Career Suggestions

The following links may be useful for career preparation and job search:
 

Graduate Schools and Programs
Many undergraduate finance students intend to further their educations in MBA Programs, Law Schools or Doctoral Programs. The largest number seek to enter MBA programs. These students plan to attend graduate (or law) school following one of three paths:

     1.  Enter graduate school full-time immediately after finishing undergraduate degree requirements: This is the fastest way to complete graduate school requirements and enter the job market with an MBA or JD and obtain commensurate compensation. On the other hand, most students will not be able to have their employers finance their educations. Students lacking significant financial resources or backing will probably have to rely on a very limited supply of graduate assistantships (except for doctoral students) and student loans. In addition, many of the best MBA programs rarely accept students without significant business experience. Students should learn about program work experience requirements, especially at the more prestigious institutions prior to applying for admission Law schools and less prestigious MBA programs are less likely to impose work experience work requirements.

     2.  Enter graduate school part-time while working full-time in a career-oriented position: This gives the student the opportunity to obtain meaningful work experience and the possibility of employer financial assistance. Many of the best MBA programs are normally reluctant to accept applicants without significant business experience.

     3.  Defer full-time entry into graduate school until after obtaining significant work experience: Many of the best business schools (including some listed above) require several years of significant work experience and only offer full-time programs of study. Among these are Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Virginia, Dartmouth and Yale. Each of these universities will require very strong academic qualifications.

The following web sites may be of interest to finance students seeking entry into graduate school:
 

Doctoral Programs
Entry into doctoral programs is substantially more competitive than for MBA programs and program lengths of study (including dissertations) can range from 3 to 8 years (4 to 5 is typical). Students rarely gain entry into the Finance Departments at schools such as MIT, UCLA, Penn, NYU or Columbia with GMAT scores below 700; probably fewer than 20% of applicants with GMAT scores above 700 are admitted to schools of this calibre. Nonetheless, there are many good optionsfor serious students wishing to pursue careers in academic research. First, applicants to doctoral programs should be able to submit strong GMAT scores, exceptional GPAs and strong mathematics backgrounds (preferably at least two courses in calculus, and several more from numerical methods, stochastic processes, etc.). These will all help admission prospects in any finance-related Ph.D. program. Admission requirements to other top-tier national programs are similar, though there are many very strong programs with slightly less rigorous admissions standards. As of June 2012, the academic job market is weaker than normal for graduates in finance; with students from top graduate schools receiving many interview opportunities and offers, and with most students from second-tier programs still receiving offers from. reasonably good institutions Students graduating from the least recognized doctoral programs in finance struggle for offers, though most still receive them..

Applicants to doctoral programs in finance are probably very aware of business school and MBA program rankings. Rankings for doctoral programs in finance usually differ, and are, at best, only useful as very rough indicators of reputation. One such ranking is offered by Arizona State University at http://wpcarey.asu.edu/fin-rankings/rankings/results.cfm.  The much more general list offered by the American Association of Universities at https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476 might also be useful.