nrr2020

Thank you for the suggestion. There aren't too many such positions and I haven't been successful in the ones that I applied to. That is because I need work sponsorship and companies in the US aren't too keen to do that outside of software industry.

Ok I see what you mean. You have given me much to think about. Continuing with that line of thought, assuming that I am applying directly to PhD in 2021, do you think I can do anything to overcome the fact that I dropped out of a PhD?

Bumping this up! I’m looking for good preparatory Masters programs for a PhD in Finance with a good mix of quant coursework and research! Thanks!!

Thank you for the candid reply. A small part of dropping out was because it wasn't good enough, but I knew that even before joining. But in my first month of joining, 2 of the profs in the department moved to another university and there were no research opportunities even for 3rd years. 5th years were trying to postpone their graduation and in the last 4 years since I left, there has been 1 publication from the department in any of the finance journals. The school was ranked in the mid 80s when I joined in 2016 and now it has dropped to below 140 because of no work being done there. I have no regrets in dropping out and a big part of that decision was definitely the hope that I would move to a better department and do better work. I did not drop out of the Masters program. I graduated with pretty good grades. A big reason for me thinking about another Master's program is to get some research experience and honestly I am hoping to beef up my application enough to outweigh my dropping out of a PhD program. Because like you say I know it is a red flag that is gonna need some explanations in interviews. But I do want to have an application that is strong enough to make it to the interview rounds. Hopefully that makes sense. :) I also want to show them that even though I have been out of school for 3 years, I can handle the coursework and the research work required. And get more recent LoRs of course. But I agree with what you say. I am trying to weigh the benefits of spending time and money doing another Masters. I have been reading here that there are masters programs that have a track record of placing students in good PhD programs and I guess that's what I am looking for. If I can get into a good enough Masters program, then I would consider the benefits to definitely outweigh the costs in the long run.

Hey guys, This is bit of a long post. I had a Bachelors and Masters in Business Administration from India (Not a lot of quant coursework). I got admit to a PhD Finance program at lower ranked (top 100) department in the US in 2016. I was there for 1 semester but due to a combination of factors (lack of good research opportunities, me not having clarity on what I wanted to study, and moving to be closer to my husband), I transferred to a Masters in Finance Program of a top 50 department and graduated with a lot of doctoral coursework (Probability and Stochastic Processes, Mathematics of Economics, Mathematics of Finance, audited Optimization, Theory of Finance all at the doctoral level) and a small research project under a tenured Prof. My research project did not turn out as well as I had expected it to (since I took it for just one semester) and I am not sure if I would be able to go to this Prof for an LoR. I have been working with a top financial analytics company in credit model validation and verification for almost two years now and I would love to get back to pursuing a PhD hopefully in 2021. I have matured more as a person, and have found the real reasons why I want to do research. I have never let go of learning - I have been taking up coursework in an Analytics masters program to get more hands on experience in research methodology and general data science which have been very useful. However, I am still not very confident of my quant skills and above all my ability to do Research. I was playing around with the idea of applying to PhD programs directly. However, I am concerned about: 1. LoRs from my professors - it's been two years and I am not sure if they would remember me. 2. Jumping right into a PhD after 3 years. I was wondering if I can gradually get my feet wet with a Masters. I would also like to expand the universe of schools to Europe, Australia, and Canada. I saw that some of these schools require a masters dissertation as a part of their application. Lately, I have been looking at schools that offer MPhil or MRes with both coursework and dissertation options which I frankly find attractive. I would love to beef up my quant and Econ along with getting some research experience. So far, I have come up with LSE, Bocconi, and Alliance Manchester. But some of these are so pricey. I was going through an older thread (here) where some people have said that there are departments with a track record of placing students in good PhD programs. I am honestly wondering how to go about finding a Masters degree that would be a good preparation for a PhD in Finance with a good mix of coursework and research. I am an international student and with already one Masters, I am now looking for a Masters program that is no longer than 1 year. So, my questions are: 1. Can you suggest Masters programs that are good preparation for PhD in Finance? I humbly request you to specify which university and which department. I know an MA Econ or Statistics is good, but I am trying to see if I can get specific recommendations apart from the ones that I have already shortlisted :) 2. I am 32 and while age is a just a number, numbers are everything where we are ;) and I want to get some honest feedback on whether it even makes sense to go for another Masters or just bite the bullet and apply for PhD programs directly? Thank you!!