requirements for phd in finance

Tippie College of Business

Phd in finance - phd programs.

PhD in Finance

In business, the big questions are usually finance questions.

Prompted by the Great Recession, and the government’s response to it, some of the greatest questions facing businesses and policymakers today are questions of finance.

Can asset bubbles be predicted and avoided? How do markets respond to political policies? More sophisticated financial modeling than ever before is opening up new avenues of study, thanks to huge volumes of data and technology-driven mathematical tools.

As you pursue your PhD in finance, you’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our world-renowned faculty, perfecting your research, writing, and teaching skills. By the time you hold that PhD in your hand, you’ll have everything you need to explore answers to the big finance questions—and many more of your own.

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Respected and renowned

Our faculty are among the best in the world in researching and teaching. Our dream team is composed of faculty like Professor Erik Lie , one of the world’s most influential thinkers on managerial compensation, and Professor David Bates , a renowned researcher on the stochastic process of stock returns and option pricing. Our finance faculty members are actively doing research on a diverse set of topics, including corporate finance, asset pricing and investment management, risk management and insurance, and real estate.

You’ll work closely with these and many more finance faculty, and among them you’ll find mentors and dedicated scholars alike.

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“I applied to schools all over the world, including some very famous schools in Asia and Europe, but I finally chose the University of Iowa. I made a very good choice.” Jasmine Shu, PhD, Finance Read Jasmine's story

Since 2001, Tippie finance PhDs have accepted tenure-track faculty positions at an impressive list of universities as their initial placements:

• Bilkent University, Turkey (2)
• Bradley University *
• California State University-Fullerton (2)
• City University of Hong Kong
• Drexel University
• Fordham University
• Higher School of Economics, Russia
• Iowa State University (2)
• Kansas State University
• Lehigh University (2)
• Louisiana State University
• Miami University (Ohio) *
• Michigan State University
• Singapore Management University
• St. Louis University
• Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea
• University of Alabama-Huntsville
• University of Arizona
• University of Binghamton
• University of Buffalo (2)
• University of Illinois-Chicago *
• University of Missouri (2)
• University of New Hampshire (2)
• University of Richmond
• University of Saskatchewan, Canada
• University of Texas-El Paso
• University of Toledo
• Washington State University
• West Texas A&M University

But it’s not just academia clamoring for finance PhDs. Financial service industries and financial market regulators are leaning on finance PhDs to steer their strategy. Our PhD program is STEM-designated, which offers flexibility to students interested in "alt-ac" job opportunities. Since 2001, our finance PhDs have joined non-academic institutions such as:

• Brattle Group
• Ibbotson Associates
• Jacob Levy Asset Management
• Promontory Financial Group
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• State Street Global Advisors

Finally, our finance PhD program has a very long history—it goes back to the 1980s. Before the recent two decades, the initial placements of our finance PhDs already included a very impressive list of universities, such as:

• Case Western University
• Iowa State University
• National Taiwan University
• Tulane University
• University of Oklahoma
• University of Texas-San Antonio
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Yuan Ze University

“Academics in general is a close community and the relationships I’ve made at Iowa will last a long time. It’s competitive, but it's also small and collaborative." Brooke Wang, PhD, Finance Read Brooke's story

First, you need to meet the minimum PhD admission requirements . Other criteria for admission include:

Academic record

An undergrad concentration in finance or economics isn't required to be admitted. The minimum GPA is 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. We also consider the rigor of your undergrad or master's institution(s), and grades you earned in finance, econ, stats, and math courses. The recommended background is coursework in finance and economics through intermediate micro and macro, math through one year of calculus, and introductory mathematical statistics.

GMAT or GRE score

Our admitted students average around 700 on the GMAT. The quantitative scores in particular are considered.

Letters of recommendation

We're interested in their assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, motivation, and ability to succeed.

English proficiency

This requirement applies only to international applicants whose native language is not English. We follow the Graduate College's  English proficiency requirements . 

Statement of purpose

Content and overall seriousness are considered.

Curriculum and sample plan of study

The PhD in finance requires 72 semester hours of credit, in addition to a dissertation. The typical time to complete the degree is five years.

The first year, finance PhDs take three or four courses per semester, depending on their background in finance, and three courses per semester in year two. The finance electives in year one are normally MBA-level courses, but if you've already covered this material, we may give you an exemption (these exemptions are at the discretion of the PhD director). We sometimes give exemptions for statistics as well.

Finance Department Handbook

Smart. Open. Grounded. Inventive. Read our Ideas Made to Matter.

Which program is right for you?

Through intellectual rigor and experiential learning, this full-time, two-year MBA program develops leaders who make a difference in the world.

A rigorous, hands-on program that prepares adaptive problem solvers for premier finance careers.

A 12-month program focused on applying the tools of modern data science, optimization and machine learning to solve real-world business problems.

Earn your MBA and SM in engineering with this transformative two-year program.

Combine an international MBA with a deep dive into management science. A special opportunity for partner and affiliate schools only.

A doctoral program that produces outstanding scholars who are leading in their fields of research.

Bring a business perspective to your technical and quantitative expertise with a bachelor’s degree in management, business analytics, or finance.

A joint program for mid-career professionals that integrates engineering and systems thinking. Earn your master’s degree in engineering and management.

An interdisciplinary program that combines engineering, management, and design, leading to a master’s degree in engineering and management.

Executive Programs

A full-time MBA program for mid-career leaders eager to dedicate one year of discovery for a lifetime of impact.

This 20-month MBA program equips experienced executives to enhance their impact on their organizations and the world.

Non-degree programs for senior executives and high-potential managers.

A non-degree, customizable program for mid-career professionals.

PhD Program in Finance

2023-24 curriculum outline.

The MIT Sloan Finance Group offers a doctoral program specialization in Finance for students interested in research careers in academic finance. The requirements of the program may be loosely divided into five categories: coursework, the Finance Seminar, the general examination, the research paper, and the dissertation. Attendance at the weekly Finance Seminar is mandatory in the second year and beyond and is encouraged in the first year.  During the first two years, students are engaged primarily in coursework, taking both required and elective courses in preparation for their general examination at the end of the second year.  Students are required to complete a research paper by the end of their fifth semester, present it in front of the faculty committee and receive a passing grade.  After that, students are required to find a formal thesis advisor and form a thesis committee by the end of their eighth semester. The Thesis Committee should consist of at least one tenured faculty from the MIT Sloan Finance Group.

Required Courses

The following set of required courses is designed to furnish each student with a sound and well-rounded understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of finance, as well as the tools necessary to make original contributions in each of these areas. Finance PhD courses (15.470, 15.471, 15.472, 15.473, 15.474) in which the student does not receive a grade of B or higher must be retaken.

First Year - Summer

Math Camp begins on the second Monday in August. 

First Year - Fall Semester

14.121/14.122 Micro Theory I/II

14.451/14.452 Macro Theory I/II ( strongly recommended)

14.380/14.381 — Statistics/Applied Econometrics

15.470 — Asset Pricing

First Year - Spring Semester

14.123/14.124 Micro Theory III/IV

14.453/14.454 Macro Theory III/IV (strongly recommended)

14.382 – Econometrics

15.471 – Corporate Finance

Second Year - Fall Semester

15.472 — Advanced Asset Pricing

  14.384 — Time-Series Analysis or  14.385 — Nonlinear Econometric Analysis  (Enrolled students receive a one-semester waiver from attending the Finance Seminar due to a scheduling conflict)

15.475 — Current Research in Financial Economics

Second Year - Spring Semester

15.473 — Advanced Corporate Finance

 15.474 — Current Topics in Finance (strongly encouraged to take multiple times)

15.475 — Current Research in Financial Economics

Recommended Elective Courses

Beyond these required courses, students are expected to enroll in elective courses determined by their primary area of interest. There are two informal “tracks” in Financial Economics: Corporate Finance and Asset Pricing. Recommended electives are designed to deepen the student's grasp of material that will be central to the writing of his/her dissertation. Students also have the opportunity to take courses at Harvard University. There is no formal requirement to select one track or another, and students are free to take any of the electives.

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• Dissertation Areas and Joint PhD Programs
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• PhD in Accounting
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PhD in Finance

• PhD in Management Science and Operations Management
• PhD in Marketing
• Joint Program in Financial Economics
• Joint Program in Psychology and Business
• Joint PhD/JD Program

Chicago Booth has long been recognized for its PhD in finance. Our finance faculty—which includes Nobel laureates Douglas W. Diamond, Eugene F. Fama, and Lars P. Hansen—sets the course for research in all areas of the field.

As a finance PhD student at Chicago Booth, you’ll join a community that encourages you to think independently.

Taking courses at Booth and in the university’s Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, you will gain a solid foundation in all aspects of economics and finance--from the factors that determine asset prices to how firms and individuals make financial decisions. Following your coursework, you will develop your research in close collaboration with faculty and your fellow students. Reading groups and workshops with faculty, student-led brown-bag seminars, and conferences provide many opportunities to learn from others.

The Finance PhD Program also offers the Joint Program in Financial Economics , which is run by Chicago Booth and the Department of Economics in the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Our Distinguished Finance Faculty

Chicago Booth finance faculty are leading researchers who also build strong relationships with doctoral students, collaborate on new ideas, and connect students with powerful career opportunities.

