shouldn't be an issue given my strong academic performance in business school (which they say they will attest to in their LORs) and the "uniqueness" of my military background. I'm not so sure, so I'm interested to hear others' experience with Finance PhDs and low quant scores. Also lacking a lot of high-level math courses and looking for ways to pro-actively address that over the next few months and convey that in my application Any additional specific questions you may have: What range of schools (T20, T30, etc) should I target? (Assuming I don't retake the GRE)