Admissions
Students are typically accepted on a biennial basis. All application materials for the fall 2009 entering class must be received by January 15, 2009. The department will begin reviewing applications after this date and will inform applicants of the admission decision and any graduate assistantship support in March, 2009. If we are unsure of an applicant’s suitability for our program, we may arrange either a phone or, when practical, an on-campus interview. If we discover items missing from your application packet that will materially affect our decision, we will contact you by email in January 2009. It is very important that you list a valid email address in all application materials. All correspondence with our program should be made via email: finphdinq@bus.msu.edu. Due to the large volume of emails submitted to our program, we cannot guarantee that we will reply to all messages.
Required Application Materials:
- A completed application. All application forms are available from the graduate school http://www.msu.edu/user/gradschl/. The application fee should be paid online. Note that international students do not need to fill out the "Statement of Financial Proof" form as we expect that all admitted students will be offered graduate assistantships. For more information on these assistantships see the financial assistance link on our web page.
- Transcripts from all colleges and universities attended.
- A GMAT score that is less than 5 years old. (We prefer the GMAT, but will consider a GRE score.)
- A TOEFL within the last 2 years for all students for whom English is not their native language. If you have earned a degree from a U.S. school, you are exempt from the TOEFL requirement. You should look at the web page for the graduate school to see the current TOEFL score requirements.
- Three letters of recommendation discussing your suitability for doctoral training in finance. A form to accompany each letter of recommendation can be found on the web page for the graduate school.
- A statement of purpose outlining your goals in pursuing a doctoral program in finance.
- Any additional supporting materials you believe will help the department evaluate your candidacy (e.g., a resume detailing work experience, copies of any publications, etc.).
Application form:
Your official application form must be submitted through the Graduate School's online graduate application system. The major code for our department for the application is 1139 and the program name is Finance PhD program. The application fee can be paid for online. If you have no online access, send a paper version of the application directly to the department along with all supporting materials.
Other application materials:
All materials except the application should be sent directly to the department at the following address:
Doctoral Program in Finance
315 Eppley Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1121
It is best to mail all materials except the online application in one envelope. If possible, please include a printout of the online application, sealed copies of letters of recommendation (with signature across the seal on the back of the envelope), unofficial transcripts and unofficial test scores. Official copies of transcripts and test scores should also be sent. When ordering official GMAT scores, our institution code is QH0-5P-03. For GRE scores our institution code is 1465 and our department/major field code is 4102. For TOEFL scores our institution code is 1465 and our department code is 02.