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| Our program’s ambition is to train the next generation of finance scholars.
As such, the central question we ask ourselves when selecting a candidate for an interview
(and in the ultimate admission decision) is whether it is clear that he or she wishes to,
and has the ability to, pursue an academic research career. Therefore, your statement of purpose
should clearly describe your professional goals and how these are in accordance with your existing
scholastic and professional achievements. |
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| Characteristics of successful candidates |
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| Here are some guidelines for what you should bring with you: |
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1. A masters degree ideally in Economics or Finance (though computer science,
mathematics, physics, statistics, or related fields might be considered) with a
a) clear emphasis on both qualitative and quantitative courses,
b) exceptional grades,
c) outstanding letters of recommendation from at least two professors from the school where you finished your most relevant degree. |
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2. Strong core mathematical skills. Please make sure that this key prerequisite is clearly demonstrated in your transcripts or other
records. For those students wishing to concentrate in quantitative topics, this requirement is obviously crucial and will be
highly weighted. For those students wishing to concentrate in corporate finance, the emphasis in the program will be more
on economic thinking and empirical model building than on pure mathematical methods per se. All students take first-year
coursework in a range of subjects, including asset pricing, corporate finance, financial econometrics, and mathematical finance,
which must be passed in order to proceed in the program.
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3. Excellent command of spoken and written English; very mature soft-skills; refined presentation skills. |
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4. The more exposure you have had to the core fields of finance, the better.
Thus, a significant understanding of issues in Corporate Finance (even if your master's degree is not in economics or finance)
is as useful as an exposure to Mathematical Finance and Stochastic Calculus, graduate level (fully calculus-based)
Microeconomics and Financial Economics, Statistical Distribution Theory and graduate level Econometrics. |
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Your application will stand out if you have a strong background in all of these areas.
If you are lacking a background in one of these areas due to the focus of your studies so far,
you can make this up on your own, in which case you should be prepared to demonstrate your progress
during the interview. On the other hand, no matter how highly refined
their training in quantitative methods, the best candidates demonstrate a distinguished ability to
speak intelligently, coherently, and diplomatically about various financial matters of significant relevance to society at large. |
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5. Finally, your application gets an additional edge if you have some experience with at least one statistical /
mathematical computing package (Matlab, R, Splus, Maple, Mathematica, etc.). |
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| Prerequisite reading |
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Students with ambitions for entering our program may wish to look at the
recommended reading list which we give to newly accepted students. |
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| What will not help you directly (but will certainly not hurt you) |
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1. A high GRE or GMAT score
2. A high TOEFL score |
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| A note on industry work experience |
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Industry work experience, no matter if it was in the banking industry or other financial institutions,
in the area of consulting, the public sector, your own company, a hedge fund, etc., is certainly not required.
It can be a useful asset. However, if you have industry experience, it becomes particularly important for you
to explain, first, why you are wishing to become an academic (for this is the explicit goal of our doctoral
program) and, second, what precise and explicit benefit your experience has had to pursuing genuine academic research. |
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What to do if your previous degree is not from a top internationally
recognized school |
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Obviously, candidates from internationally renowned universities will have an advantage.
Please note, however, that our students come from all over the world. No university is categorically ruled out, but candidates from less well-known
universities will have a correspondingly higher burden with respect to demonstrating that their background
is commensurate with the desired level. Those students who took the effort to augment their studies with a
(possibly second) master's degree from a distinctly higher-ranked university will have considerably better chances. |
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Another, very smart option is the following. You should consider applying for our M.Sc. degree in Quantitative Finance.
That program is also highly competitive and - given its joint degree status with the renowned ETH -
is highly visible in both industry and academics. Indeed, students who have successfully completed it
are often in an excellent position for pursuing a strong career in the financial services industry and
potentially also primed for further studies at a doctoral level. As usual, however, students are not
financially supported in this program. If you do exceptionally well in this program, and can also
demonstrate the other skills mentioned above, then your chances of entering our doctoral program are quite high. |
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