FinMaster

One of my professors, who worked in an Admission Commitee being a PhD student, told me that I should not write more than a page.

Corpfin2006, thank you for such a detailed answer! Yes, I haven't taken a lot of finance courses yet, though I'm taking 4-5 courses (Advanced AP, Risk Man., CorpFin etc.) this year in the 2nd year of my Master's program. Do not know if this is a big drawback of my profile, but we will see. Your question concerned with my motivation. Am I motivated enough for PhD in finance? The anwer is definitely "yes". Believe me, the decision to apply to finance departments was not made occasionally. But you are right, also, I really enjoy some economics fields, esp. Contract Theory, Behavioral Econ., Political Econ., some Macro topics. I also wish you good luck! Moreover, with such love coming from your post I am sure you will become a great researcher in the field of finance.

Ililgoo, Yes, their deadline is in a week, so it is rather late to complete the applucation if you haven't started yet. Good luck!

I second Zavera's advice. Also, this is a way to diversify risks if someone writes you a not-so-good recommendation. As for me, 4 professors will write me lors and some schools I'm applying require only 2 lors, so I will also mix them :-)

Hi, Europeean! Your profile looks very good, at least, in terms of courses you have taken. I do not quite understand how good is your GPA and university you're attending. But if your GPA puts you in top 2-3% in a well-respected institution, I think you have pretty good chances in universities like UCLA and Columbia. Of course, it is difficult to predict whether you have chances at MIT or Harvard, because admission to such unis depends on many other factors that cannot be described in such "profiles". Good luck!

Thank you, Zavera! Ililgoo is right, most BSchools (at least, their finance depts) accept both GRE and GMAT. The reason I took GRE is that Chicago and Stanford seem to prefer GRE to GMAT. However, some other schools (e.g. Toronto) prefer GMAT. So it is a matter of taste :) I do not quite get your point of view about Master's degree. I am currently pursuing MA in economics and graduating in June. Do you mean that I should graduate before applying for PhD?

Thank you, Ililgoo! I definitely will not apply outside TOP20 this year. If I fail to be admitted somewhere this year, I will prepare and get a much higher Verbal score next year and apply then. My Verbal was so low because 1) I am an international applicant, 2) I passed GRE without any preparation and 3) I hate learning these crazy words.

Hi, Ivo. Although it may be statet as a requirement by some institutions, I do not think that it is a crucial one. If you can't get official transripts in sealed envelops send, them as you have. I would advice you to enclose a small letter describing why you can't send them transcripts in sealed envelops. I am sure this will be enough.

Dear friends, I will appreciate if you evaluate my profile and my chances of getting admitted to the schools indicated below. Profile International applicant from Eastern Europe. Aiming at PhD in finance at Business Schools. Undergrad: BSc in Economics (TOP school in my country though may be unknown in US), GPA = 3.98. Rank: 2 out of ~300. Math & Statistics Courses: Calculus, Linear Algebra, Discrete Maths, Applied Math. Modelling, Stochastic Diff. Equations, Methods of Optimization, Probability, Math. Stat., Econometrics, Game Theory. Economics and Finance Courses: Intro and Interm. Macro and Micro, IO, Applied IO, Institutional Econ, Public Econ, International Econ, CorpFin, Financial Markets, Monetary Theory, Asset Valuation, Investment Analysis. Graduate: MA in Economics (very respected MA program in Europe), current GPA = 4.1 (A+ stands for 4.3). Rank: 2 out of ~90. It is a two-year program and I am graduating in June. Courses: Advanced Macro, Micro and Econometrics, Math for Economists, Game Theory, Contract Theory, Economic Growth. TOEFL: 280 (L27 S27 R30 W5.0) GRE: Q800, V360 (this sucks :hmm: ), do not know AWA yet. Teaching and Research experience: When I was an undergraduate student, I did RA'ship for two projects. I have two publications though not in TOP journals and in my native language. Currently I am a TA for Micro course at graduate school. List of Universities: (maybe, I will include some more or exclude smth) 1) London Business School 2) MIT, Sloan SoM 3) NYU, Stern BS 4) Northwestern U, Kellogg SoM 5) Stanford U, GSB 6) U of Chicago, GSB 7) UCLA, Anderson SoM 8) U of Penn, Wharton BS Do you think it is reasonable for me to apply to top schools like mentioned above? Thank you in advance.

I think that UToronto and McGill are two very good Canadian schools for studying finance. They are definitely worth applying. I personally do not know anything about other Canadian schools but these two are the best (in finance).

I believe they're quite similar. Personally, I got Q800/V370 and Q800/V460 on two Powerprep tests and the actual test score was Q800/V360.

Hi Saraj, Definitely, k is lower than 30. Since all three points are on the left side of normal distribution density, the value of density increases => the square between 300 and 450 is lower than that between 450 and 600 => k

Hi, Holden Caulfield! There is no difference 4 u. When you didn't know the information that B contains nothing, all three boxes had same probability that they have money (1/3). Then, you found out that B has nothing that is pr(B) = 0. Since you haven't got any futher info about boxes A and C the probability is the same: pr(A) = pr© = 0,333 / (0,333+0,333+0) = 1/2

Hi Sukhovm, Change the url for http://ftp.ets.org/pub/toefl/PPTFL10.exe and type it after you fill in the form. This should help.

Thank you, dear all, for cogratulating me! I am so happy to see such beautiful girls on this forum.