Friday 10 December 2021

Finished my Masters and applied for PhD candidature

The result for my final subject in the Master of Financial Planning degree came out this morning. I managed to get a Distinction (with a mark of 81/100) in the 'Contemporary Issues in Taxation' subject, so my overall GPA for the degree ended up being 6.0 (out of 7) and the grade average 'Distinction' (with an average mark overall for all subjects of 79/100). So I should graduate 'cum laude' (with distinction) on my testamur. There was a bit of weirdness with the online results posting, as it is showing 12 completed subjects, but was showing only 11/12 as the total completed subjects. I've raised a ticket with the IT department to look into this as the uni no longer requires/allows you to apply to graduate, but instead is supposed to automatically process graduation once you have completed the required courses. If 'the system' is incorrectly stuck at 11/12 completed I'd never graduate ;)

I'm theoretically 'in the running' for an academic medal, having met the minimum required GPA. But to actually get a medal I'd also have to be in the top 2% of the relevant 'cohort' (apparently that would be all post-grad business school students finishing this year). I've not idea what 'percentile' my overall results will put me in. I doubt it is the top 2%. I did get an academic medal for the Master of Astronomy degree I did a few years ago, but I got a GPA of 6.5/7 for that, so I haven't done quite as well in this Financial Planning degree (law subjects aren't anything as hard as astrophysics, but god they are boring, so putting in the hours to get an HD is like an extended visit to the dentist).

I finalized my application to enrol as a PhD student next year - I initially just uploaded photos of my uni degrees and result transcripts, but was told that I had to get 'certified copies' made, and then upload photos of those certified copies. Why a photo of the original isn't as good as a photo of a certified copy of the original makes no sense to me (and I'm a JP!), but 'rules are rules'. I don't know if I'll be accepted. If I am it should be a lot easier to complete a PhD in Financial Planning part-time than it was when I tried doing a PhD part-time in astrophysics a few years ago. We'll see how things pan out. I turn 60 next week, so I wouldn't complete my PhD until 'retirement age', so it is really just a vanity project/hobby.

I have to start doing some cold calling to try and set up some introductory meetings with prospective clients each month, as I *really* need to start getting some paying clients for my financial planning 'business' to at least cover the ongoing fixed running/licencing costs next year. It would also be nice to put my financial planning knowledge/skills to use helping other people ;)

While I'm waiting to find out if I'll be starting on a PhD next year I've enrolled in a couple of 'specialist' short courses with Kaplan learning - one on 'margin lending' and the other on 'self-managed superannuation funds'. Once those courses are completed I should be able to get them added to my FAR record and the 'advisor profile' and would be able to provide advice on margin lending and SMSFs where relevant.

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1 comment:

Cem said...

Wow! Medal or no medal, that is stellar result

Congratulations and all the best in our future studies