sapphirerodent

Why have you decided to pursue a doctorate? Is it for your own personali achievements, do you want to be a faculty member in a business school on tenure track, or you want it as a mark of expertise on you resume?

Hello Maria, I apologize for no one replying to your comments. It's not exactly application season yet, so most of the business phd forums aren't as active as during the academic year. You may want to check out Urch Forums , where a lot more activity goes on for PhD in Business programs. This site is usually mixed between MBA's and a handful of PhD's who stumble across this resource. As for your post, do not ever sell yourself short for a PhD in business program. First you have to decide on what exactly you would like to pursue your doctorate in. If you enjoy research, then you might fit in here. You need to differentiate between marketing and organizational behavior. Both have some psych foundations, but the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. So at the completion of a doctorate, you have specialized into a very specific topic. Also, I caution you that if you like analytics from the industry side, generally academic research is not data mining driven. If you don't believe your stats and background is good enough, then take an year or so to prepare yourself so that those weaknesses aren't as bad. The application process is like a big game of sales. You need to emphasize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Consider the perspective of the school. In general, schools want to admit candidates that are the most likely (in their assessment) to complete the program. Why else would they want to spend all the time and money to develop a doctoral student? Next, out of the ones that have a relatively high probability (this is all based on what they feel are indicators of a strong student) to have a career where they will benefit the visibility of the group (i.e. the department). This is done by publishing, successfully getting tenure, active in academic circles, etc. Overall, there are a few key things adcoms look for: 1) GPA and GMAT (or GRE) scores. Before a student moves on to start developing their own research areas, they have to get through coursework first. Business PhDs may not be out to "fail" you, however you need to pass the coursework years. Note that a great GPA cannot compensate for a low GMAT score, however a high GMAT score can help with a low GPA. 2) Letters of Rec (LOR) and Statement of Purpose (SOP). These are invaluable. Once the academic scores generally point in the direction of a successful student, a LOR helps portray how well your recommenders support your ability to conduct research. Every letter is generally going to have elements such as "hard work", "has potential", "good grades", and/or "i fully support them". Why would you get a letter from anyone else? The trick for a great letter is your relationships with your letter writer (how well they know you, how much you have worked with them, how much you have discussed your goals and the steps you have taken to get there). The SOP gives the adcom two pieces of information. 1) your writing ability (can you write a coherent and persuasive essay highlighting why you want to do this) and 2) a feel for how serious you are about a doctoral program. PhDs are not to be taken lightly, and every school has experienced a number of students who thought it would be a great credential on their resume, but find out that it is VERY different then just a higher level MBA degree. 3) if you have any potential research experience that would demonstrate your interest and ability to conduct research. To my understand, this is generally the order that adcoms consider applications. If you cannot change an area of it (like ugrad gpa) then stop worrying about it. If you can do others, i.e. gain some research experience, high test score, etc., then work on those to strengthen your application. Just like in marketing, you should aim to be in the "short-stack". If you cannot compete with those perfect GPA, perfect test scores, academic super-star students, then your application needs to stand out in a different way: perhaps you are SURE this is the career you would like. You should focus on this and be able to eloquently communicate how you can to this decision, and why. Prior academic success only points to a student more likely to pass the coursework years. Of course, you have to pass the first years before you can even successfully complete a PhD. HOWEVER, at the end of the day, it is the ability to grind it out and mentally endure the grueling journey of a doctorate that gets you to the end. Some of the most academically capable student fall apart in the latter years. Well, there's my essay to you. Feel free to message me if you have an other questions. Best of luck with your decision.

All PhD Management programs provide 100% funding for their doctoral students. I'm pretty sure this is the case for all other business PhD's as well. As for your online education, Northeastern is a recognized brand, however the question is does your diploma or transcripts somehow denote that you are from an "online" program? If not, you have nothing to worry about. Also, I'm not sure what concentration you are applying for, but I am management concentration and the three schools you are looking at are sort of far apart in terms of rankings. You may want to refine your list of schools a bit more. If your GPA and GMAT is competitive, the next thing to get you into a program is your research interests, and convincing the committee that you have thought hard about your decision to pursue a Phd, why you want to do it, why you would succeed, and lastly have strong letters that attest to your ability and dedication to complete a program. Hope it helps, best of luck.

