想申金融phd

hustyzqUID: 3730580

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-30 20:43
1. (for 99.99% of the roles) you don't need a phd to be a financial practitioner.
PhD in finance  ...

I have learned some basic course during my master program, such as Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Investment, etc. And I've passed some primary financial cetification examination held by SAC, besides, I'm preparing for the FRM level I exam, thus making myself clear that I know little about finance and apply for a financial degree. Probably I should balance more about the hardship...

cheesechanUID: 3505689

hustyzq 发表于 2017-3-30 20:53
I have learned some basic course during my master program, such as Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, ...

Econ:
I don't know how basic is your economics course in your master, but it is quite common that people have taken advanced level micro (MWG) and macro (DSGE stuffs), or at least intermediate level before application for a Finance / financial economics PhD.

math:
mathematics / statistics / programming background is also important.
As you are saying that you want to do something related to the quantitative / computational side.........well (both academics or industry), you want to work with stuffs under the P or the Q measure?
and the mathematical preparation for them are quite different indeed......
(please don't ask what is the difference between P and Q measure if you think that you want to leverage your engineering to do quantitative / computational finance research)

Professional exam:
99.99% likely no one fxcking care about how much professional exam you have taken in a PhD application.
They may be useful for job hunting though.

hustyzqUID: 3730580

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-30 21:21
Econ:
I don't know how basic is your economics course in your master, but it is quite common that ...

My apologies, I think maybe I didn't make you clear about my situation. Truely I'm not fully-prepared for the application, and I just have a emotional understanding about quant, but I said it is my ralated expreience that inspired me to learn more about finance systematically.  I think you may underestimated my self-learning abilities and dedication. I transferred my major from engineering to business, and I found it more attractive to learn more about finance, and indeed I spent my time learing the related courses and passing the related exams. Maybe you could give some constructive suggestions about the solution assuming I have some basic knowledge?

hustyzqUID: 3730580

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-30 21:21
Econ:
I don't know how basic is your economics course in your master, but it is quite common that ...

May I know whether you are Chinese or not and which school are you in as a PhD? I think maybe there are some culture differences in our dialogue that I tend to say things in a modest way which makes you underestimate my situation? 'Cause I feel somehow unfriendly in your tone.

cheesechanUID: 3505689

hustyzq 发表于 2017-3-30 21:43
My apologies, I think maybe I didn't make you clear about my situation. Truely I'm not fully-prepa ...

well, you didn't make your background clear......e.g. people here don't know what math/stat/cs/econ/fina course you have (and GPA!!!). People don't know what was your major in bachelor, people don't know how's you IELTS/TOFEL and GRE...........people don't know what kind of reference letter you can get, don't know what research experience you have...
what can we comment about indeed.....?

phd-wanna-be should know what is important in PhD admission assessment, like at least 3 years (the more the better) before their application, so that they have enough time to prepare themselves for that.
given that you don't aware of this, you are out already.


01. Assumption - something in quantitative / computational finance:
I don't know what engineering you were doing (and thus no idea what kind of skills you have), but it is generally a bad (horrible indeed) idea to switch from engineering to business in sense of preparing someone for research in mathematical / computational finance.
operation research, math/stat, computer science之類比任何business major (including finance, management science and whatever buseinss economics)申請PhD in financial mathematics, computational finance and etc..都好.

一個finance master, econ master之類, 對搞quant / computational finance研究的用途是很有限的(我只是不想說零....).
constructive suggestions is: forget about finance (I really mean that, finance is too easy to learn for those who are smart enough to do a phd in math/stat/cs, they just need to self-study that. professor wont need any certification for those finance stuffs since they are easy, and they need a solid grade in those quantitative course in order to show their ability). take more time on math/stat/cs. it is about PDE/SDE, numerical methods, machine learning, probability theory and etc....(it will be very useful if you take more course in those, but.....your competitor are majoring in those field, you wont get as much as them unless you don't have to sleep.)

搞mathematical, computational finance的研究, 要的是數理背景好的, math, physics的最好, stat, cs的也不錯, business 背景的請出門轉右上角按X. 很一大部份這塊的research都是在math/stat/OR/CS department的, finance department搞這些的不是沒有, 但是他們要人的時候也極偏向會要數理工背景的人. Moving from engineering to management science is somehow a bad signal for application to this field.


02. Assumption, something in finance / financial economics:
again, a business master is a bad idea, no matter it is finance (unless it is a few research master in finance) or business economics. the best preparation is a master in economics, with a financial economics concentration. advanced micro, macro, various econometrics method (e.g. microeconometrics, time series)之類都很有用. (what is advanced level? 就是人家master / PhD level的, micro 多數用MWG, macro會講DSGE, financial economics / asset pricing 會用cochrane的level). 之後再加幾個advanced topic course + seminar, 你就會知道what is the topics people are interested in.

至於這堆東西背後要甚麼mathematical preparation, 那也無非是real analysis, stochastic process, optim, time series, prob and stat之類......


03. For both:
大家都說reference letter很重要, 那是當然的.
問題的關鍵是, reference letter怎樣來, 怎樣才有strong的呢?

最慣常的套路就是, you get into the right master, you study all those solid stuffs for preparation, and thus you can get supervision under the prof, and work on some research project under them, and thus they know you well, and thus they are willing to recommend you.

而你現在是研一下學期, 明年畢業, 但是現在才問甚麼是重要.........這肯定是不夠時間的.
所以大家會建議你再申一個master........a right one.

至於沒錢甚麼的........sorry for a cruel fact, 沒錢就唯有向現實低頭.
讀PhD做研究, 本來就是家境尚可的人的玩意. 本身家境不是尚可的, 會沒錢, 會要等你盡快賺錢養家, 會忍受不了PhD的low ROI.......

