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Management and/or Organizational Behavior PhD thread


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I applied to 8 OB/Management PhD programs: Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, UNC, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Arkansas, and SUNY Buffalo. I have only heard from 2 so far, an acceptance from Virginia Tech and a rejection from UNC. Has anyone heard from the others? I see that UNC and Cincinnati has made some offers.

Thanks.

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Thanks. I heard from Arkansas this week. I'm still waiting to hear from Georgia, Tennessee, Cincinnati, SUNY Buffalo, and Kentucky. I'm assuming they're rejects but it would be nice to get a confirmation.

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Have any of you been through any interviews yet?  I have one coming up in Management/OB (yay!) and wonder if you can provide any guidance as to the types of questions being asked.  I saw the blog post on interviews (science-related) that had some generic questions that are good primers, yet I'm wondering what types of questions are coming up specifically for the OB field.  Conversely, if there is a section of TheGradCafe specifically related to interviews, please point the way.

 

Thank you in advance, and I wish you all the best!

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I have not had an interview yet, so am of little help. However, I had an interview for a grad program last year at the University of Tokyo and all the questions were about my research proposal. Nothing about my background or "normal" interview questions. This could be completely different, but I'd be prepared for that just in case.

 

Do you mind sharing what program the interview is for? (Just trying to figure out which doors have already closed.) Thanks!

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There is a section of GradCafe for interviews, under "Applications"/"Interviews and Visits".  But it might be tough to get Business-specific answers there (not that it's much easier here, given how quiet it is!

 

The Management/OB programs I applied to were very psych-oriented (UChicago, Northwestern, Yale), so if you have applied to more "traditional" programs, keep that in mind.  The biggest surprise for me in OB interviews was how theory-focused they were.  My psychology interests are very applied, and the only time I was ever called out on it was in OB interviews.  I think that, because so many applicants to these programs don't realize how theoretically-oriented they are, they are more worried about making sure I knew what I was getting into.  I don't think this would be as big a problem at other business schools, but the faculty I was applying to work with were almost all social psychologists (so that's a good way to know if you might be walking into a similar situation).

 

Otherwise, the interviews were very similar to the interviews I had in psychology.  Be prepared to talk about your research (past and future), as well as what draws you to the program.  Why do you want to study XYZ? Why do you want to study XYZ at ABC Business School?  Also be prepared to talk about yourself a little.  Where are you from?  How do you feel about moving to ABC City? And be prepared to talk about your academic/professional background, especially if it is unique at all (interesting work background, etc.). Why are you looking for a PhD?  Why are you leaving ______ field? (The best kind of answer to that last question, in my opinion, is one that makes it sound like your work experience helped lead you to the PhD track.  If you can tell a cohesive story about your professional past that informs your research interests, do it!)

 

Above all, have a good, coherent answer to this question: What are you hoping to study here?  You will get asked this question over and over and over.  Every faculty meeting, every time you meet a current student, every time you chat with another prospective student.  Everyone will default to asking you that by way of making small talk.  It's what we do! :)

 

ETA: Feel free to PM me with specific questions!

Edited by Angua
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According to Forbes, the top 25 business schools are:
1. Chicago (Booth)
2. Stanford
3. Northwestern (Kellogg)
4. Harvard
5. Pennsylvania (UPenn Wharton)
6. Dartmouth (Tuck)
7. Columbia
8. MIT (Sloan)
9. Cornell (Johnson)
10. Michigan (Ross)
11. UC Berkeley (Haas)
11. Yale
13. Virginia (Darden)
14. Duke (Fuqua)
15. UNC (Kenan-Flagler)
16. UCLA (Anderson)
17. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
18. Texas-Austin (McCombs)
19. Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL Olin)
20. NYU (Stern)
21. USC (Marshall)
22. Emory (Goizueta)
23. UWashington (Foster)
24. Indiana (Kelley)
25. Notre Dame (Mendoza)
25. Rice (Jones)

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