Francesca Bastianello

Assistant Professor of Finance and Liew Family Junior Faculty Fellow, Fama Faculty Fellow

Emanuele Colonnelli

Associate Professor of Finance and MV Advisors Faculty Fellow

George M. Constantinides

Leo Melamed Professor of Finance

Douglas W. Diamond

Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance

Eugene F. Fama

Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance

Niels Gormsen

Neubauer Family Associate Professor of Finance and Fama Faculty Fellow

Lars Hansen

David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor The University of Chicago Departments of Economics, Statistics and the Booth School of Business

John C. Heaton

Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance

Steven Neil Kaplan

Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and Kessenich E.P. Faculty Director at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Anil Kashyap

Stevens Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Finance

Ralph S.J. Koijen

AQR Capital Management Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and Fama Faculty Fellow

Associate Professor of Finance and Fama Faculty Fellow

Stefan Nagel

Fama Family Distinguished Service Professor of Finance

Scott Nelson

Assistant Professor of Finance and Cohen and Keenoy Faculty Scholar

Pascal Noel

Neubauer Family Associate Professor of Finance and Kathryn and Grant Swick Faculty Scholar

Lubos Pastor

Charles P. McQuaid Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and Robert King Steel Faculty Fellow

Raghuram G. Rajan

Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance

Bruce Lindsay Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Quentin Vandeweyer

Assistant Professor of Finance and Fama Faculty Fellow

Pietro Veronesi

Deputy Dean for Faculty and Chicago Board of Trade Professor of Finance

Robert W. Vishny

Myron S. Scholes Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and Neubauer Faculty Director of the Davis Center

Michael Weber

Associate Professor of Finance

Constantine Yannelis

Associate Professor of Finance and FMC Faculty Scholar

Anthony Lee Zhang

Assistant Professor of Finance

Luigi Zingales

Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance

Alumni Success

Graduates of the Stevens Doctoral Program go on to successful careers in prominent institutions of higher learning, leading financial institutions, government, and beyond.

Shohini Kundu, MBA '20, PhD '21

Assistant Professor of Finance UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles Shohini Kundu's research lies in financial intermediation and macroeconomics, security design and externalities of financial contracts, and emerging market finance. Her dissertation area is in finance.

Jane (Jian) Li, PhD '21

Assistant Professor of Business, Finance Division Columbia Business School, Columbia University Jane's research lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and finance. She is particularly interested in how financial intermediaries affect the real economy and how different types of financial institutions can contribute to financial instability. Her dissertation area is in financial economics.

Spotlight on Research

The pages of Chicago Booth Review regularly highlight the research findings of finance faculty and PhD students.

A Brief History of Finance and My Life at Chicago

Chicago Booth’s Eugene F. Fama describes the serendipitous events that led him to Chicago, and into his monumental career in academic finance.

Climate-Policy Pronouncements Boost 'Brown' Stocks

It was a dramatic example of how White House communications on climate policy can affect asset prices, according to Washington University in St. Louis’s William Cassidy, a recent graduate of Booth’s PhD Program.

With Business Loans Harder to Get, Private Debt Funds Are Stepping In

It’s become harder for many prospective borrowers to access capital. But private debt funds have stepped in to fill the gap, according to Joern Block (Trier University), Booth PhD candidate Young Soo Jang, Booth’s Steve Kaplan, and Trier’s Anna Schulze.

Too Many 'Shadow Banks' Can Limit Overall Access to Credit

While go-betweens can benefit the broader economy by smoothing the flow of credit, there are now probably too many links in the credit chain, argue Zhiguo He and Jian Li (Booth PhD graduate).

A Network of Support

Chicago Booth is home to several interdisciplinary research centers that offer funding for student work, host workshops and conferences, and foster a strong research community.

Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance Tasked with pushing the boundaries of research in finance, the Fama-Miller Center provides institutional structure and support for researchers in the field.

Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Bringing together researchers from the entire Chicago economics community, the Becker Friedman Institute fosters novel insights on the world’s most difficult economic problems.

Center for Research in Security Prices CRSP maintains one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive stock market databases. Since 1963, it has been a valued resource for businesses, government, and scholars.

Initiative on Global Markets Enhancing the understanding of business and financial market globalization, the IGM positions Chicago Booth as a thought leader in the understanding of ever-changing markets and improves financial and economic decision-making around the world.

George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State Dedicated to examining issues at the intersection of politics and the economy, the Stigler Center supports research by PhD students and others who are interested in the political, economic, and cultural obstacles to better working markets.

Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation Committed to making the world more equitable and sustainable, the Rustandy Center works to solve complex social and environmental problems. The center’s student support includes fellowships, research funding, and networking opportunities.

The PhD Experience at Booth

For Itzhak Ben-David, PhD ’08, the PhD Program in Finance was an exploratory journey.

Video Transcript

Itzhak Ben-David, ’08: 00:03 For me, the PhD Program was an exploratory journey. It was about discovering what was interesting for me, what will be interesting for other economists. It was about discovering something new about the world. Much of the PhD Program experience is to explore and to wonder a bit and to just think and expose yourself to new ideas and new disciplines. Back then, this was 2006, I found a billboard that said, "If you buy this house, we're going to give you a free car or $20,000 in cash." And this seemed really odd to me. What I realized that was going on, that this was part of a borrower fraud and the idea was that seller and the buyer will agree on a higher price on a house and the lender would be under the impression that the collateral worth more than it really is.

Itzhak Ben-David, ’08: 00:58 So I started to investigate other parts of the real estate food chain. What I saw is that in many parts of this chain, there were incentives in place pushing the intermediaries or the different economic agents to inflate prices. It's not always a bubble, but oftentimes it points out behavior that is not consistent with our textbook behavior. I had the dream team of advisors, Toby Moskowitz, Dick Taylor, Steve Levitt, and Erik Hurst. Each one of them contributed in different way to my dissertation and brought different ideas, brought different aspects. There is no better place of doing research than in Booth. It's really a hub of academic activity. There is no important work that doesn't pass at Chicago before being published. It's really an intellectual home. When you meet people and you know that they are from Booth, you can see the difference in their thinking.

Current Finance Students

PhD students in finance study a wide range of topics, including the behavior and determinants of security prices, the financing and investment decisions of firms, corporate governance, and the management and regulation of financial institutions. They go on to careers at prestigious institutions, from Yale University to the International Monetary Fund.

Current Students

Rahul Chauhan Ching-Tse Chen Aditya Dhar Mihir Gandhi  Huan (Bianca) He Agustin Hurtado Young Soo Jang Piotr Langer Jessica Li Edoardo Marchesi Rayhan Momin Lauren Mostrom Meichen Qian Francisco Ruela Sixun Tang Hui (Judy) Yue

Booth also offers joint degrees. Learn more about the current students in our Joint Program in Financial Economics .

Program Expectations and Requirements

The Stevens Program at Booth is a full-time program. Students generally complete the majority of coursework and examination requirements within the first two years of studies and begin work on their dissertation during the third year. For details, see General Examination Requirements by Area in the Stevens Program Guidebook below.

Download the 2023-2024 Guidebook!

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The field of finance covers the economics of claims on resources. Financial economists study the valuation of these claims, the markets in which they are traded, and their use by individuals, corporations, and the society at large.

At Stanford GSB, finance faculty and doctoral students study a wide spectrum of financial topics, including the pricing and valuation of assets, the behavior of financial markets, and the structure and financial decision-making of firms and financial intermediaries.

Investigation of issues arising in these areas is pursued both through the development of theoretical models and through the empirical testing of those models. The PhD Program is designed to give students a good understanding of the methods used in theoretical modeling and empirical testing.

Preparation and Qualifications

All students are required to have, or to obtain during their first year, mathematical skills at the level of one year of calculus and one course each in linear algebra and matrix theory, theory of probability, and statistical inference.

Students are expected to have familiarity with programming and data analysis using tools and software such as MATLAB, Stata, R, Python, or Julia, or to correct any deficiencies before enrolling at Stanford.

The PhD program in finance involves a great deal of very hard work, and there is keen competition for admission. For both these reasons, the faculty is selective in offering admission. Prospective applicants must have an aptitude for quantitative work and be at ease in handling formal models. A strong background in economics and college-level mathematics is desirable.

It is particularly important to realize that a PhD in finance is not a higher-level MBA, but an advanced, academically oriented degree in financial economics, with a reflective and analytical, rather than operational, viewpoint.

Faculty in Finance

Anat r. admati, juliane begenau, jonathan b. berk, greg buchak, antonio coppola, peter m. demarzo, darrell duffie, steven grenadier, benjamin hébert, arvind krishnamurthy, hanno lustig, matteo maggiori, paul pfleiderer, joshua d. rauh, claudia robles-garcia, ilya a. strebulaev, vikrant vig, jeffrey zwiebel, emeriti faculty, robert l. joss, george g.c. parker, myron s. scholes, william f. sharpe, kenneth j. singleton, james c. van horne, recent publications in finance, behavioral responses to state income taxation of high earners: evidence from california, beyond the balance sheet model of banking: implications for bank regulation and monetary policy, fee variation in private equity, recent insights by stanford business, “geoeconomics” explains how countries flex their financial muscles, car loans are a hidden driver of the ride-sharing economy, public pensions are mixing risky investments with unrealistic predictions.

