The primary objective of the Finance PhD Program is to educate students of exceptional promise to become outstanding researchers and university-level teachers in the field of finance. Graduates of the Program must have a thorough knowledge of the fundamental concepts and theories in finance, an understanding of financial instruments and markets, and an ability to use financial data to analyze models and evaluate financial decisions.
A student admitted to the Finance PhD program is expected to have excellent aptitude, motivation, and preparation for rigorous post-masters-level study in finance. During the first year in the program, the student takes the graduate level course sequence in microeconomic and macroeconomic theory, research tool courses, PhD level courses in theoretical and empirical asset pricing and theoretical corporate finance.
Normally, at the end of the first year, the student sits for the Microeconomics Qualifying Examination in the Economics department. The Microeconomics Qualifying Examination is the second area (i.e. minor are) field examination for PhD finance students. During the summer of the first year, the student takes the Asset Pricing Qualifying Examination. The Corporate Finance Qualifying Examination is given during the first week of the spring semester of the second year after the student has taken the empirical corporate finance class during the last seven weeks of the fall semester of the second year.
In the second year of the program, the student takes advanced PhD-level courses in asset pricing and corporate finance, the finance research reading course as well as research tools courses in econometrics and statistics.
At the completion of the second year, the student takes the Candidacy Examination. The Candidacy Examination contains written and oral portions and must be scheduled before the start of the third academic year.
During the third year of the program, the student takes the Finance Research Seminar course, completes the thesis proposal, and commences the research and writing of the dissertation. The dissertation is written under the guidance of a major advisor and a dissertation committee. The dissertation is expected to demonstrate that the student has a high level of knowledge and the capability to function as an independent scholar.
During the fourth and fifth years of the program, the student completes the dissertation and works on developing a research agenda. Almost all students go on the academic job market during their fifth year in the program.
Why a Finance PhD at Ohio State?