Best PhD for Quant Finance?

[mikeobrien]

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I'm looking to get a PhD and get into quantitative finance. I already have some industry experience, and have completed the CFA Level I. In terms of the best types of PhD programs, I was considering Statistics, but are there more relevant programs, like a PhD in Finance? Wouldn't that overlap with a lot of the CFA material? Any thouhgts?

[Party_Key]

A quick Google search gives you the answer you are looking for. PhD in Finance is a lot more involved than CFA, but (I think) not involved enough to be a quantitative analyst. I am not sure what you mean by quantitative finance, but if you want to be a quantitative analyst in Wall Street, I think you would need a more mathematically rigorous PhD such as engineering, computer science, statistics (not social statistics), or mathematics. Unlike finance or economics, it takes time, years!, to understand these subjects.

But is it worth spending 4 - 7 years doing a PhD so that you can get paid $150,000 in Wall Street after you complete your PhD? Is it not better to just complete the CFA and get a well-paid job in a fund house or something?

[lelelele]

No. CFA doesn't get into mathematical finance. If you want a shorter degree, consider MFEs, where you can still make a lot of money, but no research.

[Shostakovich]

A quick Google search gives you the answer you are looking for. PhD in Finance is a lot more involved than CFA, but (I think) not involved enough to be a quantitative analyst. I am not sure what you mean by quantitative finance, but if you want to be a quantitative analyst in Wall Street, I think you would need a more mathematically rigorous PhD such as engineering, computer science, statistics (not social statistics), or mathematics. Unlike finance or economics, it takes time, years!, to understand these subjects.

But is it worth spending 4 - 7 years doing a PhD so that you can get paid $150,000 in Wall Street after you complete your PhD? Is it not better to just complete the CFA and get a well-paid job in a fund house or something?

 

If you want to become a quant, I think QuantNet is a great place to start. Finance is a very saturated field nowadays, PhD Finance programs are very competitive with hundreds of applicants sometimes competing for a few spots (e.g. UT Austin says on their website they get 180-200 apps for 3-6 spots each yr). Of course if you could secure a spot in such a program like that and do well in it, you can potentially get some very high-paying jobs that you typically won't see in many science fields. Would be absolutely integral to have great track record at school in relevant courses (advanced math/econ courses) as well as proficiency with programming languages (emphasis on C). Industry experience could also help depending on what it was. MFE programs require similar credentials and could still land you decent jobs (if it's from a top program), but as it is just a masters degree it will have a lower barrier to entry and not as much of a guarantee for your future career. And as for CFA exams, I guess it's better to have them than to not have them, but my friends who took those have complained that they were almost useless even with 2-3 levels completed.

 

If you go the Statistics route I'd look at Columbia or NYU, last I heard it is *very possible* to break into wall street coming out of Columbia's MA Statistics program and doing some good networking as those two schools are sort of the *target* schools for wall street banks, with some of their employees being students part-time at those institutions.

 

But really there's no one route to becoming a quant if that's what you truly want to do. The guys in wall street want to see intelligence and willingness to put in hard work. Many people argue that Physics PhD's are actually the most qualified quantitative analysts.

 

So a lot of quickly typed up mumbo jumbo here based on what I've researched/heard over the years, but hopefully it helps you.

[Arcanen]

Columbia has a PhD in operations research with a financial engineering specialization. It's run by the IEOR department who also run a top 5 (2nd in the world on the advanced traders list I think?) masters in financial engineering program. I think most of their graduates go into industry, so if that's your plan it's probably the program to go for. It's one of the only doctoral degrees I've seen that really is a quantitative finance PhD (as opposed to a finance PhD or an operations research PhD where you can take a few finance classes), it has an unbeatable location for networking, and well, it's Columbia.

 

I imagine it's difficult to get into though, the website says less than ten spots for a few hundred applicants. If a program at Columbia has a 2% acceptance rate, you know it's crazy hard to get into. Probably set for life if you make it though haha.

[SCohn]

[Post temporarily removed.]

Edited January 11, 2014 by SCohn