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PhD | Finance

The Ph.D. in Finance

Stern’s Ph.D. program in finance trains scholars to conduct research at the leading edge of financial economics. The faculty represents one of the largest finance research groups in the world that has been ranked consistently as the leading publisher of academic research in top finance journals. Comprised of more than 40 researchers, including a Nobel-prize-winning economist, our faculty are active in all areas of finance—asset pricing, corporate finance, derivatives, market microstructure, and behavioral finance—with both theoretical and empirical focus, and with emerging specialization in the areas of financial intermediation, crises, and macro-finance. As a result of this unusual breadth, students have access to expertise in almost any topic that they might wish to explore.

Explore Finance

Discover our other fields of study.

Finance Requirements

The PhD finance concentration requires a strong mastery of economic theory. Students spend the first year taking a doctoral-level sequence in microeconomic theory and a sequence in econometric analysis. They are also required to take four, two-credit finance PhD seminars in the first year. The program encourages students with a more limited technical background to select appropriate courses in mathematics or statistics, and students with no previous finance coursework are encouraged to audit MBA program finance courses

In the second year, coursework includes doctoral seminars on current topics in finance along with elective courses generally in accounting, economics, or mathematics. Some students, depending on their course of study, may take the microeconomics written preliminary examination at the end of their first year.

Students also write summer papers at the end of their first and second year of coursework and complete the finance written preliminary examination at the end of their second year. Students who successfully complete their summer papers and pass the written and oral preliminary exams begin work on a dissertation leading to the PhD in Business Administration.

Students are required to complete all finance PhD seminars offered plus an additional 8 credits of required ECON coursework: either the Econ 8001-04 sequence or the Econ 8101-04 sequence for a total of at least 24 major field credits. Students must also complete a minimum of 16 additional credits of supporting field coursework in areas such as economics, statistics, and accounting, for a total of at least 40 credits of degree program coursework to progress to the prelim exams.

Course descriptions:

Fina 8802: Theory of Capital Markets I: Discrete Time

The course covers the essentials of modern asset pricing theory using static and discrete time frameworks. The fundamental asset pricing equation is introduced that uses the stochastic discount factor to price securities. The course develops a general approach that is then used to examine several classical models in finance-CAPM, consumption-based CAPM, and the APT. The course also introduces students to essential concepts of complete markets, representative agent and Pareto optimality. Some of the advanced topics discussed include overview of the present challenges to the theories and some modern approaches such as habit formation and heterogeneous agents (incomplete markets) model.

Fina 8803: Theory of Capital Markets II: Continuous Time

This course is an introduction to the theory of continuous- time financial economics. The emphasis is on the main mathematical and statistical tools on which the theory is built. Course content includes Ito processes, Girsanov’s theorem, and risk-neutral pricing. Upon completion of the course, students should be sufficiently familiar with these tools to be able to formulate and analyze continuous-time models.

Fina 8804: Advance Continuous Time Finance

This course continues where Fina 8803 ended. Some of the topics investigated include the pricing of fixed income securities, optimal capital structure, and general equilibrium. From there, classic papers in this field will be read and replicated by the students.

Fina 8810 : Topics in Asset Pricing  This course investigate current topics in the asset pricing literature. The goal is to have students read these papers, rederive the main results, identify the main assumptions, and thus identify ideas on how to improve upon the current literature.

Fina 8812: Corporate Finance I

This course covers theoretical work in four major areas of corporate finance: corporate control, managerial incentives, corporate governance, and capital structure. The perspective taken is that understanding corporate finance decisions is impossible without a solid understanding of the theory of the firm-what assets are collected within the firm and what determines the boundaries of the firm. Empirical evidence in support of theoretical models is also discussed. The course will begin with a review of modern theories of the firm based on incomplete contracts. Each of the subsequent topics will then show how corporate finance decisions either expand or limit the scope of the firm.

Fina 8813: Corporate Finance II

This course covers varied topics in theoretical corporate finance like initial public offering, dividend policy, financial distress and its resolution, financial intermediation and applications of auctions in finance. The course will also cover some topics in market microstructure.

Fina 8820: Topics in Corporate Finance

This readings course will focus on recent contributions in corporate finance. Goal is to produce ideas for new research. Course offered yearly, alternating between theory and empirics.

Fina 8822: Empirical Methods in Finance

This course will introduce students to many of the empirical methods used in modern financial economics. The course focuses on the empirical techniques used most often in the analysis of financial markets and how they are applied to actual market data. The list of topics includes: a) statistical properties of asset returns and the efficient markets hypothesis, b) empirical tests of asset pricing models (CAPM, APT, Intertemporal CAPM, Consumption CAPM), c) tests of conditional asset pricing models, and d) other relevant topics.

Fina 8823: Empirical Corporate Finance

The course focuses on current empirical research on corporate finance, mergers/acquisitions, equity offerings, event studies, tests of market efficiency, impact of corp. governance, etc.

Fina 8890: Seminar: Finance Topics

Topics vary.

First year students will be tested on two intro and two intermediate courses that have been taken during their first year. Students must take and pass this exam in the summer between their 1st and 2nd years in the program. A retake of this exam may be permitted, pending department approval. Those who retake the exam must pass it before the end of their 2nd year in the program. Failing this exam twice will result in the student’s removal from the program.

Students are expected to work on research during the summer. Their 1st summer paper is due by Sept. 15th of the 2nd year. The goal of the 1st summer paper is to get the students started on independent research. The topic and the scope of the paper must be approved by the PhD coordinator in consultation with the student’s adviser. The requirements for the 2nd summer paper are more stringent. It should be original research. The 1st draft of the paper is due on Sept. 15 of the 3rd year. To satisfactorily meet the requirement, the paper has to be approved by 2 readers and the presentation has to be deemed satisfactory by the department’s faculty. Students are expected to incorporate feedback and submit the final draft by Dec. 15th of the 3rd year. After the final draft is turned in, students can progress to the oral exam, which is based on this research paper.

Second year students will be tested on the two intermediate courses taught in their second year. Students will take the written exam in early summer after completion of the second year. Though subject to change, the exam is usually given over a series of days during a 2-week time period in June.

The oral exam is often based on the summer research paper that students complete by the beginning of their 3rd year in the program, though this format is not mandatory. The exam will normally occur during spring semester of the student's third year.

Should be completed in spring semester of the fourth year.

In the third and the fourth years, students will independently teach 3 credits per year. The timing of the courses can be adjusted depending on departmental need.

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From the Finance Ph.D. Liaison

“Welcome to UCLA Anderson’s Finance area, long recognized as one of the world’s top programs. Our Ph.D. students work with renowned faculty whose expertise covers corporate finance, macroeconomics, asset pricing, derivatives, investments and behavioral finance. The UCLA Anderson Doctoral Program is highly selective. We expect you to develop a passion and tenacity for excellent research in finance and, through mentorship and collaboration, we prepare you for a distinguished academic career. We look forward to receiving your application.”

Barney Hartman-Glaser Professor of Finance

Explore the Program

Recent publications.

Risk and Return in Segmented Markets with Expertise Andrea Eisfeldt

Complex assets appear to earn persistent high average returns, and to display high Sharpe ratios – but investor participation is very limited. Eisfeldt, along with co-authors Hanno Lustig and Lei Zhang, provides an explanation for these facts using a model of the pricing of complex securities by risk-averse investors who are subject to asset-specific risk in a dynamic model of industry equilibrium.  

Read Publication

Learning Millennial Style Bruce Carlin

The growing use of online educational content and related video services has changed the way people access education, share knowledge, and possibly make life decisions. Here, Carlin – with co-authors Li Jiang and Stephen A. Spiller – characterizes how video content affects individual decision-making and willingness to share in the context of a personal financial decision.  

Volatility Managed Portfolios Tyler Muir

Managed portfolios that take less risk when volatility is high produce large, positive alphas and increase factor Sharpe ratios by substantial amounts. Muir, together with co-author Alan Moreira, documents a profitable trading strategy that increases stock market exposure in low volatility episodes and reduces exposure in high volatility times.  

Alumni Success

Robert Richmond (’16)

First academic placement: NYU Stern

In 2016, Robert Richmond earned the Conference on International Finance Best Paper Award (2016), the Cubist Systematic Strategies Ph.D. Candidate Award for Outstanding Research and the Xavier Drèze award for most outstanding Ph.D. research paper. His current research uncovers an economic source of exposure to global risk that drives international asset prices.

Mindy Xiaolan Zhang (’14)

First academic placement: UT Austin

Mindy Zhang is recipient of the 2014 Trefftzs Award for Best Student Paper, WFA; and the 2014 Yihong Xia Best Paper Award, CICF. She conducts research on macro finance, equilibrium asset pricing, dynamic contracting, dynamic corporate theory, labor and finance.

Tobias J. Moskowitz (’98)

First academic placement: University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Recipient of numerous honors and awards, Tobias "Toby" Moskowitz is one of UCLA Anderson's Inspirational 100 alumni. Moskowitz was named the inaugural Dean Takahashi '80 B.A., '83 M.P.P.M. Professor of Finance at Yale School of Management in 2016. He was previously the Fama Family Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he had taught since 1998. In 2011, he co-authored the best-selling book Scorecasting , which uses economic principles to explain the hidden side of sports.

Joshua D. Coval (’97)

First academic placement: University of Michigan Business School

Joshua Coval's current research investigates the structured finance market and how investor reliance on ratings and unsound pricing models led to the spectacular rise and collapse thereof. His research awards include the 2000 and 2005 Smith-Breeden Prize for the best paper in the Journal of Finance . His research has been featured in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time, Money Magazine and Financial Times .

