Is it possible for anyone with moderate skills in mathematics to fulfill PhD in Finance?

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Maggie Beloved

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Is it possible for anyone with moderate skills in mathematics to fulfill PhD in Finance? Suppose one has finished four courses of Differential and Integral Calculus as well as Differential Equations, Statistics, and Linear Algebra for his undergrad. Also, he has taken two courses of Stochastic Calculus and Econometrics for his MS. The average performance for all courses (both undergrad and MS) is around 3.3/4.0. For any finance courses, my performance is above 3.5/4.0. Any ideas?
 
Thanks, Pathak. Actually, I don't expect to study in those big names since I absolutely know that I'm not qualified. Yet, I just wanna know in general how mathematical skills plays a role in PhD. in Finance.
 
Seems to me that you have enough Math for the Finance PhD in the Business Schools. You will be taking 12 courses in Economics department (Micro I, II, Macro I, II, Econometrics I, II, III, Game Theory I, II, and a couple more). You only need Calculus and Statistics for these courses. For research you mostly need advanced Statistics. You can also do work in Behavioral Finance which is mostly just Statistics. Just make sure that you are expert in SAS, SPSS, Matlab. Your GPA is too low for Top 50 Finance PhD. You need 3.8 - 3.9 GPA because admission rate is 2% - 6%.
 
Your GPA is too low for Top 50 Finance PhD.
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I disagree with TraderJoe on this one. Nothing is so absolute.

Your GPA hurts your chances, but in the end they are just that... chances. You never know what might come through for you: maybe a great set of recommendations, an incredible essay, or a convincing interview. These can and do help overcome a mediocre GPA.

I think the classic procedure of choosing a few really high end schools, a few more realistic schools, and a few "safety" schools is the smartest approach.

Just as an example from the urch forum... this selection of schools would not qualify as smart...
Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, Penn, Columbia, Northwestern, Berkeley, Yale.
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And in fact, the person who applied to these schools (and nowhere else) got rejected from all of them despite pretty good stats on paper. (S)he was too cocky about those stats and paid for it.

A list more like this... would be the intelligent thing to do.
MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, Yale, Maryland, Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Minnesota, BU, Michigan State, Penn State, WUSTL, Virginia, Michigan
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Edit: It is a better use of your energy to improve those factors which ARE under your control (essay, recommendations, etc). Your GPA is what it is, it will not change. Worrying about it is a waste of imagination. Get an opinion to gauge how many of each type of school you should apply to then move on. As far as being able to make it through such a program, your drive to succeed and willpower have a lot to do with it.
 
I think you have enough math to succeed in a finance phd program. The question is how much math does the admissions board want?? No one really knows for sure, and some people assume more math is better.

Yike Lu said:
I think the classic procedure of choosing a few really high end schools, a few more realistic schools, and a few "safety" schools is the smartest approach.
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I agree with Yike Lu.

Something to consider is what you want to do. For example if you are interested in academic research/teaching then the lower rank phd program you go to, generally the harder it will be for you to get a job (unless you are an amazing researcher that comes out of your shell during your phd and publishes alot).
 
Thank you everyone. More comments from any experienced ones or ex-PhD candidates are absolutely welcome.

It would be grateful if anyone can explain me how mathematics can mess up your PhD life. As far as I know, some PhD in Finance candidates are with their PhD in Physics or Mathematics implying that they have superior quantitative skills.

At the time I studied my MS Finance, I sometimes faced a difficulty to understand some empirical study's methodologies explained by advanced mathematics. Therefore, I had to skip them, and tried to understand only their results. That's why I a little bit fear that study PhD in Finance will be very painful to me.

I' m passionate to pursue my PhD in Finance, so I plan to take about two years including this year for my preparation. As a result, I raise this question to be discussed.

P.S. Is there any difference for mathematics skills used in PhD in Economics and PhD in Finance?
 
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