NDB

@jpain3 This was incredibly awesome to read through! I was worried I was quickly heading down the same path, but I received an acceptance from Clemson last week for their PhD in Business Administration! I am so happy for you and seeing what all you did to reach your goals was very motivating and inspiring. A lot of prospective PhD students could really benefit from reading that!

I'm going to Clemson for a PhD in Organizational Behavior!

I did not get accepted into either of the PhD Programs in I/O Psychology that I applied for, but did get accepted into two Master's Programs for I/O Psych. I have also been accepted to an Organizational Behavior PhD (PhD of Business Admin) at a school that has an I/O Psychology PhD Program and the two programs work closely together. The Org Behavior Program is offering a full tuition waiver and a large annual stipend. Are there any inherent cons to going this route, as opposed to I/O Psychology? My contact has told me that they research almost the exact same things, work very closely together, and even take a lot of the same classes. If I reject this offer and stay in the I/O Psychology track, I will have to go to a Master's Program, re-take the GRE, and re-apply to a Doctoral Program. Right now, I am leaning toward accepting this offer, but wanted to post in here to see if anyone has any perspective on the matter or any thoughts on the pros vs. cons of each! Thanks!

As previously said above, there is certainly no right or wrong answer to be found to this answer. Personally, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I started my undergraduate degree and still did not have a clue when I finished. From the ages of 22-26, I started a Diabetes Prevention Program in Western North Carolina, Managed a Non-Profit, and built a Workplace Wellness Social Enterprise that now serves 4 counties. I will be starting a PhD this Fall at Clemson in Organizational Behavior and I can definitely say that the robust experience I have accumulated in 4 years has served me incredibly well in truly figuring out what I am most interested in and what I want to research. Every school I have interviewed with has been very impressed with my work experience and this certainly was a large reason why I was accepted to a PhD program with next to no research experience.

I don't know if this is typical or atypical, but I feel like it is worth sharing to hear your perspectives. Due to a very odd road to this point, I had very little research experience. With that said, I applied to 4 schools: Clemson (PhD), UNC-Charlotte (Master's), East Carolina (Master's), and Appalachian State (Master's) Clemson was obviously my reach, so I assumed I would end up in a Master's Program where I would have the chance to research and complete a thesis to have a much more competitive doctoral application. Well, from reading on here, I noticed that Clemson had already had interviews, but I had heard absolutely nothing from them so I assumed a rejection and moved on... So, about two weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Clemson's School of Management. They are starting their first cohort of Organizational Behavior in their PhD of Business Administration Program. They reached out to me because they had asked the I/O Department for any students who didn't quite make it into their program, but had research interests and experience that would highly qualify for their program. That week, I completed a phone interview with three faculty members and officially was offered acceptance into the program yesterday. Without going into too much detail, the offer came with a full tuition waiver and a great annual stipend. Has anyone else experienced this? How does an Organizational Behavior PhD from a Business School compare to an Organizational Psychology PhD? Thanks!