William F. Sharpe (’61)

Winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, William Sharpe was mentored at UCLA by the late Professor J. Fred Weston. Sharpe was one of the originators of the Capital Asset Pricing Model and developed the Sharpe Ratio for investment performance analysis. He co-founded the independent investment advisory firm Financial Engines.

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PhD in Finance - Admissions

Apply to Gies, form your future in finance academia

The Finance PhD 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.

Admission Requirements

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), with an average quantitative score being 160, is accepted as a substitute for the GMAT. GRE scores are reported electronically by the Electronic Testing Service (ETS).  Please self-report your score on your application and request ETS to report your score electronically to the University of Illinois (Institution Code 1836, Department Code 4102).
• 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 English Proficiency Requirements for details.
• IELTS is jointly owned by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL), British Council and IDP Education Australia: IELTS Australia.

Application Deadlines

For 2024-2025 Academic Year: October 1, 2023 through January 15, 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i apply for the spring semester.

No. Admission to the Ph.D. program is only offered for the Fall semester.

Are all international applicants required to submit TOEFL scores?

• International applicants are required to submit results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), unless they satisfy one of the conditions for exemption listed below. Applicants are exempt from the TOEFL requirement if one or both of the following conditions are met:
• The applicant has completed at least two academic years of full-time study (as defined by the home institution) within five years of the beginning of the proposed term of enrollment, or the applicant has completed a graduate degree, in a country where English is the primary language and at a school where English is the primary language of instruction. That is, English must be both the language of the country and the language of instruction at the school.
• The applicant is from a country in which English is both the primary language and the official language. Please be aware that if you are admitted into the program you will be required to provide a TOEFL score in order to fulfill the TA requirement

Do you accept GRE scores in place of GMAT scores?

Yes, we accept GRE scores in place of GMAT scores.

How long does it take students to finish the program?

For most students, the program takes five years to complete.

Do I have to take the SPEAK test as part of the admission requirements?

The SPEAK test is not required for admission. However, international students must take the SPEAK test after they arrive on campus. (The University of Illinois requires that graduate students whose native language is not English pass the SPEAK test before they can be appointed as Teaching Assistants.) The Department of Finance makes arrangements for students to take this test on campus during the first year of the program.

Do you admit students who do not have a Master’s degree?

Yes, we admit students who do not have a Master’s degree. If admitted into the Finance PhD program, a Master’s degree can be earned, but students desiring a terminal masters degree are not admitted to the PhD program and should consider applying to the M.S. in Finance or the Masters of Business Administration.

Am I eligible to apply to the program?

If you have an undergraduate degree from an accredited U.S. college or university, or the equivalent from a university in another country, you are eligible to apply.

In a typical year, how many people apply and how many are admitted?

In recent years, around 100 people applied for an entering class of 3 students.

Do you provide financial support?

All admitted students are offered a tuition waiver plus a living stipend for 5 years that is conditional on making normal academic progress and fulfilling their obligations as a research assistant (RA) or a teaching assistant (TA). First year students are assigned as 10-hour per week RAs. Typically, second, fourth, and fifth-year students are assigned as 20-hour per week RAs. Third-year students serve as TAs to fulfill the program requirement that they obtain teaching experience.

Are international students eligible for scholarships or financial aid?

Admitted students receive financial support, regardless of nationality.

How long will it take before I am notified of the committee’s decision?

Applications are not reviewed until after the deadline date to apply. Please allow 3-4 weeks for a decision to be made. We will notify you of our decision via email.

May I submit unofficial or non-certified copies of my transcripts and degree certifications?

Official transcripts and degree certifications are only required if admitted into the PhD program.

I received my admission letter and I am admitted on limited status. What does that mean?

You may be admitted on limited status for a variety of reasons. The admission letter will clearly indicate the admission terms and the steps that need to be completed before full-admission status can be obtained. Some possible reasons for limited-status admission are:

• admission has been granted as long as a minimum grade-point average is maintained,
• non-native English speakers admitted with TOEFL scores below 103 or below 7.0 on the IElTS are required to complete an English Placement Test prior to their first semester of classes. Based on their performance on this test, they may be required to take English as a Second Language course(s) as part of their degree requirement.

If you are admitted on limited status you will be allowed to enroll for the first semester. You must satisfy whatever restriction is indicated in your admission letter to continue in the program.

Do I have to provide the proof of funding?

No, applicants do not need to provide the proof of funding. Students admitted into our Finance PhD Program receive a waiver of tuition and most fees, along with a living stipend. Students are still responsible for a small portion of fees, typically less than $1,000.

Do you recommend preparatory math classes?

Our program is heavily quantitative, so our admissions committee will want to see competency in this area.

Can I waive the GMAT/GRE requirement?

No. The GMAT/GRE test scores are a strong indication of the quantitative and verbal skills of an applicant. While the committee considers the composite application of each applicant, an official GMAT or GRE score must be included.

How can I order my official test score reports?

You can request your official test scores for the TOEFL and the GRE from the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Applicants to the PhD program should request their scores be sent to Institution Code #1836; Department Code 00 or 02 – all department codes populate the campus score database. Please note, this is an undergraduate code; however, it does populate all campus test score databases.

GMAT scores are provided by PearsonVue. Scores should be sent to the PhD program using the code VKR-TK-03.

May I come in for an interview?

Interviews are conducted on an invitation-only basis. Please refrain from calling or emailing the PhD office to request an interview. You will be contacted by the PhD committee if an interview is necessary to make a decision on your application.

Who should write recommendation letters?

Your recommendation letters should come from academic and business sources. These recommendations should emphasize your strengths in the following areas: quantitative and analytical analysis, written and oral communication, research potential, and relevant work experience.

How do I make a change on my application once it has been sent?

Once your application is submitted you cannot make changes online. Email [email protected] to let us know if any changes that need to be done or documents that need to be uploaded to your file.

Lindner College of Business » Programs » Graduate Programs & Certificates » PhD Programs » Finance

PhD in Finance

The Department of Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance and Risk Management at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business offers a rigorous, systematic, and highly structured doctoral program that develops quantitative, analytical, and teaching skills required for a successful career as a financial economist or as a faculty member. Our primary objective is to train scholars who will join top academic and research institutions or enter the field of financial economics.

The department has experienced phenomenal growth in the past few years, with exceptionally talented and highly energetic fresh PhDs from Columbia University, Indiana University, London Business School, and the University of Michigan joining our internationally renowned faculty. We work with a select number of PhD candidates each year on a wide range of empirical and theoretical research topics in finance.

• Asset pricing
• Corporate finance
• Experimental finance
• Financial institutions
• High-frequency trading
• International finance
• Market microstructure

Real Estate

• Housing policy
• Real estate finance
• Real estate investment
• Urban economics

Insurance and Risk Management

• Castastrophe risk
• Decision-making under risk
• Economics of uncertainty
• Innovations in managing risk
• Insurance markets
• Risk literacy
• Risk management

Our faculty publications appear in journals such as Geneva Risk, Insurance Review, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Journal of Finance , Journal of Financial Research , Financial Review , Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics , Quarter Journal of Business and Economics , Journal of International Business Studies , and the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal . 

Student support

Lindner doctoral students receive excellent research support. Our seminar series features prominent researchers. Our department has subscriptions to all major finance and accounting databases through WRDS, and funding is available to doctoral students for travel to conferences. Our top-ranked Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management and the UC Real Estate Center provide a great opportunity for doctoral students to interact with practitioners.

A collegial environment has long been a hallmark of Lindner PhD programs. Students frequently collaborate with one another and with faculty to produce original research. We strongly encourage these collaborations and place a high priority on students pursuing their own research agendas as quickly as possible. The finance program is highly selective, allowing faculty to work closely with each doctoral student to customize a program of study that meets his or her interests and needs. The goal of this interaction is for you to develop the ability to conduct original research that will become the cornerstone of your dissertation.

In order to enhance our students' teaching abilities, Lindner offers teaching workshops to develop their classroom skills. In our program, students are mentored by department faculty while in various teaching assistant roles and they are given hands-on teaching experience in the classroom to complete their teacher training.

The program begins with a thorough grounding in quantitative methods and economic and financial theory and is complemented by a sequence of seminars covering all the major areas of financial economics. Through work on an independent research paper, students develop the skills and ability necessary to conduct original research. Satisfactory performance on a written comprehensive examination marks the transition from coursework to full-time thesis research. A brief list of the research topics students may choose to pursue as a dissertation topic include theoretical, experimental, or empirical aspects of asset pricing, corporate finance, financial institutions, market microstructure, or real estate.

The program offers a thorough grounding in the basic tools of economics, statistics, and mathematics through a series of introductory courses followed by a series of well-defined seminars that cover the major areas of financial economics.

In addition to gaining basic analytical tools, candidates learn to develop economic intuition into financial problems and acquire the necessary mind-set to teach and conduct independent research as a university professor.

The curriculum consists of four components: required courses, an independent research paper, a comprehensive exam and a dissertation.

Course requirements

Students complete a program of study that leads to competency in three areas: quantitative methods, economics, and finance. The requirements of the program of study are typically satisfied by completing 18 courses in the first two and a half years of the program. Required courses include seven courses in quantitative methods and economics, six in finance, and several electives. In some cases coursework prior to entering the Program may be substituted for required courses.

