Hello all. I’m an MFE student and I’m thinking about a b-school finance PhD. However I don’t want to be a pure academic. So my question is, at the major schools in big cities (NYU, U Chicago…) is it possible to do dissertation research with a practitioner or for a bank? I.e. is it possible to do research with the goal of solving a real world problem and in the process to have regular contact with practitioners? I’m asking because I think that I would really enjoy doing a PhD but I don’t want to fall too far out of touch with industry because I do want to be a practitioner eventually. Is it too much to ask to be part of both academia and industry? Any advice or related comments would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Find a prof. who is heavily involved in financial industry