I'm a BA Business Admin undergrad, and I did my MA in Economics. I'm changing majors, and I've been acccepted to solid PhD Management programs, 3 in the top 25-50 rankings of productivity, one interview at a top 10 and another interview at a top 25-50. From what I can gather, the PhD programs look for good research fit. Things that through up red flags to adcoms is when an individual comes from industry, has an MBA and wants to pursue a PhD. In order to demonstrate research experience, it is important (if you have the time) to get on some projects, or at least work with some faculty and help them with data. This will allow them to get to know you better and understand your motivations for getting a PhD, which will ultimately come out in your letter of recommendation. If you are deciding which master's is the best to get into, I would actually recommend you look into other programs in the business school, such as a MS in Human Resources (for example). These types of programs are more research orientated, often requiring thesis to complete, as well as courses that are focused on current research. On the other hand, MBA programs are project / case study based, which does not give you that exposure. You can also consider if whatever school you pursue an MBA at is flexible with electives, which then you can take some of the more research oriented coursework and note that on your personal statement. Hope it helps!

I've done three phone / skype interviews so far. One skype session I had THREE faculty at once talk to me and ask me questions. Another school, I had 4 faculty separately call me and "interview" or talk to me. Basically, they asked the same general questions, partially probably to compare notes and makes sure it's somewhat consistent. Also some questions asked by different people will illicit different responses from you, depending on how the questions was phrased. As long as you're consistent, you should be fine. Okay, preparations. If you are doing skype, wear a decent top. Don't need to go all formal with suit and tie, but definitely not a t-shirt or something to look like you walked off the street. You should somewhat have an idea of faculty you want to work with and why you want to work with them, how you see their interests (i.e. their recent published work) is in line with what you are interested in. Think about what to say about your research interests, why you're interested, maybe a story how you are interested, relevant background preparations in RESEARCH (not coursework). Questions that YOU should ask each faculty: - (for those faculty that you want to work with) Do you know if they are taking on new students? - Could you please describe your perspective on mentoring doctoral students? - From your perspective, what is the culture like? Are the students and faculty on campus all the time or is there opportunity to work from home? (personally, I would prefer a very active and on-campus group, where as you may prefer working at home) - What sort of projects are they working on (or) what upcoming projects do you know of that is currently in place or will be in place in the next few years? - What type of assistantship will be available during year one (RA better than TA)? - Are there opportunities for summer RA or TA funding sources? Well, those are some of the questions I have asked my interviewers. Best of luck!

I applied to Management & Org programs or Org Behavior / HR programs. I'm coming from like the opposite direction as you; meaning starting with business and econ training, and deciding to go more psych/soc topics. Key interests are teams, leadership, culture, lots of other secondary interests. Schools strong in teams and leadership seem to be recruiting me. Haven't heard back from a lot of schools though.

I'm 4/14 in terms of hearing back. I get the impression that most schools make most of their moves during 2nd-3rd week of February, with some of the schools delaying until beginning of march. It's tough out there since the schools don't run on a standard time line so we can make the appropriate decisions with full information of our options.

Hey Angua, where'd you get accepted it you don't mind me asking? And what are your main research streams you want to fall into under org behavior?

Hello Crystal. This forum isn't too active for Business PhD's. Check out urch forums, where it's active daily.

Check out Poets and Quants for some profiles and evaluations. Just a thought for you. top tier MBA applicants will usually have very high (if not perfect) quant scores, and very high verbal scores. The ones that may not be in the 90percentile or higher are at least 80th percentile, however they have some extreme experiences that make them a strong applicant. MBA programs like diversity, so taking in someone who may have okay test scores from a public university, but ended up working a few years abroad for a well known international company, while having increasing responsibility, then I would say they have a much better shot as someone who worked at a regional corporation for a few years and now wants an MBA. The type of story told by your experiences and your personal statement will play a huge factor for you if you want to get into a top tier school, particularly because you are coming from a "reputable" institution (what does that even mean anyway.... top 30? top 50? top 100?) Well, hope the link helps and my thoughts help you uncover some more things to make your application stronger! best of luck.