Research paper

Students are expected to engage in research early in the program. All students work at least part-time as research assistants during the first two years of the program. By the end of their second year, students are required to submit a research paper as part of the FIN 9025 Research Colloquium. A more detailed description of the research paper and the standards and criteria used to evaluate it is available from (and maintained and updated by) the PhD Committee.

Comprehensive examination

Satisfactory performance on a written comprehensive examination marks the student's transition from coursework to full-time thesis research. The examination is intended to allow the student to demonstrate substantial knowledge of finance, economics and quantitative methods.

The candidate will have completed most course work, including all finance coursework, and submitted a satisfactory research paper prior to taking the comprehensive examination.

Dissertation

The doctoral dissertation is expected to be a substantial, significant and original contribution to knowledge. It is prepared under the guidance of a thesis committee of three or more faculty members (including one from outside the Finance department) selected by the candidate in consultation with his or her thesis advisor. Early in the process, the candidate submits a thesis proposal. The proposal is presented in a seminar to which the finance faculty and doctoral students are invited. The purpose of the presentation is to give the student an opportunity to hear the suggestions and comments of members of the UC finance community while the research plan is still fluid.

A thesis-defense seminar, open to the entire University of Cincinnati academic community, is held when the research is completed.

Required coursework

The finance PhD program requires the following coursework:

Introductory courses

• Introduction to Research and Teaching: taken the first semester in the program
• Philosophy of Science
• Business Core: if you do not have an MBA degree, you are required to become familiar with the basic body of knowledge (e.g, marketing, management, and accounting). Many of these courses can be waived if you have an MS degree.

Economic and Quantitative Methods (five courses)

• Principles of Probability
• Statistical Inference
• Econometrics I and II
• Microeconomic Theory

Typical electives (five courses):

• Options and Futures
• Math for Economists
• Financial Engineering
• Forecasting/Time Series Analysis
• Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
• Theory of Incentives
• SAS Programming
• Data Mining
• Linear Models
• Financial Mathematics I and II
• Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes
• Applied Economic Forecasting

The department offers the following seminars. The final seminar, FIN 9025 Research Colloquium: Special Topics in Finance, does not meet as a regular course. It is the course credit associated with the second-year paper.

FIN 9011: Foundations of Finance

• This course will introduce students to decision making under uncertainty (including consumer and producer theory, industrial organization, and welfare economics). Models with symmetric information (including static and dynamic portfolio and consumption choice problems) and asymmetric information (including models of moral hazard and adverse selection) will be covered.

FIN 9012: Corporate Finance Theory

• This course covers the theory of financial decision making in a variety of corporate forms (including public, private, start-up/entrepreneurial firms and financial intermediaries). This course will consider the theoretical foundations of the following topics: capital structure and payout policy, security issuance, governance (including mergers and acquisitions and performance incentives), and the existence of financial intermediaries. The course will also introduce the student to the tools of game theory (Nash equilibrium and refinements, screening/signaling models, etc.) used in theoretical corporate finance research.

FIN 9013: Empiracal Studies in Corporate Finance

• This course covers the empirical methodologies used in testing and investigating corporate finance topics and empirical examinations of important corporate finance issues. Representative topics covered include Empirical Methods/Techniques (event studies, long-term performance measurement); Mergers and Acquisitions (general issues, merger waves, proxy fights and takeovers); and, Performance Incentives and Organizational Form (boards of directors, compensation and insider holdings, institutional investors, blockholders, and corporate governance).

FIN 9014: Asset Pricing Theory

• This course covers the theory of how financial assets are priced (including equities, debt, and derivatives). Representative topics covered include the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, CAPM and APT, Intertemporal CAPM, Consumption CAPM, Derivatives Markets, and the Black-Scholes-Merton model.

FIN 9015: Empiracal Studies in Asset Pricing and Investments

• This course introduces students to current empirical asset pricing research. Representative topics covered include Time-Series Stock Return Predictability, Cross-Sectional Stock Return Predictability, the Dynamics of Stock Market Volatility, and the Stock Market Risk/Return Relationship over Time. Each topic will be addressed in three respects: commonly used empirical methodologies; main empirical findings; and the relation between empirical research and theory. The course will provide an overview of the tension between empirical findings and economic theories and discuss recent theoretical developments that provide a better explanation of data.

FIN 9020: Advanced Topics in Finance

• This course will cover a series of selected research topics that are not currently addressed within the department's other semester-length courses. As a result, this seminar may be structured as a series of mini-courses, each covering a few sessions, taught by multiple instructors. Representative topics that may be covered include Behavioral Finance, Real Estate, Financial Institutions, Experimental Economics, and Market Microstructure.

FIN 9025: Research Colloquium: Current Topics in Finance

• It is anticipated that most students will take this course during their second year in the program. In this colloquium the student will develop an independent, original research idea under the supervision of one or more faculty mentors. During the course the student will carry out all the theoretical analysis and empirical tests required to convert their research question into an original paper. The colloquium will culminate with the circulation of the finished research paper and a professional presentation of the research to the entire faculty.

Recent graduates of Lindner's Finance PhD concentration have accepted positions at:

• Arcadia University
• Marymount Manhattan College
• Shippensburg University
• University of Manitoba

Bond, Shaun, Pai, Yu-Jou , Wang, Peng, and Suyan Zheng (2019), “The Impact of Dividend Reinvestment Plans on Firm Payout Choices -Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts”, Real Estate Economics , 47(1), 178-213.

Suyan Zheng, “Why Do Multinational Firms Hold So Much Cash? Further Evidence on the Precautionary Motive,” Journal of Accounting and Finance , forthcoming

Suyan Zheng (2017), “Can Corporate Diversification Induce More Tax Avoidance Practices?”, Journal of Multinational Financial Management , 41, 47-60.

Doina C. Chichernea , Anthony D. Holder, and Alex Petkevich. "Does return dispersion explain the accrual and investment anomalies?" Journal of Accounting and Economics .

Doina C. Chichernea , Michael F. Ferguson, and Haimanot Kassa, "Idiosyncratic Risk, Investor Base and Returns," Financial Management .

Hui Guo and Buhui Qiu , "A Better Measure of Institutional Informed Trading," Contemporary Accounting Research .

Kee H. Chung and Sean Yang. "Reverse Stock Splits, Institutional Holdings, and Share Value" , Financial Management .

Kee H. Chung and Chairat Chuwonganant. "Uncertainty, Market Structure, and Liquidity" . Journal of Financial Economics 113 (September 2014), 476-499.

Guo, Hui, Michael F. Ferguson, and Haimanot (Haim) Kassa , "On the Relation between EGARCH Idiosyncratic Volatility and Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 49(1) (2014), 271-296.

Guo, Hui, and Buhui Qiu . "Options-implied variance and future stock returns." Journal of Banking & Finance 44 (2014): 93-113.

Glascock, John, and Ran Lu-Andrews . "An examination of macroeconomic effects on the liquidity of REITs." The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 49.1 (2014): 23-46.

Qiu, Buhui , Svetoslav Trapkov, and Fadi Yakoub. "Do target CEOs trade premiums for personal benefits?" Journal of Banking & Finance 42 (2014): 23-41.

Kee H. Chung and Hao Zhang. "A Simple Approximation of Intraday Spreads with Daily Data." Journal of Financial Markets 17 (January 2014), 94-120.

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Degree Requirements

The doctoral program in finance will prepare you to do world-class finance research and enable you to secure a university faculty position.

• F600 Asset Pricing Theory
• F605 Corporate Finance
• F625 Empirical Asset Pricing
• F635 Market Microstructure
• F644 Topics in Finance (e.g., Fund Management, Banking, etc.)
• F798 Research Seminar in Finance (analysis of the weekly outside speaker paper)
• 9 credit hours of methods/analysis course (e.g., econometrics, statistics, etc.)
• 9 to 15 credit hours of a minor, such as economics, accounting, math, etc.
• A summer literature review on a finance topic of your choice
• A comprehensive exam on the finance doctoral courses
• An original research paper, which is developed over four months and presented to all of the finance department faculty
• A dissertation proposal, which is typically three research essays within an overall theme
• A completed dissertation, which is defended to a faculty committee
• Interviews at both the American Finance Association conference and at Financial Management Association conference
• Travel to various universities to present your job market research paper and visit with many of their faculty members
• Review of job offers and a decision on which one to accept

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Additional resources

Finance PhD Specialization

General information.

Finance is the study of investment and financing decisions by firms, the portfolio decisions of individual investors, and the implications of those decisions for the pricing of capital assets. Finance includes the study of corporate financial decisions, corporate control, the role and management of financial institutions, new venture financing, mutual funds and other investment vehicles, market microstructure, asset pricing and portfolio choice, international finance, and the behavior of interest rates and foreign exchange rates.

The Finance department at the Foster School has a long and distinguished record of excellence. It is the birthplace of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the Western Finance Association (WFA), and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA) . The finance department is the longtime home of the JFQA, widely regarded as one of the four leading journals in Finance. Our faculty serve as editors and associate editors at all four of the top journals in finance – at the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis – and at other leading finance journals.

The main objective of the finance PhD program is to produce outstanding researchers who can be placed in the world’s top academic finance departments. Our faculty are open to a large variety of research styles and methods. At the same time, we have a strong department identity, which stresses the joint application of equilibrium reasoning and empirical analysis to understanding financial economics. We have a very active seminar and summer visitor program which attracts leading academics to Seattle and provides many opportunities for interaction. Our heavy representation at top journals ensures that PhD students will be exposed to cutting edge research and will have the opportunity to learn first-hand how leading journals evaluate papers submitted for publication.

