Going from Sociology to Business?

[avee]

Hi Everyone,

I am finishing up my M.S. in sociology this Fall and am on the path to applying for sociology PhD programs. However, I have recently become very interested in UPENN's Ethics and Legal Studies at the Wharton School. This has opened up my curiosity to business ethics in general, and I am now beginning to consider applying to doctoral programs within this field. I think I'd be a highly unlikely student and my chance for acceptance may be compromised since my background isn't in business. What does everyone think? My skills in quantitative analyses, in terms of sociology, are advanced compared to other sociology Master's students who only get an M.A. Even if I did get accepted, what would I need to look out for in terms of understanding how the field works?

It's also beyond curiosity. Recently I've wanted to find an area of speciality where I could expand as a sociologist, but not within the field of sociology. I feel a void when I think about continuing another 6 years in my current field. While I love sociology, I am beginning to think about new ways I can be an effective member of society. I've thought about public policy and administration, but this isn't my thing. Since I have been reading about Wharton's Ethics and Legal Studies doctorate concentration, I've become excited. Even the feeling of challenge is exciting me about it.

I am putting this out there understanding that everyone in this thread is much more advanced in their knowledge of business academia. I am actually pretty naive when it comes to it.

[socialpsych]

Few entering doctoral students in business actually have business backgrounds. Especially with your graduate degree and quantitative background, not knowing much else about your profile, I don't think you sound like an unlikely student at all. Plenty of business professors do sociology-related research or even have their PhDs in soc. In addition to that program at Wharton, you may also want to look at org behavior, org theory, and management programs (usually a given school will have only one of those; if it has both OB and OT, then OT would probably be a better fit for you). With some exceptions, the more prestigious a business school is, the more discipline-based the research its faculty do -- which may not even be a good thing for you if you are tired of sociology, but would certainly make a transition to business natural given your background.

Best of luck!

Edited March 17, 2011 by socialpsych

[Behavioral]

Heck, there are some programs that even try integrating more prominent and broad sociology themes to business academia, like:

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/DoctoralProgram/Programs/ManagementOrganizationSociology.aspx

There are others definitely available, but I knew of this off the top of my head since I just came back from their admit day.

[avee]

Thanks! After my 'epiphany' several weeks ago, I feel more motivated to finish up my thesis and retake my GRE over the summer. I will look into the OB and OT programs. I was browsing Harvard's and I sort of fell in love, but I am sure the chances of me getting in to that program are slim.

[avee]

Heck, there are some programs that even try integrating more prominent and broad sociology themes to business academia, like:

http://www.kellogg.n...nSociology.aspx

There are others definitely available, but I knew of this off the top of my head since I just came back from their admit day.

Wow--this program looks like a dream. See, it's not that I am over sociology, but rather I realize that I want to apply sociology without getting my PhD in sociology. I went to several interviews/presentations at my university for prospective faculty. All of the sociologists (fresh out of PhD) were applying for a VERY low paying job, and seem to always be the underdog compared to the other professions. For all the work sociologists do, there seems to be such a small outcome due to the high volume of people obtaining their PhDs in sociology. By the way, the position these applicants were applying for only paid 35k a year starting.

[Behavioral]

Wow--this program looks like a dream. See, it's not that I am over sociology, but rather I realize that I want to apply sociology without getting my PhD in sociology. I went to several interviews/presentations at my university for prospective faculty. All of the sociologists (fresh out of PhD) were applying for a VERY low paying job, and seem to always be the underdog compared to the other professions. For all the work sociologists do, there seems to be such a small outcome due to the high volume of people obtaining their PhDs in sociology. By the way, the position these applicants were applying for only paid 35k a year starting.

Same epiphany struck me. I'd be doing the same research as I would in Social Psychology, but I'd get paid more and wouldn't have to fight for a job after graduate school.

It's a little surprising to see those salary figures since a lot of my peers are actually making close to that as doctoral students.

[one eyed rex]

For what it's worth, I'm in a similar place to you - finishing up my MA in psychology. I had much better luck with marketing programs than I did social psychology programs. I do have some work experience in market research and a teensy bit of undergrad marketing coursework, but they didn't seem to care about that - it was the background and research experience in the base disciplines that seemed to help push my application up.

[Behavioral]

For what it's worth, I'm in a similar place to you - finishing up my MA in psychology. I had much better luck with marketing programs than I did social psychology programs. I do have some work experience in market research and a teensy bit of undergrad marketing coursework, but they didn't seem to care about that - it was the background and research experience in the base disciplines that seemed to help push my application up.

Cosigned. I had absolutely 0 marketing experience (aside from co-owning a small business, I guess) and 0 marketing/business coursework and got into programs that I would have figured to have been 'reaches' for me going into applications. Basic research skills is heavily weighted in business doctoral programs, ESPECIALLY in the behavioral disciplines (CB marketing, OB, management, etc.), so don't sell yourself short. No professor during interviews/admit days mentioned my lack of coursework/experience being a detriment or a weakness in any way. They really focused on my research experience, pubs/presentations, and my research interests and left it at that.

[avee]

Cosigned. I had absolutely 0 marketing experience (aside from co-owning a small business, I guess) and 0 marketing/business coursework and got into programs that I would have figured to have been 'reaches' for me going into applications. Basic research skills is heavily weighted in business doctoral programs, ESPECIALLY in the behavioral disciplines (CB marketing, OB, management, etc.), so don't sell yourself short. No professor during interviews/admit days mentioned my lack of coursework/experience being a detriment or a weakness in any way. They really focused on my research experience, pubs/presentations, and my research interests and left it at that.

Thanks for the support. Everyone I have mentioned this to 'in person' has been uncomfortable around me. I am not telling any of my professors right now until it's time to apply. Sociologists, at least the ones at my school, would not take kindly to the shift I want to take. I am going to retake my GRE this summer, so hopefully that will also help me out. I really did poorly on the math section last time. Is there a thread on studying for the math portion of the GRE? Unfortunately, statistics is not on the GRE