anxious2011

Thanks for the info! Totally agree, prepared confident and friendly is my strategy too. By 'competitive' I meant that I'm not going to assume I'm 'virtually in', and going to assume that the interview to acceptance conversion is still relatively low.

Hey guys, I was recently invited to a campus visit at one of the schools I had applied to. I'm not really sure what to expect going into this. I believe I will be scheduled to meet faculty, and current PhD students. 1) any color on whether these campus visits are super competitive, or are they just so that the faculty can meet you in person before making a final decision? (I am just going to assume they are competitive to be on the safe side) 2) What should I do to prepare? Definitely going to read faculty's papers, and go over my 'why PhD', 'why my chosen field' answers. 3) Questions to ask faculty and current PhD Students. What might be some good questions to ask? Not sure if this topic is covered anywhere else, but hopefully this is helpful for more than just me! Cheers

Yeah I got one of these too. Never knew such a category existed. I don't think it's like a wait-list. The e-mail literally said that my application was considered and no conclusion could be reached so they are going to wait till all other applications are reviewed. I guess its sort of a waitlist just to have your application read :-/ Just increases the waiting time!

I was a Penn undergrad too, and totally agree, food around Philly is pretty awesome! Never been to CMU's campus though so can't compare. On a more relevant note, Penn ,at least at the undergrad level, encourages interdisciplinary studies, and I won't be surprised if this philosophy carries over to graduate departments as well. if Penn's program is more science incentive, I would check if there are any opportunities to take a few courses as Penn's business school, which is very highly ranked, and has a broad range of courses similar to the ones you mentioned above. Not sure if they allow it, but worth checking.

Undergrad: Finance and Statistics at top 10 school Math coursework: Stat coursework included probability, time series econometrics, stochastic processes. On the math side took a year of calc and real analysis as well. GRE: 800M, 730V Work Experience: Have about 1.5 years of work experience in consulting since graduating college. Research Experience: Wrote a honors thesis my Senior year. My work eventually contributed to a conference paper coauthored with my advisor on the project. LoRs: Professors I did research with and took a couple of classes with. I waived my right to see them, but I trust they are pretty good. Not big name professors though so not sure how powerful they will end up being. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high. I know the process is incredibly competitive, and spots in the top programs very limited, so I'm already mentally preparing myself to reapply next year :-/ Let's see how it turns out.

Hey people, I'm in the same boat as you'll. Applied to several PhD programs in Finance. Haven't heard back from anyone about interviews, and the wait is killing me! Any idea when decisions for most of these programs tend to come out?

Hey all, I just got a conditional offer from LSE for their MSc Economics program. Still holding out for other PhD/MPhil programs i have applied to, but not sure how optimistic I am on those, so as each day goes by chances I go to LSE increase. Anyone out there headed to LSE for Economics, or any other program? Any current students who can shed some light on their experiences so far? Cheers, anxious2011

Yeah I know exactly what you mean! Last night I dreamt that I got a big fat envelope from UC Berkeley, opened it and realized that I had gotten in! After sharing the news with my sister (I was at home) I started to yell excitedly out to my Mom, only to wake up, realize it was 7 AM and I had to haul my backside to work So clearly excited, but definitely turning into a crazy person

Having a "good feeling" about a particular school you are keen on(although you recognize this is completely irrational), only to realize through the gradcafe survey that you haven't gotten an interview invite , then going on to develop a "good feeling" about another school

Thanks! Will definitely give them a call and see what they say, Cheers!

I am in exactly the same situation. Have until Feb 28th to decide, but not sure I am going to hear back from other programs by then. Was planning to just call the school and explain. Peanut, did you have any luck changing the acceptance deadline?

Yeah. I agree, I think the departments run pretty independently. Any idea when MPhil Economics decisions come out from Oxford?

Currently reading Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett, but soon will begin either Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen) or Too Big to Fail (Andrew Ross Sorkin)...

I second that, though was advised that its not really a done thing in my program so I didn't have to do it. Still now I think the extra effort might have helped, but I didn't want to tick off any faculty :-/ oh well. I guess this second guessing is natural though. It happened while I was writing some of my later SOPs too. Kept finding small, probably inconsequential things that I could have caught earlier and then freaking out about them! Can't wait to be done with this!