Course work in the area of finance covers the basic tools, theory, and empirical evidence necessary to give students a solid foundation upon which to generate and disseminate new knowledge throughout their careers. Students regularly enter into research projects jointly with faculty in addition to the dissertation requirement. Students also obtain valuable teaching experience during their Ph.D. program of studies at the University of Washington.

Admission Requirements

Course requirements for finance major.

The following courses are required for all finance majors. The number of credits for each course is indicated in parentheses after the course number.

Finance majors are also expected to register for and attend the Finance Research Workshop (FIN 599) each quarter of the regular academic year in which they are enrolled in residence.

Research Methods Minor Area Requirements

Finance students are strongly encouraged to take Econometrics as their research methods minor. An Econometrics minor consists of the following courses at a minimum:

Econometrics

Other Minor Area Requirements

In addition to the finance area, all students majoring in finance are required to choose three support areas. Both research methods and microeconomics are required minor areas for finance majors. The third minor area depends upon the student’s interest. However, students are strongly recommended to take macroeconomics their third minor area of study. Other popular minor areas include, accounting, math, statistics, psychology, and computer science.

The microeconomics minor area must include the following three course sequence:

The macroeconomics minor area must include the following three course sequence:

A Typical Course Schedule

Second Year

All finance students are encouraged to take the year-long macroeconomics sequence from the economics department if it fits with their research interests.

Other Requirements

First-Year Paper Students create and present a research paper during their first summer under the guidance of their advisor. The paper may be an original idea or an extension of existing work, recognizing that original ideas are more likely to subsequently become working papers or dissertations, while extensions allow those struggling to find executable ideas a way to build their toolbox in a structured manner. This paper will be due for a last set of comments at the end of August and presented in mid-September.

Basic Tools Exam The basic tools exam for finance majors is administered near the end  of the Summer Quarter at the end of the first year of study. The exam is designed primarily to test the student’s understanding of microeconomic analysis, as covered in the economics core sequence ECON 500, 501, and 508. It is administered by the Economics department. Previous examples of the Tools Examination can be obtained in the School’s Doctoral Program Office.

Major Area Examination The finance major area exam is administered near the beginning of a student’s second Summer Quarter. The exam tests a student’s understanding and knowledge of the entire field of finance. Previous examples of the Area Examination can be obtained in the School’s Doctoral Program Office.

Summer Research Project After completing the Major Area Examination, students complete an original research paper under the guidance of a faculty advisor. This project is to be independent research on a topic and issue selected by the student. Students present their work in a workshop setting in Fall Quarter.

General Examination After successfully completing the previous exams and research papers, the student will propose a dissertation. The proposal should demonstrate through existing work that a student has the capacity to complete a thesis.  Members of the Supervisory Committee, a representative of the Graduate School, and any other interested faculty attend the proposal.

Dissertation and Final Examination After passing the general exam, students complete the proposed research and write the dissertation guided by a reading committee. The reading committee may consist entirely of members of the supervisory committee or may include one or more members not previously on the supervisory committee. The supervisory committee administers the final defense of the dissertation.

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Phd in finance: requirements, salary, jobs, & career growth, what is phd in finance.

A PhD in Finance is a doctoral-level academic degree program in finance that focuses on advanced research and theoretical study. It is intended for people who want to work in academia, research, or advanced positions in the financial industry.

A PhD in Finance usually entails extensive training in finance, economics, statistics, and research methods. It also necessitates the completion of a substantial research project, frequently in the form of a dissertation, in which the student conducts original research and contributes to the body of knowledge in finance.

A PhD in Finance program’s curriculum may include financial theory, investments, corporate finance, financial econometrics, risk management, asset pricing, derivatives, and other specific fields of finance. Quantitative research approaches, such as econometrics, statistical modeling, and data analysis, may also be emphasized in the program.

How much money do people make with a PhD in Finance?

Individuals with a PhD in Finance can earn a wide range of salaries depending on criteria such as their years of experience, location, company, and job duties. PhD holders in Finance typically earn better income than people with less schooling in the industry, as their postgraduate degree denotes knowledge and specialization.

PhD holders in Finance may work in academia as professors or researchers in universities or business schools. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual income for postsecondary business teachers (including finance professors) was $83,960 in May 2020.

Salaries, on the other hand, can range from $50,000 to far over $150,000 or more, depending on factors such as rank, experience, and location.

Individuals with a PhD in Finance may work in the private sector as financial analysts, quantitative researchers, risk managers, investment managers, or consultants, among other positions. Salaries in the private sector can vary greatly depending on job title, level of responsibility, and business size and location.

According to Glassdoor data, the average annual pay for a financial analyst with a PhD in Finance in the United States in 2021 was roughly $102,000, while a quantitative researcher with a PhD in Finance may earn $150,000 or more per year.

What is expected job growth with PhD in Finance?

As businesses and organizations rely on financial skills to manage their operations, investments, and risk, the field of finance is projected to evolve and flourish.

Finance experts with extensive education and specialized knowledge, such as those with a PhD in Finance, may be in high demand in academic and research contexts, as well as professions requiring advanced quantitative and analytical skills.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of postsecondary teachers, particularly business teachers (such as finance professors), is expected to expand 9 percent from 2020 to 2030, faster than the national average. The need for higher education, as well as the ongoing demand for research and education, are driving this predicted growth.

What can you do with a PhD in Finance?

A PhD in Finance can lead to a variety of professional prospects in a variety of fields. Individuals with a PhD in Finance may pursue the following professional paths:

1. Academia: Many PhDs in Finance go on to become professors or researchers at universities or business schools. They may teach finance classes, conduct research, publish scholarly articles, and contribute to the progress of financial knowledge through their research findings. In addition, they may mentor and advise students, oversee dissertations, and attend academic conferences and seminars.

2. Research: PhD holders in Finance may work in research-related positions in university institutions, government agencies, or private research enterprises. They may perform novel research on financial markets, investments, risk management, corporate finance, or other finance-related topics. Their discoveries can help to build financial theories, models, and regulations, and they may have practical implications in the financial business.

3. Financial Services: PhD holders in Finance may work as financial analysts, quantitative researchers, risk managers, or investment managers in the financial services industry. They may evaluate financial data, design investment plans, manage risks, and provide strategic financial advise to customers or organizations using their sophisticated knowledge of finance and mathematical skills.

4. Consulting: PhD holders in Finance may operate as financial consultants, providing clients with specific experience in areas such as investment management, risk management, financial analysis, or corporate finance. They may operate in consulting firms, financial advisory firms, or specialist consulting practices within bigger corporations, advising clients on strategic financial matters.

5. Policymaking and government: Finance PhD holders may work in government agencies, international organizations, or policy-making institutions, providing knowledge in financial policy, regulations, or economic analysis. They may be involved in the development of financial policies, the assessment of the impact of financial legislation, or the provision of strategic financial advice to government agencies or policymakers.

6. Corporate Finance: PhD holders in Finance may work in corporations, particularly in financial strategy, capital budgeting, risk management, or financial analysis areas. They may offer financial advice in strategic decision-making, financial planning and analysis, investment analysis, or corporate valuation, assisting firms in improving their financial performance.

7. Entrepreneurship and Innovation: PhD holders in Finance may apply their financial skills to entrepreneurial initiatives or professions requiring innovation. They may work at start-ups, venture capital companies, or innovation-focused organizations, where they evaluate business models, assess investment opportunities, manage financial risks, and provide strategic financial advise to assist entrepreneurial activities.

What are the requirements for a PhD in Finance?

The particular criteria for a PhD in Finance can differ depending on the university or educational institution that offers the program, as well as the country or location in which the program is located. However, some common PhD in Finance requirements often include:

1. Educational Qualifications: Most PhD programs in Finance require applicants to have a solid educational background, often a master’s degree in a relevant topic such as finance, economics, business, or a comparable quantitative study. Some schools may accept applicants with a bachelor’s degree, however this is uncommon and sometimes necessitates additional requirements or experience.

2. Graduate Admissions examinations: Applicants to PhD programs in Finance may be required to submit results from standardized graduate admissions examinations such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). (GMAT). These assessments measure applicants’ abilities in areas such as verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing.

3. Research Proposal: Because the PhD in Finance program is research-intensive, applicants may be required to submit a research proposal explaining their intended study topic or research interests. Typically, this proposal comprises a summary of the research issue, study aims, methodology, and predicted contributions to the subject of finance.

4. Academic Transcripts: Typically, applicants must produce official transcripts from their previous undergraduate and graduate degrees, demonstrating their academic record and achievements.

5. Letters of Recommendation: Applicants may be expected to present letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources who can speak to their abilities, skills, and prospects for success in a PhD program.

6. Statement of Purpose: Applicants are often required to provide a statement of purpose explaining their rationale for obtaining a PhD in Finance, as well as their professional objectives and research interests. This statement assists the admissions committee in determining the applicant’s fit with the program and their likelihood of success.

7. English Language Proficiency: Many PhD programs in Finance may demand confirmation of English language proficiency for applicants whose native language is not English, such as scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System. (IELTS).

8. Interviews: As part of the admissions process, several PhD programs in Finance may ask applicants to engage in an interview. This interview may take place in person, over the phone, or via video conference, and it will assess the applicant’s research interests, academic abilities, and enthusiasm for pursuing a PhD in Finance.

