Just a plan....could it work?

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edward

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2008 – 2011 BBA in Financial Engineering (current CGPA 3.75/4)<o:p></o:p>
2011 – 2013 MBA in Finance and Economics<o:p></o:p>
2011 – 2016 BS-MS in Statistics<o:p></o:p>
2014 – 2016 MS in Financial Mathematics<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
I’ve attached a short version of the curriculum for each degree.
Some degrees overlap in time but I can manage to complete them simultaneously.
So I’m asking for your opinions about my plan; is there any degree I should be adding or removing?<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
My main target is a PhD and a career in my home country Lebanon in research and academia. <o:p></o:p>
Possible PhD programs are:<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Berkley: PhD in Finance<o:p></o:p>
Boston University: PhD in Mathematical Finance<o:p></o:p>
Chicago: PhD in Finance<o:p></o:p>
Chicago: PhD in Statistics and Econometrics<o:p></o:p>
NYU: PhD in Finance<o:p></o:p>
Princeton: PhD in Operational Research and Financial Engineering<o:p></o:p>
Stanford: PhD in Finance<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Any other great ones I should be following??<o:p></o:p>
 

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After your first BS, just move on to a PhD; in the phd you can always pick up courses in several disciplines that you are interested in. Otherwise you will be wasting a lot of time; most things can be learned from reading a book.
 
What we should really look into is the fact that even after all those degrees and all those years the probability of getting into the universities named PhD Finance program is VERY low.
 
To meet the initial requierments of a top phd program i need to have a strong quantitative background which i dont since i am currently a business undergrad and their is no possible way i could change major since i am a senior and graduating next spring so to increase my chances of being admitted to a good phd program i decided to go for the BS-MS program in statistics which is 4.5 yrs program entirely funded by the gov. so it wouldnt cost me a thing. As for the MBA and the MS i consider those more as a hedging strategy just in case i couldnt join a phd program i would have in total 2 bachelors and 3 masters thus i would be able to find a teaching job at a local college and perhaps join its research team and become a research assistant.
 
Having so many degrees will hurt more than help. Get the BS. Do well. Cover yourself in all the areas in the admission requirements, and just hope for the best. A lot of Finance PhD admission is pure luck. The top 10 universities pick 2 or 3 students out of the total pool of applicants. They turn down MANY qualified applicants.

---------- Post added at 10:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:29 PM ----------
edward said:
To meet the initial requierments of a top phd program i need to have a strong quantitative background which i dont since i am currently a business undergrad and their is no possible way i could change major since i am a senior and graduating next spring so to increase my chances of being admitted to a good phd program i decided to go for the BS-MS program in statistics which is 4.5 yrs program entirely funded by the gov. so it wouldnt cost me a thing. As for the MBA and the MS i consider those more as a hedging strategy just in case i couldnt join a phd program i would have in total 2 bachelors and 3 masters thus i would be able to find a teaching job at a local college and perhaps join its research team and become a research assistant.
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Get a strong quantitative background by spending an extra year at your university and doing mathematics and statistics courses. Apply for an MS in a quantitative field and then apply for PhD finance. That is the best option. No point of doing another bachelors. You just need a few specific courses. It all depends on the field you want to do your research in also. The MBA is a waste of time if you want to get a PhD Finance.
 
Ok so after finishin my BBA next spring, i'll go for the BS in Stat and then upon finishing the BS i'll apply for the PhD and see what will happen.
 
edward said:
Ok so after finishin my BBA next spring, i'll go for the BS in Stat and then upon finishing the BS i'll apply for the PhD and see what will happen.
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I think this is a better idea, you really don't need all the degrees you originally listed to get a PhD. Towards the end of your BS in Stat I would recommend applying for a few PhD programs and maybe a masters program as a backup.

In the US you can enter a PhD program with just a BS but you really need to tailor your activities properly to do. PhD programs like to see great letters of recommendation from researchers that can speak to your research potential (meaning get a research assistant position). Also having experience doing your own research is a plus. Doing another BS or MS would allow you to focus on doing research and getting the proper references/experience you need.

Could you set things up where after completing your BS stats, if you didn't get accepted into a PhD program you wanted you could do the MS stats? And have it paid for?

I don't know about your university's flexibility, but taking a few economics courses especially at the graduate level and doing well looks great for PhD in finance admission (before what you are taking for the BBA in FE).

Your list of schools is of the best finance programs in the US basically. When looking at PhD programs an important consideration is research interests and whether faculty have the same interests. Also it is considered a wise practice to include a few lower ranked schools when applying for safety.

Check out this forum that is specifically for PhDs: http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-business/
 
What they are looking for in Finance PhD admissions is to see that you have done really well among a really smart group of students. For example, if you did MFE at Princeton, Chicago, UC-Berkeley, Stanford (all of which are feeder schools for Finance PhD programs), then they know that you were among a group of really smart students and you came out on top of this very smart group of students. These schools actually encourage their MFE students to apply for PhD. The main drawback, is that if you get the MFE from these schools and then go for PhD for 6 years, then you are probably going to lose well over $1 M in lost salary.
 
You should contact the Director of MIS in the Business School at The University of Notre Dame, USA. He is orginally from Lebanon and has helped a large number of students from Lebanon get admission into top USA universities. By some coincidence, you are studying at University of Notre Dame, Lebanon. He is a really nice guy and will probably help you a lot.
 
TraderJoe said:
For example, if you did MFE at Princeton, Chicago, UC-Berkeley, Stanford . These schools actually encourage their MFE students to apply for PhD.
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I'd like to know more about this. How did you know? Can you give me some direct contact at these programs to verify that they actually encourage their MFE grads to do PhD.
 
Andy Nguyen said:
I'd like to know more about this. How did you know? Can you give me some direct contact at these programs to verify that they actually encourage their MFE grads to do PhD.
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We aim to select those applicants who will do well in our courses, many of which are at the PhD level, and who upon graduation will be most desirable either as employees in quantitative finance, or in a related PhD program.

http://finmath.stanford.edu/admissions/faq.html
 
It reads to me like "OK, a good number of Stanford FinMath grads go on to PhD programs so we may just as well select those that can have a best shot of getting in".

That's not to say they encourage their grads to do PhD. Even if programs try to steer their grads to a job in finance, there is absolutely nothing they can do if these decide to get a PhD instead.

What do the folks at Chicago, Princeton, UCB say about encourage their MFE grads to do PhD?
 
I can only say for Princeton -- to begin with, most students who get in displayed career-oriented goals. If, for whatever reason, that aim changed to academia track along the way, it is not discouraged but you don't have a specific support system for it either. You do have closer interaction with top professors and research opportunities, so this helps during PhD admissions.

Anecdotally, you'd see 1-2 people per year making the jump to the Ivory Tower. I know this year, two people are joining Princeton's Economics/Finance PhD program. In the past, some had gone to Oxford, LBS, etc.
 
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