Fall 2022 Business Ph.D. Applicants

[PhD22Plz]

Hey everyone! Hard to believe nearly a year has past since the last Ph.D. application thread got started. For those who are going to be applying in the current cycle (enrollment Fall 2022), please feel free to follow along and contribute to this thread. 

What universities are you considering? What programs will you be applying to?

Edited September 29, 2021 by PhD22Plz

[Mr. Jameson]

Hey! We started a thread the other day if you want to move your post 

 

[PhD22Plz]

20 hours ago, Mr. Jameson said:

Hey! We started a thread the other day if you want to move your post 

 

Might the discussion be better suited for the business school forum? That's where the previous threads have been.

[Mr. Jameson]

7 hours ago, PhD22Plz said:

Might the discussion be better suited for the business school forum? That's where the previous threads have been.

Fair.

 

I am planning on applying to the following programs:

Yale SOM: Operations

Columbia Business School: Decision, Risk, and Operations

NYU Stern: Operations Management

 

I am limited geographically to the east coast which is why I am not applying to other schools. My research interests are within empirical healthcare operations and medical decision analysis. While it seems like sort of an odd fit for business school, I am applying to these specific schools because of the faculty in the department doing similar research-- unfortunately not all of the operations management programs at top business schools in on the east coast have people doing this work. 

My background:

Undergraduate degree in economics and mathematics.

Masters degree (2022) in computer science and public policy.

Letters of recommendation should be pretty strong-- two relatively famous health economists and a health services researcher (whom I am currently co-authoring with) who I have very good relationships with and have worked as a research analyst with. 

GRE: 157 V/ 168Q/ 5.0 AWA (I took it two years ago and am deciding not to retake) 

I have been debating whether or not I should reach out to faculty I am interested in working with-- I hear mixed reviews on this and I know it varies by disciplines. I've found though in general economists tend to find this behavior more annoying. And at some of the programs, like NYU OM, faculty do not advise you until after your first year so it seems sort of pointless.

[Vyndian]

^ just 3?

From the other thread, I’m applying for macro OB/OT this year to the full the gamut of NE schools and a few others.

 

[Mr. Jameson]

On 10/6/2021 at 12:12 AM, Vyndian said:

^ just 3?

From the other thread, I’m applying for macro OB/OT this year to the full the gamut of NE schools and a few others.

 

Doing a few other operations and healthcare adjacent programs (MIT SES, Wharton Healthcare Management Economics, Harvard Health Policy Decision Sciences)

[Vyndian]

15 minutes ago, Mr. Jameson said:

Doing a few other operations and healthcare adjacent programs (MIT SES, Wharton Healthcare Management Economics, Harvard Health Policy Decision Sciences)

Phew. I didn’t want to be the one to say “that’s high hopes for just 3…”

I’m on the cusp of finishing my (19!) apps. It’s really amazing how “just a few more” bleed through the cracks at the end. 

[Mr. Jameson]

19 minutes ago, Vyndian said:

Phew. I didn’t want to be the one to say “that’s high hopes for just 3…”

I’m on the cusp of finishing my (19!) apps. It’s really amazing how “just a few more” bleed through the cracks at the end. 

Oh wow thats a lot! I could see myself doing more if I wasn't limiting myself geographically to the east coast. What is your background?

 

[Vyndian]

3 hours ago, Mr. Jameson said:

Oh wow thats a lot! I could see myself doing more if I wasn't limiting myself geographically to the east coast. What is your background?

 

It’s funny how I thought I’d wind up applying across the country, but in reality, most of what I wanted to study is located in New England/East Coast anyways. My background, loosely based on yours:

I’m a little on the older side. Practiced consulting for the better part of the 2010’s. Aced the GRE. A few significant educational achievements and built a few world-first pieces of technology. I’m hoping to research phenomena that are *almost* purely sociological/poli sci— I’m trying to better understand how our political and social beliefs impact our organizations and their strategic decision making.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Vyndian

[Mr. Jameson]

@Vyndian @PhD22Plz Curious to know how apps are coming along for you both? Also interested to know if you reached out POI at your schools?

[Vyndian]

I did for several schools; but it’s not a guaranteed thing to get to talk to them. They’re busy people, after all. 
 

I’ve got 6 submitted and the rest should be done by the evening of the first, which will give my recommenders a month to submit their forms.

 

edit: how are yours coming along?

Edited October 30, 2021 by Vyndian

[PhD22Plz]

@Mr. Jameson Applications are coming along, but slowly. The biggest task left to do is to prepare and submit S.O.P for each program. I have a "template" that I am building from and just need to add the relevant faculty names, business school names, etc. 