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How long does it take to get a phd in finance.

The time it takes to earn a PhD in Finance depends on a number of factors, including the program structure, the student’s progress, and the individual’s dedication to their study. However, it usually takes 4 to 5 years of full-time study to get a PhD in Finance.

The completion of a PhD in Finance can be divided into many stages, which may differ based on the program and the individual’s progress:

1. Coursework: During the first year of a PhD in Finance program, students often do coursework to provide a solid foundation in finance theory, research methods, and other related fields. Coursework time varies, but it normally takes 1 to 2 years to finish.

2. Comprehensive Exams: Some PhD programs in Finance require students to complete comprehensive exams after completing courses to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise in the discipline. Depending on the program’s requirements, comprehensive exam preparation and completion can take several months to a year.

3. Research Proposal: After passing the comprehensive tests, students usually work on writing and defending a research proposal outlining their desired study topic, methodology, and expected contributions to the discipline. The development and defense of the research proposal might take several months to a year or more, depending on the complexity of the research and the student’s progress.

4. Dissertation Research: Following the successful defense of the research proposal, students begin their dissertation research, which is the capstone of their PhD program. The dissertation research stage’s time might vary greatly based on the research topic, methodology, data gathering, and analysis needs. The dissertation research and writing process normally takes two to three years or more.

5. Dissertation Defense: After completing their dissertation, students usually defend their research findings in front of a committee of faculty members. The time it takes to schedule and complete the dissertation defense can vary, although it normally takes several months to a year or more, depending on committee member availability and other practical concerns.

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Do you need a masters in finance to get a phd in finance.

A Master’s degree in Finance or a similar discipline is not always required for entrance to a PhD program in Finance. However, admission requirements may differ based on the program and institution.

Some PhD programs in Finance may require applicants to have a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline, whereas others may allow applicants with only a Bachelor’s degree provided they have additional qualifications or experience.

A Master’s degree in Finance or a closely related discipline can provide a solid foundation in finance theory, research methodologies, and mathematical skills, which can be useful for PhD study in Finance.

It can also reflect a greater degree of academic preparation and may assist applicants in standing out during the difficult admissions process.

Some PhD programs in Finance, however, may provide a combined Master’s and PhD program in which students acquire a Master’s degree while pursuing their PhD. In such instances, admittance may not require a separate Master’s degree.

What are the Best PhD in Finance Degree programs?

1. massachusetts institute of technology (mit) – phd in finance 2. stanford university – phd in finance 3. university of chicago – phd in finance 4. columbia university – phd in finance and economics 5. new york university (nyu) – phd in finance 6. university of pennsylvania (wharton) – phd in finance 7. harvard university – phd in business economics (with a concentration in finance) 8. university of california, berkeley (haas) – phd in finance 9. princeton university – phd in finance 10. northwestern university (kellogg) – phd in finance, leave a comment cancel reply.

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PhD in Business, Finance

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Designed to launch your career in academia

Our PhD in Business, Finance will sharpen your research skills and deepen your industry expertise. Through the curriculum, you will undertake an intensive study of the theory and empirical analysis of finance that focuses on investments, corporate finance, and financial institutions and markets. You’ll leave the program with research skills and teaching experience, ensuring you are confident and qualified to enter the field of academia.

Choose your specialization

Our PhD in Business, Finance gives you the opportunity to specialize in an area that suits your interests. We provide three specialization options:

• Corporate finance
• Financial institutions and markets
• Investments

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We are looking for highly motivated individuals who are hardworking and passionate about research. Begin your application today to become a student of the nationally ranked Harbert College of Business.

Why Choose a PhD in Business from the Harbert College of Business?

Collaborate with well-published faculty.

Early in the program, you’ll partner with faculty on a joint project — giving you substantive research experience right away and starting your journey toward making meaningful contributions to the field of finance research.

Look Forward to Your Career

Our PhD in Business, Finance is a new program that launched in 2014. In 2019, each graduate from our first-admitted class earned successful placement in tenure-track positions as Assistant Professors. Placements included Ryerson University in Toronto, Neoma Business School in France, Manhattan College in New York, Troy University in Alabama, and California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles.

For information about the program and placements, please read the recent news story about our first graduating class .

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PhD in Finance from MIT: Admission Requirements, Application, and Acceptance Rate

• Updated on  
• Feb 29, 2024

Finance graduates enjoy a high salary and immense career growth across the world. Moreover, pursuing a PhD in the field gives you an even greater boost. If you want to pursue a PhD in finance , then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management is ideal for you. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, it is recognised as one of the most prestigious institutes in the world. Keep reading if you want to learn in detail about the pursuit of MIT PhD finance. You will learn about the program’s details, tuition fees, admission requirements, and more. So, let’s dive right into our discussion without wasting a second. 

Why Pursue PhD Finance from MIT?

Let’s understand why you should pursue the MIT PhD Finance before learning about the various aspects of the program. So, here are the main reasons why you should go for this doctoral degree at MIT:

Acquire the Needed Knowledge: The program offers you an understanding of modern financial theory, whose practical implications are widely recognised and applied by Wall Street and corporations. You will be taught everything you need to conduct theoretical and applied research in the course. 

World-Renowned Faculty: You will benefit from world-renowned faculty and hands-on learning experiences, allowing you to receive the best education possible. 

Global Hub for Innovation: MIT is a renowned global hub of innovation in finance, management, entrepreneurship, analytics, and technology. Moreover, the degree earned from the institute will give you an edge over other professionals. 

Also Read: PhD in Chemistry at Edinburgh University: Entry Requirements, Cost, Application Process

Program Details

The MIT Sloan Finance Group provides a PhD in Finance, catering to students aspiring to make a research career in academic finance. Students are engaged primarily in coursework during the initial two years, taking both required and elective courses in preparation for their general exam towards the end of the second year. 

Students have to complete a research paper by the fifth semester’s end, present it to the faculty committee, and obtain a passing grade in the MIT PhD finance program. After this, they need to find a formal thesis advisor and create a thesis committee by the eighth semester’s end. The Thesis Committee must comprise at least one tenured faculty from the MIT Sloan Finance Group.

Tuition Fees

An MIT Sloan PhD Program charges an annual tuition fee of $57,575.98 . Moreover, the average monthly cost of living for an individual is $3,794 (with rent) in Cambridge, MA. So, keep these costs in mind to properly plan your educational budget. 

Now that you have learnt about the details and tuition fees of MIT PhD finance, let’s look at the rankings of MIT. The institute receives a top rank every year in the global rankings, reaffirming its excellence. 

See below the popular rankings of MIT:

MIT PhD Finance: Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate for the MIT Sloan School of Management is 13-15%, making it a very competitive school to get into. However, don’t let the low acceptance rate discourage you from applying for admission. Pursuing a degree from here is very rewarding as far as your career is concerned, making all your efforts worthwhile. 

MIT PhD Finance: Admission Requirements

Before applying for the MIT PhD finance program, make sure you meet its eligibility criteria. So, here are the admission requirements for the MIT Sloan PhD Program:

• You must have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. 
• Moreover, you are required to have a strong quantitative background.
• You also have to submit the following documents during your admission process:
• GMAT/GRE Scores
• Statement of Purpose
• Transcripts
• TOEFL/IELTS Scores
• Letters of Recommendation
• Video Essay
• Writing Sample(s)
• Valid Passport Copy (For International Students)
• Student Visa (For International Students)

Also Read: PhD at Columbia University: Courses Overview, Tuition Fees and Duration  

MIT PhD Finance: Application Process

The application process for the MIT PhD finance can become daunting. Luckily, we can help you with your application and make the whole process easier for you. 

Here is how we can help you in your application:

• You can use our Ai course finder to select the course you want to attend. 
• Then Leverage Edu’s experts will commence your application on your behalf for your chosen institute and program. 
• Your application must have some necessary documents like IELTS, TOEFL, LORs, SOPs, and essays. 
• So, please prepare all the mandatory documents for your application beforehand. 
• Our team will begin your application for housing, student loans, and scholarships once you have finished all the needed paperwork. 
• Now, relax and wait for your offer letter, which you are usually granted within 4-6 weeks.

Relevant Reads:

Answer: Yes, students obtain full academic year tuition along with a monthly fellowship stipend (current rate $4,497 per month) and/or TA/RA salary for each of 12 months a year.

Answer: Yes, MIT is renowned and recognised for its finance degrees across the world. 

Answer: The duration of a PhD course at MIT is 5-6 years. 

So, this was all about the MIT PhD finance Many Indian students dream of pursuing education in foreign nations due to the exposure and career growth they offer. Consider joining a free counselling session with Leverage Edu if you plan to study abroad .

Abhishek Kumar Jha

Abhishek Kumar Jha is a professional content writer and marketer, having extensive experience in delivering content in journalism and marketing. He has written news content related to education for prominent media outlets, garnering expansive knowledge of the Indian education landscape throughout his experience. Moreover, he is a skilled content marketer, with experience in writing SEO-friendly blogs. His educational background includes a Postgraduate Diploma in English Journalism from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal. By receiving an education from a top journalism school and working in the corporate world with complete devotion, he has honed the essential skills needed to excel in content writing.

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Current Master in Finance students will find information about key requirements and core courses on this page. Information about electives can be found here .

