zapster

agree with the above with one exception...write to her asap.....the earlier the better.

You should be clear while asking that you are applying to XXX schools. Some profs may place a cap on the number of letters they are willing to write, although most would probably be happy to write half a dozen or so letters (I know of prfs. who have agreed to write as many as 15, but then there are some who have restricted it to 2, or just one as in your case above). It is important to make this clear at the outset so that neighter you nor the profs. come in for a bit of a shock closer to the deadline! If you are not sure, just ask.

Definitely contact as many professors as you can - unless they have explicitly stated on their websites or on the program websites that "you should not" / "it is not advisable to" contact professors upfront. Applying only to top 20 would be too much of a risk, although you can definitely apply to these universities as well. Most importantly, I think that in order to stand a chance at the good universities for a phd admission, you might want to refine your research interests a bit, get some more clarity on the areas you will like to focus on, perhaps read some contemporary research in these areas to be more fluent in the "language" of contemporary research. You probably need to demonstrate a strong Quant GRE, especially if your GPA is not very good. Although after 8 years of work ex, adcoms will possibly focus less on your GPA, and more on - subject matter you might have covered, demonstrated quantitive skills, and the benefits that your work experience has brought in. Is your professional experience linked somehow to your research interests, if yes, you should definitely highlight how.

With 1 year forwards recently trading at or over 70, it seems unlikely that the Rupee will stabilise or return to levels much higher than what it is currently trading at (c. 65) over the short to medium term. Technical analysis has suggested that after touching 70 (or 75, 80?) it may appreciate a bit and stabilise in the 63-65 range. But we all know that all these predictions can easily be thrown for a toss within a few days. My point is that it is unlikely that a year later your Rupee prospects would look significantly better (at best it is completely unpredictable!), so your options are more in terms of a. Go ahead this year, it is unlikely that you will significantly benefit from the exchange rate by waiting or b. Work for one year, see if you can save a bit and then apply. I would probably make this decision independent of the exchange rate trend.

I presume you are applying for a phd not a masters? In which case I would think applying to a department without any of your POIs holding any position there (have you checked - some profs. hold a position in multiple depts. ?) would be difficult - both (a) for you to be admitted to the dept. as well as ( for you to get adequate traction resources, funding, share of mind etc. even if you do get admitted. caveat: not speaking from experience here though.

Generally an official or certified translation would be required, however some programs may be willing to accept self-certified transcripts for initial applications, with the condition that any offer of admission be fulfilled by providing certified/official translated copies (in the same way that some programs allow self-reported GRE scores in the initial application to be followed by an official score report if the applicant is admitted). You will probably need to ask each school though.

and again, yes, go to a fully funded program (I was so tempted to go "fourth" !). However if I understand the OPs question correctly, there seem to be some additional nuances - (1) There is a difference between fully vs partially funded vs competitively funded, i.e. different fully funded programs may cover all your tuition / insurance / etc. but the cash component (after paying off the tuition / school / insurance) of the stipend paid as TA/RA may still differ, making some fully funded programs less competitive than others. As long as the tuition/insurance is fully funded, a less competitive cash component program may still make a lot of sense if it is the right program fit etc. (2) There is a difference between schools providing "full funding to some students" and those that "guarantee funding for all students", i.e. I would not restrict myself to applying only to schools which "guarantee funding to all students" upfront. I think most (many?) schools and programs would provide "full funding" to at least some students, although there is no way of knowing where you will stand at the time of application. So my recommendation is not to worry too much about funding at the time of application, i.e. do not rule out schools at the application stage (unless you have it from an inside source in the program that they are desperately short on funds or are clearly not providing full funding to anyone), but make it one of the most important factors once you receive admits and know the exact funding offer made by the school / program. If you are lucky enought to get multiple funded offers, many programs are known to take competitive offers into account and increase theirs a bit as well. Best of Luck!

Depends on what is your objective / end-goal in pusuing a phd, as well as your background /experience, specific area of interest within Finance. In general my opinion is that if your target is definitely a phd, you should try to get into a phd program directly as far as possible; consider an MFE only if your chances of getting into a phd program are minimal without first going through an MFE. I would also suggest writing to potential POIs in Finance with a brief about your background and interests and asking whether they are open to taking phd students next year, etc. Their responses should give you a good idea of how appropriate they consider your fit into the programs (although admissions per se can be totally unpredictable).

B-C-A

The smart person should stop caring about what the group of people thinks - caring too much places inhibitions on what the smart person says or does, thus not allowing the "true smart self" (TSS) to show itself. Stop caring, and it becomes easier for the TSS to show itself, hopefully changing a few minds along the way.

the point is you need not "submit" the scores officially....but you can always include them in your CV / Other information / etc. if they are strong.

a 165 on each wouldnt hurt.....perhaps the query is better addressed if you specify your actual scores....otherwise the answer is a solution to a combinatorial optimization problem.....

Agreed - you should definitely apply now; in the worst case that you do not get in to any of your schools, the application process itself will be a great learning process and help you improve your SOP etc. for the next year, as well as provide you with implicit feedback on any other areas you might want to focus on improving.

You can PM me your SOP for comments.

It really depends on you own comfort level - my approach was to speed through all questions and then do a second quick pass of all to "check" etc. I would make a quick note of the specific questions I wanted to definitely do a second check on in case I was running out of time to do a full 2nd pass, but I could usually do the full second pass and still have a bit of time left. Also, I think silly mistakes are not really dependent on how fast you go, but on being at a sub-optimal level of concentration - sometimes the need to speed up remains a conscious thought and actually hinders your concentration, thus resulting in silly mistakes (ala Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow - if you have read it, where he talks about conscious effort and need to apply self-control competing for cognitive resources). So try to go as fast as you can, but do not consciously worry about your pace - this will help you focus and eliminate silly mistakes. The only thing wrt time you should be wary about is in case you get stuck on a question for over XX (this depends on you personally) amount of time where you risk not completing the section because you are really stuck, in which case just move on and tackle this right at the end. Best of Luck!