PhD in Financial Mathematics

A PhD in Financial Mathematics culminates in a dissertation of original research written under the direction of a major professor or co-directors and defended in an oral examination. This page outlines the steps leading to the PhD degree.

To be eligible to submit a dissertation, a student first advances to Candidacy for the PhD, as described below. For full time students this normally takes five or six semesters. For more details on progress requirements for FSU-funded students, see

		Timely Progress for FSU-Funded PhD Students

Advancement to PhD Candidacy requires the following:

		Completion of the Master's degree course requirements
		Passing two written qualifying exams
		Obtaining a major professor or co-directors
		Passing the PhD candidacy exam

In addition, before graduation PhD students must pass or exempt the two-semester course sequence

		MAA 5616-5617 Measure & Integration I & II

Students are responsible for finding a professor who agrees to direct their dissertation work. This should be done as soon as possible, so that the major professor may assist in choosing qualifying exams and courses appropriate to the intended research area. Major professors are faculty from the math department, although it is possible to have a co-director from another department (see the Director for more details).

On request, and when mutually agreeable to the student, professor, and department chair, the department chair will officially appoint the major professor and then, in a timely manner, the remainder of the supervisory committee. In any case, students must have a major professor and supervisory committee before taking the PhD Candidacy Exam.

For a sample schedule of the first two years, see the schedule given on the MS degree page. PhD students should choose the electives on this schedule from the qualifier courses discussed below. Students will consult with the Director to formulate their individual course schedule until they obtain a major professor.

PhD students must pass two qualifying exams. Each exam is based on a two-semester course sequence. The options are:

		Measure and Integration I and II
		Foundations of Computational Mathematics I and II
		PDE I and II
		Complex Analysis I and II

A qualifying exam can also be based on any two half-qualifiers from the following three options:

		PDE I; Stochastic Differential Equations; Numerical PDE I

Note: For one of the qualifying exams, a student's supervisory committee may seek approval of the Financial Math Qualifier Committee (FMQC) to substitute another written exam based on material at a similar level and scope. Contact the Director for further information.

After passing the qualifying exams and satisfying the requirements of the master's degree, the student may take the PhD candidacy exam, which has two parts:

1. The student will prepare a carefully written expository paper on an advanced topic selected with the guidance of the major professor, and distribute it to the supervisory committee for comment at least two weeks in advance of the Exam date.
   
   
2. On an announced day, the student will deliver a short public oral presentation on the material covered by the PhD Candidacy Exam paper. Then, in closed session, the supervisory committee will examine the candidate on the topic of the paper. Questions from the committee may concern general knowledge of the chosen topic and need not be limited to the material specifically covered by the PhD Candidacy Exam paper. The student must demonstrate scholarly competence and knowledge sufficient to begin work on dissertation research.

When the supervisory committee determines that the student has passed the PhD candidacy exam, the student is formally advanced to candidacy and begins working on the dissertation.

---

Last modified: 5 April 2012