I'm back safe and sound (even if a bit sleep deprived) from the R.I.S.E. Forum in Dayton. It was a great experience for my students (and pretty good for me too).
The first night of the conference, we'd just checked in my student s and I were talking in the hallway. One of the conference big shots (he's a regular talking head on MSNBC on stock market matters walked by, and we struck up a conversation. He said he was meeting at a local tavern with some students that had been out to his company , and invited my students along. So, they ended up having a beer or two with him, and talked stocks for about two hours. The next day, they got to hear Chris Gardener (the book The Pursuit of Happiness was based on his story), and even got their a picture taken with him.
The next two days, we all saw a number of excellent sessions, made a lot of good friends and contacts, and even got some ideas for our Student Managed Fund.
I'd recommend the conference for anyone who's considering it.
Off To Dayton
Blogging will be light for the next couple of days - I'm at the R.I.S.E. Forum in Dayton Ohio. I may post a thing or two, but only if the speakers get too boring (and they've been excellent so far).
Atlanta Tornado
I'd spent a fair bit of time in Atlanta a few years back, and still have quite a few good friends there. So, I was pretty concerned when a tornado hit downtown Atlanta last weekend. Luckily, no one I know was hurt since most of my friends live well north of the city.
But one of them sent this extremely cool photo of the city taken that night - it looks almost apocalyptic.
Yet another reminder that you do NOT want to mess with Mother Nature.
But one of them sent this extremely cool photo of the city taken that night - it looks almost apocalyptic.
Yet another reminder that you do NOT want to mess with Mother Nature.
Some Time Wasting Resources
In case you're looking for a few new ways to kill some time (right - like we need more of those):
I spent most of yesterday editing a paper with my two colleagues. I like working this way - all three in a room (or in a conference call), arguing over each line, suggesting alternate phrasings, etc....
It's noisy and contentious, and takes time, a good self image, and an even better sense of humor (or we'd end up killing each other). But generally, if you can get three people to agree on something (or at least to not be vehemently against something), chances are, it won't suck.
Fancast has entire episodes of many tv shows available online - free. And yes, they have Firefly and Buffy.Now you can blame me for your lack of productivity.
Crooksandliars has compiled a list of the 100 best standup comedians of all time - with links to Youtube clips for many of them.
I spent most of yesterday editing a paper with my two colleagues. I like working this way - all three in a room (or in a conference call), arguing over each line, suggesting alternate phrasings, etc....
It's noisy and contentious, and takes time, a good self image, and an even better sense of humor (or we'd end up killing each other). But generally, if you can get three people to agree on something (or at least to not be vehemently against something), chances are, it won't suck.
Financial Rounds? Genius!
The Blog Readability Test supposedly determines what level of education is necessary to understand a blog. Here's Financial Rounds' result:
Nuff said. My sense is that it just picks up that I occasionally use big words.
In case you're interested, I found the site from Trainee Trader, which lists the results from a number of popular finance blogs.
Nuff said. My sense is that it just picks up that I occasionally use big words.
In case you're interested, I found the site from Trainee Trader, which lists the results from a number of popular finance blogs.
Rankings of Finance Doctoral Programs
Because I'm one of the few bloggers who regularly write about the life of a finance professor, I get about a dozen questions a month from people considering a PhD in finance (Note: if you're interested, you can read about a finance professor's typical day here and here, and about what's involved in getting a PhD in finance here).
The emails are one of the more surprising and most enjoyable things about writing the blog, and at least a couple of the folks who've sent me questions are currently in PhD programs. I look forward to seeing how their careers progress, knowing I may have played some small part it them.
Some of the most frequent questions I get are along the lines of "How do I find out how well respected University X's finance doctoral program is?" or alternately, "Where can a get a list of rankings of finance doctoral programs?"
I should have done this some time ago, but I'm a bit slow at times. But, since Unknown Daughter and She Who Must Be Obeyed are out to a classmate's birthday party, and Unknown Son is entranced by a Harry Potter movie, this seems like a good time to spent a little time on the Almighty Google. Here are the results:
The emails are one of the more surprising and most enjoyable things about writing the blog, and at least a couple of the folks who've sent me questions are currently in PhD programs. I look forward to seeing how their careers progress, knowing I may have played some small part it them.
Some of the most frequent questions I get are along the lines of "How do I find out how well respected University X's finance doctoral program is?" or alternately, "Where can a get a list of rankings of finance doctoral programs?"
I should have done this some time ago, but I'm a bit slow at times. But, since Unknown Daughter and She Who Must Be Obeyed are out to a classmate's birthday party, and Unknown Son is entranced by a Harry Potter movie, this seems like a good time to spent a little time on the Almighty Google. Here are the results:
- Karolyis and Silvestrini have a piece on SSRN titled "Comparing the Research Productivity of Finance PhD Program Graduates" here
- Jean Heck has a similar piece titled "Establishing a Pecking Order for Finance Academics: Ranking of U.S. Finance Doctoral Programs here. Both it and the Karolyi/Silvestrini piece analyze productivity on the basis of the author's doctoral-granting program, but this one lists a few more doctoral programs than the other piece. So, it might yield some possibilities for those looking for less selective programs.
- Finally, Arizona State has a ranking of finance departments (which may or may not have doctoral programs) here, while EconPhD has a similar one covering several finance areas here.
- Chan, Lung and Wolfe have a ranking of finance departments based on "citations" (in case you're not familiar with the term, a citation occurs when one author references another in his work). So, citation counts are often used as a measure of the impact a person's work has in the larger academic community.
- The University of Texas-Dallas has a ranking of business schools (not finance departments) based on publications in a pretty wide number of journals across all business disciplines.
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