CFA vs phd in terms of difficulty? difficulty, example, terms, guess

trogulj

Just curious any charterholder has a phd? How do you rank the difficulty of completing a CFA with phd?
For example, for me, I guess completing CFA is twice as hard as completing my undegrad degree

kingstongal

This is a joke right?
If you’re talking about any of the quantitative fields (statistics, math, engineering, psychics.. etc) the CFA is nothing in comparison. Nothing in the CFA program is difficult, it’s just a lot thrown at you at once over dozens of topics.
If the CFA was 2X harder than your undergrad, I’m sorry, you must have had a crummy undergrad

busterbluth

Thanks for letting me know I have a crummy undergrad. I suspect it long ago as I encountered one finance grad who does not know how to do time value of money

hassan

There is little in the world that compares with writing a Ph.D. thesis, be it quantitative or not. And the CFA doesn’t even come close.
CFA might be better compared with a Master’s degree. I’d say the amount of work compares to one of those accelerated full-time 1-year professional masters’ degrees, except that it’s actually spread out over three years.

Houjichasan

CFA material wise was 3rd year undergrad at best…the hard thing about CFA is that you get 1 shot and if you fail, you get wacked and no girls will ever date you…
i took some phd courses in econ when i was in grad school…..they were very difficult (but useless).
PHDs require a ton more work in addition to way more brain power……however, not many ppl fail their PHDs, they just take forever to do it

NakedPuts2011

Are we talking difficulty or prestige here? Still think the CFA designation pisses on having any kind of masters degrees (in terms of prestige). When I meet people with master’s degree (I have one myself btw), I’m like, yeah whatever, you stayed in school for another year or two like half the people in this office did and took some classes that were a bit more challenging than undergrad, and maybe spent a summer writing some thesis that was nothing ground breaking. I meet someone who has done CFA while working full time and has a family maybe, I think wow, really impressive. It’s not so much that I’m impressed with what they know, it’s the fact that they’ve showed so much commitment. I’m studying for level I and work full time and have kids, this is more challenging than completing any degree I’ve ever done. And I’m only on level 1 !!!
Maybe I just did shit degrees.
Ph. D., different story, I’m still more impressed with that than CFA.

genuinecfa

And I also have a hot classy babe wife who demands lots of attention too.

anshultongia

I passed CFA 3 and I feel that having a masters is much more prestige. Entering into a masters is not easy (At least for me)

AnalystAlan

@maisatomai: under what circumstances did you do CFA !, II, III? Were you studying, working, have a wife, kids, girlfriend, part-time job?
Also, have you done a master’s? (please don’t interpret this as a high and mighty statement, I’ll explain why I’m asking this below)
I think my attitude to CFA vs. master’s is skewed towards the CFA for 3 reasons.
1) I’ve done a master’s and I think any time you’ve done something, the mystique, the glory, or whatever you want to call it is taken out a little bit. When I was in high school, getting through college seemed like this huge challenge, and then you do that and it wasn’t really so bad and you think doing a master’s is this huge challenge, and then you do that and think it really wasn’t that bad, and then you think getting into a top firm is going to this huge challenge, and then you do that and it just seems normal and not a big deal as it did before. Maybe when I’ve passed all 3 levels, I’ll look back and think it was pretty easy, but from everyone I’ve spoken to I’m thinking maybe I won’t.
2) my personal circumstances (i.e. working 50+ hours a week, 3 hour daily commute, wife, kids, etc.) really accentuate the challenge of pursuing the CFA accreditation. Studying is what I do in my spare time, it’s not what I do full time. With my master’s, bachelor’s, etc, it’s what you do full time, and then you have spare time to do what you want. For this reason I think the master’s is easier. If you did a master’s whilst working full-time, then no, it’s not easier, I agree with this.
3) The CFA is directly related to the industry I’m in. It’s an extremely practical curriculum. We had a consultant come in recently to help us with some stuff, and on his email signature it mentioned he had the CFA charter. This is like a gold seal to me. I immediately make positive assumptions about this person. If this person had a master’s in chemistry, yeah that’s cool, but I really wouldn’t care.
At the end of the day, these discussions are all a bit “I bet you spiderman can beat batman”. I’m just telling you from the perspective of my education, work experience, and personal circumstances, how I see things.

brainsX

Actually I did my CFA 1,2,3 under quite tough circumstaces.
CFA 1) Thesis year.
CFA 2) Arrival of my first baby+full time work.
CFA 3) Arrival of my second baby+full time work.
I totally agree with your last statement. But what the other forummers said make me think that actually passing CFA level 3 is not a acheivement after all. FrankArabia said it is just 3rd yr undergrad work. All the hundred of millions of graduates in the world will acheive that.