Regarding your second inquiry: I reached out to POIs at all but one institution. Responses were a mixed bag, but that is not surprising. How about you?

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by PhD22Plz

[PhD22Plz]

3 minutes ago, Vyndian said:

I did for several schools; but it’s not a guaranteed thing to get to talk to them. They’re busy people, after all. 
 

I’ve got 6 submitted and the rest should be done by the evening of the first, which will give my recommenders a month to submit their forms.

 

edit: how are yours coming along?

I read an earlier post that you are applying to 19 programs? I thought I was crazy applying to 16! Best wishes to you in the final stretch of submitting your applications. 

[Vyndian]

^ good luck. For me, I thought the template stage was the 3/4 done point. It turned out to be the 1/4 done point and I burned an extra month customizing. Hah!

 

edit: 19 dropped to 17 after some introspection and chickened out at the credit-card submit stage.

Edited October 30, 2021 by Vyndian

[Vyndian]

If I may ask a question, how did both of you handle your school selection with regards to research fit?

For me, I basically looked at the top 50 and went through everyone’s CV’s. Out of that process, a little less than half were left. I chose not to apply to any of those that weren’t much of a fit… even if they offered me app fee waivers via email or similar.

[Mr. Jameson]

55 minutes ago, Vyndian said:

If I may ask a question, how did both of you handle your school selection with regards to research fit?

For me, I basically looked at the top 50 and went through everyone’s CV’s. Out of that process, a little less than half were left. I chose not to apply to any of those that weren’t much of a fit… even if they offered me app fee waivers via email or similar.

Location was pretty important to me-- my partner is on the east coast so I can't really be anywhere else. My research interests are in healthcare operations and optimization and so I had to narrow to programs that had faculty doing that work. Which gets kinda tricky in some schools, for instance at HBS, they have an OM program but because they also have a pretty large health policy program all the faculty doing this work are more likely to be in that program. Whereas Columbia school of public health doesnt have a PhD program in health policy/managment so the OM program at CBS has more faculty focusing on health systems. Although again some schools, like Cornell, do not have a health policy/management program and have very few faculty doing health systems research in the Cornell Johnson OM program. It has been very difficult to say the least to actually find programs that were a good fit

[PhD22Plz]

@Vyndian It sounds like you and I went through a very similar exercise. I researched the faculty of about 55 universities and then narrowed down to a final list of programs based on faculty fit and geography. 

Edited October 30, 2021 by PhD22Plz

[Vyndian]

Time for a little victory dance, everybody’s done. Well, minus a few reco’s. But my part’s finished.

 

godspeed to you both.

[Mr. Jameson]

On 11/4/2021 at 2:41 PM, Vyndian said:

Time for a little victory dance, everybody’s done. Well, minus a few reco’s. But my part’s finished.

 

godspeed to you both.

Damn you're early good on you! Im gonna be submitting on due dates lol

[Vyndian]

2 hours ago, Mr. Jameson said:

Damn you're early good on you! Im gonna be submitting on due dates lol

Well make sure you at least enter your recommenders as soon as you can; those due dates mean *everything* needs to be submitted. Every system I used let me ping my recommenders immediately.

 

Also, I’ve heard that so far this year, apps are unusually quiet.

[PhD22Plz]

May I ask where you heard that @Vyndian?

[Vyndian]

Check your dms, but this might illuminate things:

https://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/all-departments-phd-and-masters-admissions-and-enrollment-statistics

 

Sort by degree, phd, and business admin under “program.” And yes, I know it’s April’s stats but look at the trend.

Edited November 6, 2021 by Vyndian

[Mattsjoe]

hi guys, 

i want to do a DBA. i also want some advice on where i can apply. iam an international student from Africa but preferebly want USA or canada. 

which universities do you recommend to apply to. is there any funding and scholarships available.

[appme]

Hey guys, glad to see this thread. 

I was wondering if you guys know how we should differentiate the SOP from the personal statement? Few schools require a personal statement, and I was wondering what exactly they want us to talk about there. Would love to hear anyone's opinion.

[Vyndian]

7 hours ago, appme said:

Hey guys, glad to see this thread. 

I was wondering if you guys know how we should differentiate the SOP from the personal statement? Few schools require a personal statement, and I was wondering what exactly they want us to talk about there. Would love to hear anyone's opinion.

Depends on the University. Columbia’s “Personal Essay” is identical to what most call Statement of Purpose, for example.