Congratulations! I went to college in Philadelphia and came to love that city over 4 years. At first it wasn't the most thrilling place, but as I explored Center City and Olde City, I really grew to like it. The highlight for me in Philly was definitely the restaurants. Yes, you have the high end stuff, but there's a good bunch of very affordable options as well. Some great Italian BYOBs (Branzino, Bistro La Baia, were two of my favorites), Great Moroccan food at Marrakesh, and for some killer Margaritas and excellent Mexican food, El Vez is a must! I could go on and on! Also don't miss catching a show at the Kimmel Center, and First Friday's at South Streets' art museums. haha hoping I get admitted to my alma mater for my graduate program so I can go back!

During college and over the last year of working/apps I completely lost touch with reading books (for pleasure as opposed to classwork ), so I decided to treat myself during the holidays and bought a Kindle. Gotten through a couple of books already! Currently working my way through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Any suggestions on what to read next? I particularly like non-fiction and was thinking of reading something World War 2 related (I took a WW2 class in college and LOVED it, its remained something I try and read up on once in a while)

I am having a similar troubles with MIT Sloan PhD, and when I call/e-mail to check they very quickly tell me not to approach them for application statuses :-/ They STILL show my application as incomplete (submitted 7th Dec or so), think they are missing TOEFL scores. Anyone else with the same issue?

I am considering using my independent research paper as the required 10 page writing sample, however it is about 20-25 pages long. What sections should I omit/emphasize? What do most people do in this situation? Is it best to simply start with the abstract, add the introduction and theoretical background related sections with a conclusion? Is admissions looking for the detailed write up on any statistical analyses performed? I am quite confused on what to do here! P.S. - research was done in the area of corporate finance, and was empirical in nature (involved collecting a data-set and then subsequent regression and event study analyses)

That's what I've been thinking too. Does anyone have a sense of whether the 'standard' SOP length in such a case of it being unspecified changes across disciplines. I'm applying for PhD. programs in Finance or Economics. Thanks!

Hey guys! I thought I'd post this here hoping to get answers specific to PhD finance programs. Any ideas on how long B-School Finance departments usually require SOPs to be? I was planning to write 2 pages (1000 or so words) and then reduce or increase it from there depending the specific program. Not sure if I'm on the right track, so some feedback in terms of how long people are writing theirs would help! Cheers

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to this and don't have too many friends applying for PhDs in Finance or the Social Sciences in general. I just wanted some perspective on how many PhD programs those applying to fields like FInance or Economics generally apply to? I have about 12 programs listed, and migkt apply to a couple more Masters programs in England? Is this a good number? Is this too much? Thanks!

Does the typical number of schools people apply to change based on what programs you are applying to? (Physics vs. English vs. Econ etc.) I'm going to be applying for a PhD in Finance and have gotten myself down to 10 to 12 programs that I would love to go to. Some of course are the dream schools, others safer buts, but probably still very challenging to get into. Any idea on if this is a good number for Econ/Finance type programs? I'm also worried about burdenning Professors with too many LORs to submit. Do people tend to ask the same three professors to submit to all 10 programs or so?

I was just wondering how important it was for admissions to Finance PhD or Economics PhD programs to establish contact with Professors from Universities and programs whom you might be interested in attending? Also, a somewhat related question - Is there any advantage to applying for a PhD program to the same school you attended as Undergrad? Are the admission rates higher? Of course this is assuming that you know a couple of professors well. In my case I did a year long research project with a professor and wrote a Senior thesis based on my work.

Hey guys, I have been seriously considering the idea of graduate school, and am particularly interested in Masters programs in England, with Oxford and LSE looking most attractive to me. I just graduated from college (Penn) with a BSc Economics concentrating in Finance and Statistics. Although it is a BSc economics, it is a degree from the business school, so my background in Math is basically a year of calculus, some very very basic linear algebra as used in a STAT course on stochastic processes, and quite a lot of work with probability distributions and probability based models. I know that PhD economics programs in the US require a more advanced math background, with courses in linear algebra and Real Analysis. The MSc Economics in England portray themselves as being equivalent to the first two years of course-work of a US PhD program, however they seem less math intensive? Is this true? I am looking for a place where I can complete a masters (with the possibility of going onto a PhD) which also give me a chance to develop my Math skills during the two years or so of study. I was wondering if someone knew what was the level of math that Oxford and LSE assume knowledge of in their applicants and new entrants to the MSc/MPhil programs? Will I be completely lost if I apply (and perhaps get in) ? Any help and advice would be much appreciated! Cheers, Sanket