Hey aqua. Honestly speaking, your profile looks like you would be getting into a niche school if possible, i.e. a lower ranking but does a specific field very well. I'm not sure what those GRE scores translate into in terms of percentiles, but if they're above the 80th percentile, it should be okay. The biggest factor that you can make your mark on is the LOR and the SOP. If those are tip top, then you can have a good shot at UF, FSU, CUNY. Boston University, UCI, Penn, WashU and USC may be a bit of a stretch, if I am reading your academic marks correctly. The experience is important for marketing, so it may help. Keep in mind this is just my opinion from my own research into how to make my application into a competitive one. We will see in a month how successful I was. Best of luck! P.S. I'm unsure of your motivation or your age, but have you considered a Master's from the US as a first step? Some schools like that an international students first exposure to US education not be at the doctoral level and this will give you time to seek out faculty to begin some research streams with, bulk up on any courses to show you are serious and can do the work (considering the percentiles from UG and Grad), and perhaps retake the GREs (if the scores are too low, sorry, again I'm unsure about the new scale for GREs)

GRE can be substituted in place for GMAT at most places. Institutions require a standardized tet to compare applicants on an even playing field. Work experience is great, but phd is focused on research, so unlike an MBA, research exp is valued over work experience. Do you mind if I ask why you are considering a phd?

hey Angua, just curious, your signature says you got two interviews already. Were these psych programs or business ones? Thanks.

most MBA's are designed to be all inclusive, meaning that you don't need too much prerequisites to complete the program. You will have to do the full 48 units (2 years of coursework) in most cases, whereas a business major undergrad may be able to skip a few of the courses. The only stipulation is probably you need at least some basic statistics, college algebra, maybe a watered down calculus course such as Business Calc. If you have something equivalent to those, you should be okay. A good resource will be to browse some of the top school's MBA website and see what the prerequisites to enter the program are. Best of luck.

Phd in economics will be geared at placing you into a research career, whether that is at an academic institution or a think tank. PhD's are also known to go to public and private sector, however it is not the focus of the program to place students into private industry. Experience is infinitely more valuable than a PhD if your goal is to land in private sector, with one exception. If the type of job(s) you are looking for demand a PhD as a requirement, then that is the only way to get there, however I find that there are a lot less of those. many terminal MA programs are designed to be completed in as little as 3-semesters if you work hard. Try to find one with a focus on econometrics, as that will be the primary tool that will help you in private industry. Classes to look for are econometrics, financial economics, and perhaps some actuary sciences. I would recommend you do some more research on the specific types of jobs you would like to land in upon completing your degree and look at their requirements. Please be aware that a PhD is a lifestyle and a huge commitment, where most private industry individuals do not find that MB>MC for pursuing a doctorate and also that the opportunity cost is too great. Best of luck.

Not recommended for you to pursue a PhD. Great that your employer is willing, but all PhD's are research intensive and require dedication. Plus, the first two years are extremely heavy on mathematics, where you will need to demonstrate mastery of it. Currently, I am wrapping up my MA program in economics from a state school int he US, who's emphasis is heavy on the applied econometrics side. I would say given what you have written (not very advance in math and don't have the time to study) you would even have a difficult time barely making through an MA program. Best of luck with your decision.

Yeah, I thought I would have an easier semester in the fall, but no dice. The applications took way longer then I thought. My friends in sciences are getting hits right now, but business doesn't seem to get around until mid-Feb at earliest, but I still am like hoping for some miracle something will happen. I think it's probably how selective most programs are, like most that I see have a 1%-2% acceptance rate, but the ones that get in tend to make it all the way through. Guess there are pros and cons to both sides of the coin.

Hey guys/gals. I am also a Management PhD hopeful, concentration in OB/HR or M&O depending on the program. I applied to a total of 14 schools that have faculty in my specific areas of interest and now I am actually kind of excited to get the ball rolling since Jan 15 is the deadline for most places. I wonder the same thing, what if I actually get rejected everywhere since all of my schools are in the top 50 of UTD ranking and top 60 of A&M rankings. It just seems that my advisers have way more confidence in my chances then I do myself. Anyways, glad to know I'm not alone in my stressing/waiting period!