<p>I'll be majoring in finance in college due to the strength of the program where I am going (better than the economics program). However, I like economics a lot and would be very interested in an economics PhD program. Especially because most top universities have only economics programs. The Ivies and tier 1 schools pretty much seem to have economics or business, but not finance as a PhD.</p>
<p>Obviously finance is not economics, so I am wondering if it is at all possible for a finance major to get into an economics PhD program?</p>
<p>Or could I only do it if I majored in econ?
Or do finance PhD's exist?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Sure, PhDs in Finance exist. Wharton has a PhD program in Finance, and I assume it isn’t unique. People teach Finance in high-quality university programs; some of them are going to have PhDs specific to Finance.</p></li>
<li><p>Not being an Economics major is not a barrier to being accepted in a good Economics PhD program. The most important curricular barrier, I believe, is not having enough math. If you have some basic idea about the major concepts of Economics – and I would be surprised if your Finance major didn’t make certain you had that – and the math background to do real economics, you should be qualified. (Of course, “qualified” is only halfway there, or less. But it means your application isn’t being filed in the circular file because of what you have studied.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ph.D.'s in Business Administration/Management generally offer various subfields, including but not limited to:</p>
<p>-Accounting
-Finance
-Marketing
-Strategy
-Information Systems
-Decision Science</p>
<p>And more. If you’ve overlooked schools that don’t offer a “Ph.D. in Finance”, go back and you’ll likely find that they offer a Ph.D. that is logically equivalent.</p>
<p>Another question: If my finance degree does not automatically set me up to take heavy math, would it be wise to do so, even if it could possibly hurt my GPA? Classes such as real analysis, linear alg, diff. eq. etc.</p>
<p>It’s a good way to gauge whether or not you can even handle doctoral-level economics. If you are having trouble passing undergrad real analysis, ODE, etc., you probably won’t have a chance in grad school. Also, if you don’t take them, they may be deficiencies depending on your program and you’ll have to take them concurrently with graduate coursework.</p>
<p>Better to get them out of the way if you’re really thinking about an Economics Ph.D. I have no clue what you’re expected to know for a Finance Ph.D.</p>
<p>As someone that was very recently going to be applying to Econ PhD programs (I’m opting for an MS in Stats instead), the bare minimum is basically Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, and Diff Eq, and Intro Statistics. A yearlong Analysis/Stats sequence would help you significantlyas well.</p>