PhD Finance - A nightmare - Please help
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07 Nov 2012, 06:17
Hi,
I am very keen on pursuing a career as an academician and have decided to apply for PhD. My wish is to do a PhD from a reputed US university (preferably top 25). I intend to apply this year which gives me only 4-6 weeks to work on my application which is not enough time to prepare for one of the most fiercely competed process.
I am writing to you all because I need your advice. I would be really grateful if you could spare sometime and reply.
1. I have a GMAT score of 730 (March 2010, V38, Q50). My work experience is in operations – process reengineering and transformation - 2 years in a reputed global investment bank. I do not have any research and teaching experience but have very good academic record. Do I have any hope getting an admit in PhD?
2. As an alternative, I was thinking to apply for a Masters in Finance degree and then apply for PhD. Would this increase my chances? I am wary of this path due to the high costs associated with MFin programs but if it increases my chances, I am ready to take the risk. However, the first deadline for almost all institutes have passed and my application would reach them before the 2nd cut off, which reduces my chances of admission.
3. I intend to target good and decent institutes. How many institutes should I apply to? Will it make sense to apply for PhD in finance for 3-4 institutes or should it be more? I can additionally apply for MFin in 2-3 institutes.
4. Last but not the least – when requesting for recommendations will it matter whether or not the recommender if of the same field? If I request a marketing or an operations professor for recommendation for a finance PhD will it have less impact vis-à-vis if I request a recommendation from a finance professor?
Based on my interest I have prepared a list institutes. I am planning to shortlist 6-8 institutes from this list. Request your views / feedback on the same. The idea is to have 2-3 awesome schools and 2-4 safe options i.e. not too high ranking schools. I think the latter is missing from my list as almost all of them are very high ranking. It would be wonderful if you could suggest / recommend a few not so awesome schools.
1. UCLA
2. Rochester
3. Michigan - Ann Arbor
4. Ohio State - Fisher
5. UC Berkeley
6. Columbia University
7. North Carolina - Chapel Hill
8. USC
9. Uni of Washinton - Foster
10. Indiana - Kelly
11. London Business School
12. Boston College - Carroll
13. Wash U. - Olin
A lot of my questions might be naïve but honestly with my first failed attempt in 2010 I am a little worried and very skeptical.
I would really appreciate your inputs.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
SB