UNC Finance vs. UPenn Statistics

[nekopilot02]

So I've been accepted as mentioned above, UNC Finance PhD program with limited funding and UPenn Statistics PhD program with full funding. Both are pretty strong programs with awesome faculty. I've talked to graduate students from both programs and they are all very satisfied with their experience.

Breakdown of the offers-

UPenn:

- in the Wharton school of Business; large faculty but small number of graduate students, faculty consists of both bayesians and frequentists

- large city environment

- statistics phd gives you alot of options later in life but can be somewhat difficult to find a faculty position

- tends to be more mathematically intense than Finance

- full financial support

UNC:

- in Chapel Hill; small-ish faculty and small number of graduate students, faculty mainly focused on corporate finance but also has some new asset pricing people

- small college town environment (also, i've been in NC for the last 12 years)

- it's easy (relatively) to find a faculty position with a finance phd because there is such a limited number of them, also UNC does a great job with career placement

- I lean towards more quantitative interests so some of the more macro-econ based courses tend to be less interesting

- partial financial support for first 2 years, with full financial support contingent on passing qualifiers

Please help with any insights you may have. I've been turning this decision over and over in my head for a while now.

[origin415]

If everything else is relatively equal, go for the money. Avoid debt if you can, and it doesn't look like Penn is a bad choice at all besides that.

[hubris]

I am going to echo origin here and pass on the debt.

Also, UPENN's Wharton school has a lot of cultural cache.

So, I would go UPENN.

However, are you indifferent between the potential topics?

[nekopilot02]

Yeah I guess you could say I'm pretty indifferent between Finance and Statistics. I certainly am interested in both but I think there are pros and cons to both.

[sciencegal]

Statistics is a very flexible degree, I'd also disagree that it's hard to get faculty positions in statistics. I don't know relative to finance faculty positions but the statistics departments I am familiar with all recruited for multiple positions this year and last. With a stat PhD, depending on your dissertation and focus you can apply to a variety of departments, not just stat. Only my 2 cents!

PS-I'd go with Penn personally if I was indifferent topic wise.