• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Should I go for PHD ?

Joined
10/2/08
Messages
9
Points
11
Hi fellow quants:

I am finishing my MFE from ( one of CMU NYU Chicago) . I noticed that many jobs requrie PHD and a PHD give one more options in career development/advancement and likely more $$$.

As far as I know , recently MS , GS ets require PHD for their junior quant positions.

So this is my questions , should I go for PHD at all ?
If so,PHD in quantitative finance or PHD in finance ?
If not , why?

What's the difference in the career path between a master quant and a PHD quant?


Thanks,
 
Well, CMU and NYU have very good placement rates and should be able to place you in good quant positions. Regarding PhD for quant positions, this topic has been debated extensively. Search through the forums. I think many positions where PhD was a requirement has been opened up for MFE students too. e.g Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Quant Finance Internship...the entry requirement is MFE or PhD.
 
Hi fellow quants:

I am finishing my MFE from ( one of CMU NYU Chicago) . I noticed that many jobs requrie PHD and a PHD give one more options in career development/advancement and likely more $$$.

As far as I know , recently MS , GS ets require PHD for their junior quant positions.

So this is my questions , should I go for PHD at all ?
If so,PHD in quantitative finance or PHD in finance ?
If not , why?

What's the difference in the career path between a master quant and a PHD quant?


Thanks,

Many jobs prefer a PhD but that doesn't mean that you can't get them with your MFE. A PhD is a big time commitment so you need to want to get the PhD for reasons other than money because it can be a grueling number of years. This topic has come up before as Joy pointed out so try searching these forums.

There aren't very many PhD programs in quantitative finance, so you would be better off going to a top program in finance (or even applied math/statistics if they do finance oriented research).
 
Many jobs prefer a PhD but that doesn't mean that you can't get them with your MFE. A PhD is a big time commitment so you need to want to get the PhD for reasons other than money because it can be a grueling number of years. This topic has come up before as Joy pointed out so try searching these forums.

There aren't very many PhD programs in quantitative finance, so you would be better off going to a top program in finance (or even applied math/statistics if they do finance oriented research).

I agree... going for PhD is a big time committment. If you want to go for PhD only for money/job placement reason, then you will suffer for the next 4~6 years to an extent that I'd bet you'd quit in the middle of it....
 
The question here isn't where OP got his MFE but rather why do a PhD after MFE?

OP asks should he do PhD because "recently MS , GS ets require PHD for their junior quant positions. "

That's pretty bad reason to do PhD. Every now and then I see people asking similar question because they see a certain degree is required from the job postings they saw.

The world is not revolving around "MS, GS and their PHD junior quants". There are always people with a higher degree than you, better experience than you so it's an endless race if you don't have a goal in mind early in your career.

This brings me to a question: what was the reason for you to do an MFE? If MFE does not provide you an entry to move up the ladder, how would you be sure 6 years from now that the PhD gives you what you need, putting aside that a PhD degree is not always a given as a master degree.

Many successful people on Wall Street don't even have a master degree.
 
Well as pointed out by Andy and Joy, do not enter in to PHD just for money reasons or for obvious job reasons, rather go for a PHD if and only if you are interested, else do not even think about it. If you are still pinned on to going for a PHD, then I would suggest that you go for an engineering/math-stats/industrial systems/CS/OR related PHD, because tech is the way to go!
 
Back
Top