Ok this is a mulit-part question, not to be confused with the MBA vs. PHD question. Are there a large number of Masters programs in Finance? If so, what are some good programs. If someone goes to a masters program like this, but decides to continue on to their PHD is this do-able?Thirdly, If someone goes to a PHD program, completes the first two years, passes the exam but decides not to continue on, will they end up with a masters? Or will they end up with nothing.Sorry for the multi-pronged question, but the basic question is... What do you do if you are very interested in Finance, want to study it on more than just an Undergrad/MBA level, but are unsure as to whether a career in research, i.e. PHD is what you want.CuriousColin

Oh yeah, I live in the U.S. so any suggestions of prorams should be in the States. Thanks

Colin,I was once in your shoes, but I was an undergrad math major and decided to continue in pursuit of an M.S. in Financial Math. However, I was in contact with many M.S. in Finance programs during my search and some of them led to Ph.D. programs if one wanted to go on.Most of the top Ph.D. programs only have M.B.A. programs as a precursor to them. That was a big problem for me as the M.B.A. programs required at least three years of experience, and I have only been working for a year. The link below has a great list of M.S. in Finance programs. It is put together by Professor Chance at Virginia Tech, an academic with whom I would love to work one day were I to pursue a Ph.D. VT is just one of the many schools on this list.TextGood luck!

From what I've read, universities usually pay for your PhD and give you a bit of cash for "living", since you are supposedly doing work for them. In contrast, all the MSc/MFE programs require you to pay them a huge tuition with absolutely no financial aid or scholarships.I don't know if they would be happy to hand out "free" MSc's, although I would imagine being a PHd student is more stressful than an MSc student, but depends on schools/profs...

This list is (incomplete) of FinEng programs:http://www.iafe.org/educate/fe_schools.ihtml

Colinl,In the UK, if you begin a PhD program and after a while you decide that the three (or even five) years is too long for you, you are usually given an opportunity to finish the course earlier with MPhil - Master of Philosophy. It is a research degree, and is therefore considered different from MSc, but it does not require as much quality oroginal material as PhD. I guess a similar system may exist in the States as well. As for quiting the course with MSc or a similar degree, I wouldn't expect this practice to be usual, in particular due to the reason mentioned by akimon.