All Master in Finance students must take five core courses and 11 elective courses. Eligible courses are listed below. At least five of the elective courses must be at the level 500 or higher along with five from List One of the elective courses. More information on elective courses can be viewed here . Students who aim to become an AI in their second year must complete all core courses in their first year. 

Importantly, any course not on the pre-approved elective list must be pre-approved by the Director of Graduate Studies and will not be considered unless it meets the following criteria: a) having regular homework assignments b) a final exam, and c) is a full semester (not a half semester) course.

Students are not permitted to work in any capacity during their first year of the program, as it’s preferred they concentrate on their studies. With permission of the Director of Graduate Studies, students will be allowed to work on campus during their second year after they complete the five core courses of the program.

Information for students in the condensed, one-year program

Students who have been admitted to the one-year program (as stated in their admission letter) must complete a total of 10 courses over two semesters. Individual meetings between the student and the Director of Graduate Studies will determine, on the basis of courses previously completed by the student at Princeton or another institution, which of the required core and elective courses need to be taken. Additionally, one year students cannot take classes at the Princeton School of Public & International Affairs for credit unless they get permission from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Other course requirements

At most, 5 course credits per semester can be earned towards fulfilling the requirements of the program. Each semester, the list of courses taken for credit needs to be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies before the end of the second week of classes.

Second year students cannot take 300-or-less-level courses for credit. First year students can take at most one 300-level course for credit but must have permission from the Director of Graduate Studies.

MFins can take at most one SPIA course per semester, after receiving approval from the Princeton BCF Director of Graduate Studies.

Our MFin exam policy is that all students are to be on campus throughout the exam period including each prior reading period and should not arrange travel for this time. Graduate study is a full-time commitment on the students part. The specific periods taken as vacation must not conflict with the student’s academic responsibilities, coursework, research, or teaching, and should be discussed in advance with one’s director of graduate studies, adviser. Student Vacation Policy

GPA minimums

Students must maintain an overall grade average of B (GPA = 3.0) or better as well as earn a passing grade in all core and elective courses.

In case a student completes additional courses beyond the required total number, the GPA is calculated using the grades earned in the most favorable combination of courses that still fulfills the program’s core and elective requirements.

Audited or P/D/F courses cannot be used to fulfill the program’s requirements.

Extensions for students who don’t meet the requirements

Students unable to meet the graduation requirements of the program at the end of their original program length of one or two years, either because their GPA is below the required 3.0 minimum or because they have not completed the required core and elective courses, may apply for an extension by submitting a proposal to the Director of Graduate Studies who will review it and seek the approval of the Dean of Academic Affairs of the Graduate School.

The conditions governing such proposals are the following:

• At most two additional semesters will be granted to complete the requirements
• The student will need to re-enroll formally for each additional semester, and full tuition will be charged for each additional semester.
• A maximum of two courses can be re-taken for the purpose of improving the student’s GPA. Students are free to select the two courses they wish to re-take.
• A course re-taken will appear twice on the student transcript, but only the higher grade earned will be used for the purpose of computing the student’s final GPA.
• Courses may not be re-taken until the completion of the student’s original program length.
• A course re-taken counts only once for the purpose of satisfying the required number of core and elective courses.
• The new plan of study needs to be approved before the official beginning of the semester to be added.

Core Master in Finance Courses

The core courses of the Master in Finance provide students with analytical fundamentals of modern finance, both theoretical and empirical. Descriptions of these courses can be found below or at the Registrar’s Office.

Fall Semester

FIN 501/ORF 514 – Asset Pricing I: Pricing Models and Derivatives

This course provides an introduction to the modern theory of asset pricing. Topics include: no arbitrage, Arrow-Debreu prices and equivalent martingale measures, security structure and market completeness, mean-variance analysis, Beta-pricing, CAPM, and introduction to derivative pricing.

FIN 505/ORF 505 – Statistical Analysis of Financial Data

The course is divided into three parts of approximately the same lengths: Density estimation (heavy tail distributions) and dependence (correlation and copulas); Regression analysis (linear, nonlinear, nonparametric) and robust alternatives; Support Vector Machines and Machine Learning, including convolution and recurrent neural networks. The statistical analyses, the computations, and the numerical simulations will be done in the R environment for statistical computing.

Spring Semester

FIN 502 – Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting

This course covers the basics of financial statements, the analysis and recording of transactions, and the underlying concepts and procedures. In addition, a more detailed study of some aspects of financial accounting that have widespread significance is undertaken, such as inventories, long-term productive assets, bonds and other liabilities, stockholders equity, and the statement of changes in financial position. The course provides students with the skills necessary to become informed users of financial statements. Problem sets emphasize an ability to interpret and analyze financial statement disclosures.

FIN503/ORF515 – Asset Pricing II, Stochastic Calculus, and Advanced Derivatives OR FIN521 – Fixed Income, Options, and Derivatives: Models and Applications

FIN503/ORF515 begins with an overview of basic probability theory and covers the elements of stochastic calculus and stochastic differential equations that are widely used in derivatives modeling, pricing and hedging. Topics include Brownian motion, martingales, and diffusions and their uses in stochastic volatility; volatility smiles; risk management; interest-rate models; and derivatives, swaps, credit risk, and real options.

FIN521 covers models of valuation for fixed income securities. Topics include: interest rate contracts: zerocoupon bonds, coupon bonds, floating rate notes, yields, forwards and futures, swaps, options, caps, swaptions; arbitrage free pricing in discrete time: Vasiek model, Ho-Lee model, BlackDerman-Toy model; introduction to continuous-time fixed income modeling: Black model, Heath-Jarrow-Morton; applications of arbitrage free models to pricing of interest rate contracts; credit risk; and mortgage-backed securities.

FIN504/ORF 504 – Financial Econometrics

This course covers econometric and statistical methods as applied to finance. Topics include measurement issues in finance, predictability of asset returns and volatilities, value at risk and extremal events, linear factor pricing and portfolio problems, intertemporal models of the stochastic discount factor and generalized method of moments, vector autoregressive and maximum likelihood methods in finance, risk neutral valuation in discrete time, estimation methods of continuous time models, volatility smiles and alternatives to Black-Scholes, and nonparametric statistical methods for option pricing.

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Financial Documentation Requirements

Requirements for international student proof of funding.

Per U.S. immigration regulations, all international students intending to study on F-1 or J-1 visa status are required to demonstrate proof of their ability to pay for their education and living expenses in the United States.

Before an I-20 or DS-2019 can be issued, USC requires a financial statement demonstrating proof of funding. If you are applying to a graduate program, it is not necessary to submit proof of financial support or passport copies to be considered for admission to USC. Documents can be submitted after an admission decision has been reached and you have committed to attend USC.

If you are applying for an undergraduate program, proof of financial support is required to be considered for admission to USC.

Cost Requirements for I-20 Program

To determine your I-20/DS-2019 cost requirements, please find your program, by degree level, in the drop-down below. These amounts cover estimated, average program expenses and living expenses for one year, as determined by the USC Financial Aid Office.

Please Note: These numbers are for immigration purposes only. They should not be considered a bill of expense for your program. Your actual expenses may vary based on course load, living situation, special fees, lifestyle, etc.

Regardless of your actual expenses, the I-20/DS-2019 costs below cannot be negotiated. For example, you may not subtract living costs if you intend to live with a relative in Los Angeles. For questions about your degree program’s curriculum, units, classes, fees, etc. please contact the admission office of your program.

PhD/Doctoral Applicants: Since USC provides funding to the majority of PhD candidates, PhD applicants do not need to submit a personal financial statement, unless the university has confirmed that no funding will be provided.

J-1 Students Only: Before the Office of Admission can issue a DS-2019, you must provide proof that the majority of your funding is sponsored by a government, university, or other major international organization. Personal funds may not be used unless you have dependent expenses not covered by your scholarship.

If you have dependents (a legal spouse or child) who will apply for F-2/J-2 visas, you must be able to provide an additional $14,253 for your spouse and $7,127 for each child.

Program Cost by Degree Level

What is an acceptable financial document.

Please visit our USC Guidelines for Acceptable Financial Support Documentation for more information.

How to Submit Your Documents

Undergrad uate students: You must submit your documents when you apply for admission. Please submit them with the Common Application .

Grad uate students: We will require financial documentation only if you are admitted to and choose to attend USC. Financial documents for graduate student s are not required or accepted when you apply for admission. Please do not send any financial documents while your application is under consideration, as they will not be reviewed.

Admitted students who have committed to attend USC can log in to Trojan International to:

1) Submit their financial statement.

2) Submit their passport copy.

3) Request their I-20.

Please log in with your USC NetID and click on the “Admission” menu to proceed. We also recommend reading the Trojan International Checklist beforehand for guidelines on how to prepare your passport and financial documents.

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Master of Quantitative Finance

Distinctly quantitative, combining data science and financial modeling.

The Rady Master of Quantitative Finance prepares you to analyze the large — and often multiple — real-time data sets that drive financial decision-making and risk management. Many of the empirical methods you’ll use have emerged from UC San Diego’s own world-renowned econometrics research. This emphasis on empirical data-driven methods sets the Rady degree apart from other finance master programs.

You’ll graduate technically proficient and ready to be a sought-after colleague, collaborator and incisive decision-maker.

“My Life at Rady has been amazing. I’ve had the chance to meet some fantastic people who have a passion for finance and are extremely smart.” - Noah Conlon , MFin '22

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Our STEM designation ensures that you will be equipped with the strong quantitative and analytical skills in demand by top employers.

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