Search the Community

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!!