Hi guysl, Just thought I'd make a post too. I am a Finance and Economics undergrad who will begin a Masters at LSE this month. I am planning to apply to PhD Finance programs for Fall 2018 with the intention of pursuing a career of academic research in asset pricing.. I'm just following the format followed by previous posters
Program of interest: Finance
Research interests: Asset Pricing (Theoretical and Empirical)
Schools: I have a list of 28 schools I am applying to. They include good schools such as NYU, Northwestern, Duke, Cornell, high second tier (USC Marshall, Rochester, Washington Foster and WashU Olin, Texas Austin, LSE, LBS) as well as lower second tier (Boston College, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc).
Worries about applying: GRE scores solely.
My GRE score was:
Q164 (87th percentile)
V163 (93rd percentile)
AW: 5.0 (93rd percentile)
The worry is the quant score which is below average for Finance applicants but I am hoping it is good enough for me to pass the initial screening. I believe the rest of my application is strong:
Undergrad: Undergraduate Honours Degree in Finance and Econometrics (2nd in cohort) from a global top 50 university from Australia GPA: First Class Honours (translates roughly to 4.0 in US system) Grad: MSc in Finance and Economics at London School of Economics (August 2017-June 2018) Research Experience: Working Paper on asset pricing theory. Expect to publish in next few years. Also worked as an RA for a research institute tied to the university Teaching Experience: Teaching Assistant for an introductory corporate finance course at undergraduate level. I was an academic tutor for 10 classes a week, performed marking duties and exam supervision when necessary. Teaching evaluation was 5.18/6.00 which is well above average
I am hoping if I get good marks at LSE and hence can get a top reference (I already have 3 referees from my local university), I can make a good fist of my application in spite of grad score. I am happy to go top 40 or top 50 but I will also aim for top 20 and 30. Hopefully I can get a bite somewhere.