<p>It wasn't that long time ago since I was browsing this forum for info on undergraduate admissions. That year I was waitlisted at Harvard and rejected at several lower ranked schools.</p>
<p>I ended up studying two degrees at the same time. One is for a degree in business at Bocconi Univerisity in Italy. The second one is the bachelor degree in applied mathematics in finance, at a large state university in Eastern Europe. I have also spent a semester at a top Dutch university doing mathematics. And I am hoping to go for an exchange to Berkeley this fall. Overall, I am planning to obtain these two degrees in 4 years. They are both in accordance to Bologna declaration concerning the reforms in European education and typically last 3 years. It is likely that I will obtain the top graduation score in Italy, 110 out of 110. The gpa at the maths school is gonna be about 92%-95%, and hopefully second individual rank in the class. I personally believe that Eastern European universities are very strong in mathematics..
Before I entered university, I have obtained top places at national competitions in physics and computer science, after years of demanding preparation for them.</p>
<p>My downsides are lack of professional experience. Besides some family business with real estate in which I was obtaining very high returns two consecutive years, before the mortgage crisis spread to E. Europe. The fact that I haven't done any internship is due to the fact that the summer break at Bocconi lasts only 2 months and 10 days, if all exams are taken in the early session which is not an easy thing to do.
I might mention participation in a series of conferences, mostly in finance, but also in politics and leadership, and a part time job as a maths tutor.</p>
<p>I would appreciate advice on:
1) Which graduate schools could you recommend for doing quantitative finance? Most likely I will be offered to enrol for a master of finance degree, a highly ranked degree offered by Bocconi with full scholarship including tuition, room and board. Paying for studies is an option, but not as much as 150,000 bucks as it costs to take quantitative finance degree at Carnegie Mellon. Maybe if I could take a loan.</p>
<p>2) MSc in Finance or PhD? Do you think that I could be even considered for Phd in the states as I don't have a 4 year degree but two 3 yr?</p>
<p>You may want to consider PdD programs in finance or accounting. They'll be largely indifferent to your lack of work experience and if you're accepted you'll be funded. The PhD would give you the option of either an academic or an industry career, or both. Accounting has better academic employment prospects and finance better industry prospects. The two field overlap substantially.</p>
<p>The problem is that a PhD in business actually hurts your job prospects in business. The MS in quantitative and computational Finance and PhD in Finance programs are inherently different (one structured towards academia and one towards industry).</p>
<p>I rarely follow up posts but I think that this deserves clarification.</p>
<p>While PhDs in Accounting and Finance as well as Management, Marketing and a host of other fields are usually awarded PhDs in "Business", both the academic and industry employment prospects vary so much across disciplines and specialties that it is not useful to generalize.</p>
<p>Do you have a credible source for the unemployment rate of Accounting or Finance PhDs? Anecdotally, it appears to be near zero. Though, I would imagine that the implosion of the finance industry has put quite a few out of work recently. However, that would apply equally, if not more to to MBA and MSF holders. In the OP's case, he won't be looking for a job for at least a few years in any case, by which time restructuring if not recovery should be well underway.</p>
<p>Also, the trade-offs for foreign students are different than that for domestic students. Annualized and total opportunity costs can vary widely. Foreign students often have less access to loans for professional schools but may have even greater access for support for PhD programs than their US peers. Finally, PhD holders face fewer H1B visa cap restrictions than do holders of professional degrees.</p>
<p>So individuals have to do their homework. Generalizations are mostly useless. (irony intended)</p>
<p>For a listing of Financial Engineering, Math Finance programs, you can try [url=<a href=“http://www.quantnet.com%5DQuantNetwork%5B/url”>http://www.quantnet.com]QuantNetwork[/url</a>], a place I frequent often that focuses on financial engineering education.</p>