Advice for PhD Finance applicant - good preparatory masters programs

Question

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!!

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

Your profile is very good. You ALREADY have very good chances at the 2nd tier Ph.D. programs (maybe first-tier programs; it depends on who is giving you a letter of recommendation? and if you get extremely lucky). The math courses you already did and the little RA experience you gained is a plus. If I have got it correctly you already have two master's degrees with you, i.e. MBA and MA-Finance. My question is why do you really want to do a third masters? Are you ready to study with lots of rigor for the next 7 (1+1+5) years? Assuming you will apply for a master's degree for 2021 intake, by the time you complete your maters it will be will 2022. Do you want to delay your PhD admission by one more year? As it is you will be doing the coursework again during your Ph.D.

Few questions:
1) What Programs are you aiming for?
2) How are you at coding?
3) Have you at least checked with the Professor you did the small RA project whether he remembers you or not? (My guess and advice is to give it a try)
4) Where are you currently located? USA or India
5) Have you given GMAT? If yes, what is your score?

If you want to go for the top programs then go for a research master's degree, which will have lots of Probability theory, statistics theory, linear algebra, econometrics, research-based courses, finance seminars, improve your programming skills, work on SAS/STATA/LATEX/PYTHON etc. If you can take your GMAT to 740+ with a Pre-PhD program such as  (click here) , then you are well on your way to the top programs. You may also explore other such  opportunities. .

If you are not aiming for the very top programs, i.e. MIT, Harvard etc, then you may also think of working as a research associate just for ONE year and simultaneously do research-based courses and help the professor in his research. Because of your 2nd masters which you have already done and gained some RA experience and have done quant courses, many faculties would be interested in hiring you as an RA for one year. You would get some time revising the quant courses before your Ph.D. programs start and this should take care of LORs. You may also pick up (or improve) your coding skills. The one year RA experience will help you gain some confidence as well. Last but not the least, for all the suggestions I gave you, you do not have to shell out a single penny from your pocket. In fact you will not only receive tuition waivers but also some living stipend...What is your take?

I hope you find the feedback information useful.

Do feel free to get back!

All the best!

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

There is no hyperlink "(here)"....I am assuming you wanted to insert one!

nrr2020 · Answer

Thank you so much for your reply!! I have to admit that your answer is definitely a confidence boost.

Quote:

1) What Programs are you aiming for?

I am not aiming at the top programs at all. I am definitely looking at ranks 50 and below.

Quote:

2) How are you at coding?

I am not a developer but I have been extensively coding in Python and R the last two years and I am fairly confident about my coding skills.

Quote:

3) Have you at least checked with the Professor you did the small RA project whether he remembers you or not? (My guess and advice is to give it a try)

Ok, this I will do!! It is definitely worth checking out if he remembers me and if he can write a good LoR for me.

Quote:

4) Where are you currently located? USA or India

I am currently living in the US but I am not a citizen or a permanent resident so that rules out almost all of the Pre-PhD programs which seem to be open only to citizens or residents. And it rules out any kind of RA also because of work visa sponsorship issues. These were the first set of options that I had to sadly eliminate.

Quote:

5) Have you given GMAT? If yes, what is your score?

I took the GMAT in 2015 and scored only 720. I am hoping to retake it with better prep and improve my score. If I am applying for the next year cycle be it Masters or Phd, I will have retake because my scores will have expired by then.

The main reason for me wanting to do another Masters is to get back to doing coursework with more confidence, get some Research work, and get more recent and better LoRs. While I don't have too many aspirations to go to Wharton or NYU or Booth, I definitely want to do research from a decent department and eventually get into a good university as an Asst Prof.

So, when you say tier 2 colleges, which ones would you consider tier 2? Just want to make sure we are talking about the same schools.

CAMANISHPARMAR · Answer

My pleasure! So which ones are your top choices?

All the best! Do let us know what your professor said? Did you check out the requirements of this program. Nice; 720 is a good score and if you can improve further then nothing like it! All the best! When are you planning to take the GMAT btw? You want to do a Ph.D. from "from a decent department" but "you don't have too many aspirations". You have also mentioned that "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" Okay...so rather than sharing an explicit list of 2nd tier schools (having said that the attachment titled jfir.12099.pdf, which will follow might help you) with you let me share a few thoughts here. You would be already knowing that publications that provide rankings of business schools should be viewed with skepticism when evaluating doctoral programs. Moreover, rankings by national or global business magazines often focus exclusively on MBA programs and there may be little correlation between the ranking of an MBA program and the quality of the school's doctoral programs. You may find the following paper an interesting read; two finance professors at the University of Tulsa, Matthew Cook, and Brian Walkup, in 2016 produced a comprehensive and objective report on the research productivity of respective Ph.D. programs’ graduates:- jfir.12099.pdf I am not sure if you will be applying to Chicago, NYU, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, Duke, CMU, Northwestern, Columbia, etc. or not but if you still want to get in a "decent program" then you may want to access the quality of a school's doctoral program by reviewing the qualifications of the faculty and the level of research they have produced—especially in the field/department that you will be researching in. You may also want to review quality research journals (JOF, JFE, etc) in your discipline of interest and note the universities and institutions that are frequently publishing articles. You may also speak with your previous professors and ask them what they know about the programs you are interested in. You may also find out who graduated from the school you have identified for yourself and where they are. Send one or two of them an email and ask how they liked the program. If they are current faculty members at an institution, they will likely be more than happy to speak with you about their experience.

Advice for PhD Finance applicant - good preparatory masters programs

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