Admissions
The Finance Ph.D. program seeks to admit students with the highest possible aptitude and potential for academic careers. Admission is based on the applicant's background and accomplishments, potential for academic and professional success, stated educational and professional goals, and letters of recommendation. Decisions are made by a faculty committee and depend upon available space and the qualifications of the other applicants. Recently there have been approximately 200 applicants per year, of whom approximately six are offered admission.
Minimum requirements for admission are as follows:
- Completion of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited U.S. institution or its equivalent from a university in another country.
- The minimum acceptable grade point average for admission is a 3.0 average (A = 4.0) in the last 60 hours of undergraduate coursework and in all graduate coursework.
- Acceptable scores on the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). While there is no required minimum score, the average score of students admitted in recent years is over 700. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is accepted as a substitute for the GMAT.
- International applicants from countries whose first language is not English are required to submit results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Certain international applicants are exempt from the TOEFL requirement. Please see "Applications Procedures" for details.
All admitted students receive financial support, either in the form of a fellowship or through employment as a research or teaching assistant, in combination with tuition and service fee waivers. Most first year students receive fellowships, while in subsequent years support typically comes through research and/or teaching assistantships.