QuoteOriginally posted by: twofishQuoteOriginally posted by: barnyI disagree with the above poster anyway, it doesn't matter one bit who your superviser is unless he's a nobel prize winner(even then it might not matter)It matters a great deal for the same reason since for several years, your adviser will be something like a major deity, and they can make your life either pleasant or miserable. There are Nobel prize winners who are semi-insane that I wouldn't want for my dissertation adviser based on how bad a reputation they have for treating their students.Presumably it depends on the particular field, but in mine, you are the property of your supervisor, and can be discarded at will (even long after your thesis), until you have the legal protection of tenure.

QuoteThe problem here is that it's impossible to figure out ahead of time how much time a dissertation will take, and part of the education of a Ph.D. (which is useful in industry) is to figure out what the absolute minimum scope there is that will let you get something out. Ph.D completion times are highly variables. In the US it is usually quoted as taking around 5 years *average*, whereas in the UK the average seems to have gone up to 3.5 years. Ideally you want to be in a situation where you are either finished or nearly finished towards the 4/5 year mark (full-time).In industry you don't always get the luxury of working in your own time, and the deadlines are tighter from my experience. SG

Also keep in mind that most PhD programs are standardized to a certain degree. Some might have emphasis on a specific area but most will put you through the standard courses that use the standard graduate textbooks. There are some schools that are tougher than others though, like U Chicago, that sometimes dont use textbooks but instead teach from their (more advanced) notes. If you take a look at MITs opencourse site you will see for yourself that even a top of the top PhD programs such as MIT use the standard textbooks and teach the same material as other math programs.Here are some of the important factors that I think make a quality PhD program:1. Good professors that are **taking** students.2. The quality of the seminars that the department holds.3. The amount of time and money the department allocates to PhD students (research, personal attention, etc.).4. A good solid set of core classes and a variety of advanced level classes.5. Placement of phd graduates.Ive recently found that the whole ranking system for phd programs, such as the US News and NRC, is a bit mis-guiding. Many of these are ranked mostly on surveys taken by professors at universities, but if you think about this for a second, you will find that there are many problems with this kind of ranking systems. For one, how would a professor be able to judge a program well if he/she didnt attend or teach at the school? Secondly, just because there are two famous professors at a school doesnt make it a good phd program, those professors might not even be accessible to students. Thirdly, you dont know how much time the professors are taking to so these surveys, they might be rushing through them and not putting any thought into it. Fourth, only around 60% professors respond to these surveys. Lastly, did they recognize the difference between a good department and a good phd program?Phd rankings are mostly outdated. With the internet you can go into the department's website and personally investigate the program and facutly by yourself. Before the internet, it was really hard to get all this information and had to rely on rankings to be able to make a good choice. So I say that you should be the judge of how good the program is, using some guidelines such as 1.-5.

Hi rkammogneI know Dr Decent, I study at the university of Birmingham (Msc in Mathematical Finance) and he is the director of my MastersHe is interested in Finance, teaches Mathematical Finance and he seems to be a passionate / young / interesting teacher and researcher. If you have any particular question let me knowJeremy

QuoteOriginally posted by: james31 he seems to be a passionate / young / interestingare you looking to date him or be supervised by him ?

QuoteOriginally posted by: ppauperQuoteOriginally posted by: james31 he seems to be a passionate / young / interestingare you looking to date him or be supervised by him ?Nice welcome. I think that was his first post.

Thanks for your answer I am a student and I noticed that good teachers are rare, personally I think he is good. Nothing more.If rkammogne gets a chance to speak with him or met him he will see.Regards

I know Prof Decent, I did my undergrad in maths at bham from 04-07. He's one of the better prof at Bham, but very inexperienced in financial mathematics (done no research in the field). In my final year he taught me an intro to math finance, and he basically was just lecturing word by word wimotts student intro to financial deivatives. I could of just not turned up and read the book myself.

Definitely choose someone who you want to work with otherwise you'd screw your only chance in life, waste your time and you cant blame no one. These are words from my heart, as I've been there. U dont want to wake up early in the morning and worry about what you could do to make things better, and the fact is you cant.

thanks james31.please can you give me more information about the Maths department there and the people ?how many PHD student they have ?how many Student pro supervisor ?