Admission Statistics for PhD in Finance (Updated)

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Here is the list of admission statistics to PhD programs in Finance from various US universities.
It’s the updated version of what I posted earlier, click to see, since there are many changes to the stats. Specifically, some schools posted their 2009 entering class statistics and it turned out that many figures changed significantly. Therefore, I think it’s better for me to update this data to all you guys.
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Changes in my admission statistics

• This time, I provide you with links to sources of almost every figure in the table
  so that you can check it yourself where the number came from.
  Moreover, in case there’s more recent update in the universities’ web sites,
  you can re-calculate some figures by yourself.
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• I now provide you with two alternatives of viewing,
  one in HTML format and another in spreadsheet format.
  For the spreadsheet format, you can sort the stats the way you like.
  Also, there’s more detailed info in the spreadsheet such as application deadlines and some comments on some numbers. For the sake of us all, I set the spreadsheet so that it can be printed properly in one page of A4 paper.
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• I added new ranking from BusinessWeek, written B.Week in the table, for your further consideration.
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• More universities statistics have been added. This time, I cover up to 45 universities.
  Most of new university stats I added are those of middle ranked universities.
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Again, please be noted that these statistics have been collected based on my best-effort attempt. Data may not be 100% correct and there may be some errors, so use them at your own risk. Now, it’s about time you saw the new stats.

Oh… one more thing, if you want to refer to this admission statistics please link to this page directly. Don’t just copy & paste this table on your site.

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Spreadsheet version:

..Click here to download Admission Statistics for PhD in Finance (Updated Sep/09)

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In excel file, you can see more info for each figure using “Show Comment” command.
To do that, right click the field with the red arrow on the top-right corner and then click
“Show Comment”

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HTML version:
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Admission Statistics for PhD in Finance
(As of September 7, 2009)
Data is ranked by Rank USNEWS > Rank B.Week > Rank ASU
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* Data collected as of Sep 7, 2009

I tried to set the table so that it can be displayed more properly. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am fully understand how WordPress Editor works so the table looks a little bit messy. Anyway, here are explanations for each table column.
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Explanations:

• Acceptance Rate = Number of Students Offered/ Number of Applicants
  Here you will see that in my formula the numerator is not “No. of Students Enrolled.”
  I use information from each PhD program’s website to calculate the rates.
  Some schools provide very specific data for their Finance programs, but some not.
  Instead, they provide data for the overall PhD admission which, for me, is acceptable
  to use as a proxy to calculate the acceptance rate.
  …
  You can click on the links in table to go to the source web pages.
  Some of the link destinations may be a PhD program brochure, in PDF format.
  …
• AACSB GMAT
  AACSB stands for The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
  It’s an organization that gives accreditation to business schools all over the world.
  Therefore, it has some data on Average GMAT for many doctoral programs.
  Nonetheless, it doesn’t state that the average GMAT scores provided in its database
  are the average scores of Admitted Applicants or of Enrolled Applicants.
  I presume that they’re of Enrolled Applicants. Furthermore, I’m not sure when this GMAT data is collected.
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  You can use AACSB’s DataDirect service to search for the AABSB GMAT scores and other info from more universities than I’ve listed in my table. Here:

  https://datadirect.aacsb.edu/public/profiles/search.cfm

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• Program GMAT
  These are the GMAT scores I collected from the PhD program’s websites.
  Some scores are calculated as Median, while some are Mean.
  Most of them are average GMAT scores of Admitted Applicants.
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  Please note that, some of them are scores from 2009 entering classes.
  However, most of them are scores from 2008 entering classes.
  You can click on the links to see what exactly these scores are.
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• TOEFL iBT
  I didn’t see much information on TOEFL scores of applicants to the PhD program.
  May be, I believe, the program’s emphasis is on GMAT rather than TOEFL.
  By the way, in overall, a minimum of 100 TOEFL iBT score is necessary to get into
  graduate programs in the US, not just PhD programs.
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  Some PhD programs require that applicant get at least a specific minimum score in each part of the test. For example, some require that you get at least 26 in Speaking section.
  You can, again, click the links to see for yourself the detail of this number.
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• Rank USNEWS
  As its name states, it’s the USNEWS university ranking for the year 2009.
  The ranks in the table are for Finance program. See the official ranking HERE.
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• Rank ASU
  It’s a research-based university ranking conducted by Arizona State University.
  I include this ranking as an alternative for someone who looks for research ranking
  rather than commercial ones. There’re many research rankings out there.
  I chose ASU’s not because it’s the best, since I don’t really know which is the best,
  but I chose it because it provides you with links to some cool finance papers
  in top finance journals, broken down by the year they were published.
  You can see the full ranking here :
  http://wpcarey.asu.edu/finance/rankings/index.cfm
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• Rank BusinessWeek (B.Week)
  This is another ranking I chose to include in the table.
  About the ranks in the table, I refer to the Full-time MBA ranking in this web page
  http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/index.html
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My best wishes!

I’m trying to make this admission statistics available to everyone interested in pursuing a PhD in Finance like me. Some of you may be able to get into the best program with less effort, whereas many of you, including me , may have to work as hard as you can but still have to bet on luck to get accepted. However, we’re all heading the same way and, at least, we share the same dream. Tough road is surely ahead. I wish you a reasonable outcome relative to your effort. Hope you all work to the best of your ability cause that’s the only THING.

I will not continue updating this admission statistics any further, except for correcting some errors it may carry. But, I’m sure that I’ve given you all my sources to this kind of information. So you can now do some research on your own. If you want, you can leave me a comment some time. Good luck to you all!