(what is a right one? it depends on your research interest. 想搞finance的去申economics, 想搞derivative pricing的去申請math / stat / OR school 的 (depends on that department). 想搞ML, quant trading 的多數是在stat/CS)






P.S. it is perfectly fine for a year 2 bachelor students to only "have a emotional understanding about quant" and "it is my ralated expreience that inspired me to learn more about finance systematically"....they have the time to prepare.
it is also fine for a master student to say so, iff they have the $$ to read another master again.

I won't doubt/believe your self-study ability (i don't know your grade, i don't know you, I don't know which school you are in), but the requirement is way higher than that. you need the grade on your transcript to show to the admission committee. you need the classes and interaction with the professors in order to impress them and let them hire you for a RA. This is a process like.....at least 2 years, given you are in the right department.

And,  those certificate are really useless for PhD application.  They are for job hunt only.



My advise is: first, please don't quote simply finance as your area of interest. It is too board.
Finance is an application area. You need very different skill (and thus different preparation) to attack different question in this field. (and you don't have time to study them all.....believe me, life is short, time is limited; I am not a PhD, but I have a master in financial economics + a master in financial mathematics so I know how different they can be)
When people are talking about research, question are now always very small one. Given that you are not working in a PhD now, you don't have to go too deep, but at least you should be able to state if it is, e.g. theoretical asset pricing, monetary policy, international finance, derivative pricing, micro market structure, or etc.....instead of mentioning PE equity research + computational finance together

after you have a few subfield in your mind (they should be related), people here can start to discuss what is necessary for preparation.

$$ is a concern for another master, but there are cheap one overseas so it should not be a big concern unless you have a "die-hard" US dream

ting9112UID: 3454977

hustyzq 发表于 2017-3-30 17:32
这不是没钱读不起硕士么……而且我已经在国内读了一个硕士了啊

申请美国TOP50的金融学博士 至少需要国内TOP4平台的本科 或者 国外硕士，TOP50+的金融学博士毕业后去美国research school的机会不大，如果要去业界的话，金融学博士远不如数学、统计、CS等专业的博士在量化方面吃香，大部分花街高级“矿工”都是数理CS等专业的博士。如果是金融学博士在业界大部分也是research/analysis部门的。去国外读硕士的花费远比国内的费用高。一个硕士有什么的，君不见有些人为了转专业读金融学读了3个硕士。这都是看你自己，看这些值不值得。

cheesechanUID: 3505689

ting9112 发表于 2017-3-31 00:15
申请美国TOP50的金融学博士 至少需要国内TOP4平台的本科 或者 国外硕士，TOP50+的金融学博士毕业后去美国 ...

人家已經覺得被underestimate和覺得unfriendly了........

其實只是競爭激烈得太變態了...

jianghahaUID: 3590121

ggggg1234 发表于 2017-3-30 18:47
1. 清华经管有全世界最好的生源，甚至强于MIT自己的本科生。钱颖一回国后也解决了信息不对称。申请结果不 ...

我觉得不需要用甚至这个词，从平均意义上来讲，清华生源必然强于mit本科生。。。

jianghahaUID: 3590121

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-31 00:18
人家已經覺得被underestimate和覺得unfriendly了........

其實只是競爭激烈得太變態了...

现在金融学博士竞争真的太变态了。

sleeps0ftUID: 3538795

233
欧日这些地方的金融博士倒是不激烈，不过你们肯定都没人愿意去读就是

cheesechanUID: 3505689

sleeps0ft 发表于 2017-3-31 00:37
233
欧日这些地方的金融博士倒是不激烈，不过你们肯定都没人愿意去读就是

夠強能申到us top 15之類除外

其實我真的弄不懂為啥這麼多人要非US 不讀的樣子，還要喊自己錢少不夠用…

sleeps0ftUID: 3538795

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-31 00:52
夠強能申到us top 15之類除外

其實我真的弄不懂為啥這麼多人要非US 不讀的樣子，還要喊自己錢少不夠用 ...

因为非主流又不来钱嘛
脱离了美国这种资本主义大本营的大环境，在欧日，你起薪看金融博士和经济博士又没大差，那谁没事非要挤去金融
而且主流研究上的确差距大，朋友在荷兰读金融系里都没正经做资产定价的，全是非主流不来钱的研究

cheesechanUID: 3505689

sleeps0ft 发表于 2017-3-31 00:59
因为非主流又不来钱嘛
脱离了美国这种资本主义大本营的大环境，在欧日，你起薪看金融博士和经济博士又没 ...

但是如果是為了錢的話…不是直接弄個甚麼MFE, CS, 或者MBA 之類都比PhD 更快更多吧…?

為錢去讀phd 搞學術，會不會有點太過不efficient,  和有點兒太那個了嗎？

sleeps0ftUID: 3538795

cheesechan 发表于 2017-3-31 01:11
但是如果是為了錢的話…不是直接弄個甚麼MFE, CS, 或者MBA 之類都比PhD 更快更多吧…?

钱和非钱的balance嘛
就好像投行的人也会出来一样
（钱max,其他=0）和（没钱，纯休闲）这种plan还是太极端了，一般人更愿意选择（钱多点，活少点）这样的混合

cheesechanUID: 3505689

sleeps0ft 发表于 2017-3-31 01:15
钱和非钱的balance嘛
就好像投行的人也会出来一样
（钱max,其他=0）和（没钱，纯休闲）这种plan还是太极 ...

但是就算是這樣，
金融行業，搞量化的會更要math/stat/cs,
搞宏觀/央行甚麼的econ 的也沒有問題(if research interest matches) …
究竟有甚麼non academics 的research position 是會優先要finance的呢？比較好奇這個…