Page 1 of 3

Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 20th, 2017, 4:23 pm
by frolloos
Not really a career question (I don't have/want one), it's more because I'm interested to get a Ph.D in mathematical finance (don't laugh, it doesn't hurt trying :)) and perhaps would like to teach introductory courses at Uni level one day.

How difficult/easy is it? I suppose the two basic things are
- find a topic
- find a supervisor (with time and patience)

Where to start?

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 20th, 2017, 6:54 pm
by ppauper
any other constraints?
do you want to stay in your current location, which narrows the choice of schools?
do you need funding?

cuch teaches c++ at a school in nyc, maybe he would like a student?

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 20th, 2017, 7:57 pm
by frolloos
No funding constraints in the sense that I don't expect to get paid for doing a phd.

No location constraints as long as the uni is open to using technology to communicate.

Oxbridge - would love to, but no chance!

What's c++?! I'll spare Cuch the agonizing pain of supervising me.

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 12:25 pm
by ppauper
wrt funding, there's also the issue of fees which will run you what, 40 or 50k USD a year at the better known US schools
if you self-fund, Oxbridge may not be out of the question. A lot of schools are happy to admit someone who shows up with a bag full of money.
At least in the US, you'll need to do coursework as well as a thesis, although if you've got a masters you may be able to transfer some of the credits from that over to a PhD program. Many schools also have a requirement that you be physically present (known as a residency requirement)
In your place, I'd look at the webpages of some of the schools you'd be interested in (you mentioned Oxbridge) and emailing professors whose area of expertize catches your eye

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 2:28 pm
by ppauper
picking yale at random
pdf: college of arts and sciences
(23 of 51 in the file)
Residency requirement.
Doctoral students are required to be in residence in New Haven for at least three years.

from the yale website, PhD tuition is $39,800 pa, although it is waived once you become ABD (all but dissertation)

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 4:37 pm
by frolloos
Thanks ppauper!

This does narrow down the search. I don't have 200K to spend on a Ph.D even though Yale waives it at ABD. ALso the residence requirement makes it very difficult.

I'd probably need to talk to uni's in NL, Belgium, Germany. I think they do not have tuition fees, or at least substnatially less than ivy league in US and Oxbridge in UK.

Outrun has given me some good tips as well. 

Before emailing professors I need to think about topics now which are in the range of my capabilities. Leaning more towards PDE or diff.geom. side than stochastics and/or statistics and probability!

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 5:39 pm
by mtsm
Forget that kind of mathematical finance, it's defunct. Nobody cares about pdes, diff geom, etc... Seriously, even if Dodd-Franck becomes undone, I doubt that this will ever be more than a niche. In other words, I don't think derivatives will ever be the same again, whatever happens. There will always be a need for a niche quant or a model validator, or a risk manager, but from there to do a PhD. Forget it. 

Get a PhD in statistics, data science, AI. It will serve you better for matematical finance.  

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 5:47 pm
by Traden4Alpha
Thanks ppauper!

This does narrow down the search. I don't have 200K to spend on a Ph.D even though Yale waives it at ABD. ALso the residence requirement makes it very difficult.

I'd probably need to talk to uni's in NL, Belgium, Germany. I think they do not have tuition fees, or at least substnatially less than ivy league in US and Oxbridge in UK.

Outrun has given me some good tips as well. 

Before emailing professors I need to think about topics now which are in the range of my capabilities. Leaning more towards PDE or diff.geom. side than stochastics and/or statistics and probability!
Google Scholar might be a big help here for finding technical papers that appeal to your capabilities and interests and then looking at the papers' authorship to find corresponding professors and institutions.

Good luck!

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 5:53 pm
by Paul
Forget that kind of mathematical finance, it's defunct. Nobody cares about pdes, diff geom, etc... Seriously, even if Dodd-Franck becomes undone, I doubt that this will ever be more than a niche. In other words, I don't think derivatives will ever be the same again, whatever happens. There will always be a need for a niche quant or a model validator, or a risk manager, but from there to do a PhD. Forget it. 

Get a PhD in statistics, data science, AI. It will serve you better for matematical finance.  
Whether true or false he's not doing it for career anyway. He is doing for pure pleasure! Anyone who does a PhD as a career move should be kicked out of university!

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 21st, 2017, 8:30 pm
by ppauper
if there is a local university where you are, you could do worse than go and talk to them and tell them what you want to do and say that you need a tuition waiver.

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: April 29th, 2017, 6:07 pm
by katastrofa
Forget that kind of mathematical finance, it's defunct. Nobody cares about pdes, diff geom, etc... Seriously, even if Dodd-Franck becomes undone, I doubt that this will ever be more than a niche. In other words, I don't think derivatives will ever be the same again, whatever happens. There will always be a need for a niche quant or a model validator, or a risk manager, but from there to do a PhD. Forget it. 

Get a PhD in statistics, data science, AI. It will serve you better for matematical finance.  
Skip data science (there's no such thing) and AI (how many more years can they spend trying to teach a program play a silly game or recognise a dog in a photo? And doing it all wrong - intelligence is a feature of a population, not an individual).

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: May 1st, 2017, 8:57 am
by gatarek
Frolloos, I've sent you a PM. Did you get it?

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: May 1st, 2017, 11:53 am
by frolloos
HI gatarek, just saw it this morning, I replied to you, thanks.

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: May 31st, 2017, 11:26 am
by Cuchulainn
Not really a career question (I don't have/want one), it's more because I'm interested to get a Ph.D in mathematical finance (don't laugh, it doesn't hurt trying :)) and perhaps would like to teach introductory courses at Uni level one day.

How difficult/easy is it? I suppose the two basic things are
- find a topic
- find a supervisor (with time and patience)

Where to start?
What about Delft/UVA (group of K. Oosterlee). 
And C++ can be done online (and TAs can answer all the questions:))
https://www.quantnet.com/courses/

Re: Getting a Ph.D for old farts

Posted: May 31st, 2017, 4:17 pm
by frolloos
For some inexplicable reason gatarek contacted me about this. So I am familiarizing myself with interest rate models (I work more on equity) and arranging with my work to be able to spend 1 day a week on research and hopefully be able to produce something interesting in due course.

But yes, Oosterlee does a lot of good research on especially the numerical side, and maybe combining that with what I hope to be able to work on with gatarek could result in something nice (in a few years or so)