Ph.D in Organizational Behavior (attempt -2)

[gamificator]

Hey folks,

              I am looking from some advice, while I prepare to apply for Ph.D in OB in US. A brief about myself, I am not an exceptionally brilliant student but I do have first class (60%+ marks) throughout my education. Completed MBA in HR and Marketing, graduated in 2010. Within a month I got an opportunity to enroll myself in best B-School of India for Ph.D. I took admission in OB area, but as the time passed things didn't turn up as I expected and eventually I took a withdrawal from that school in July, 2012.

 

The mistakes I did :

1) Went for a Ph.D based on MBA ranking : biggest blunder

2) Got caught up in a vicious circle of grades, rather than learning. 

The research wing of this grad school was not that motivating, with a very narrow scope of working, and with departmental politics the options were limited.

Nevertheless, after moving away from that place, I used past 8-9 months in improving myself. Worked hard on research writing and especially vocabulary. Now I am fine with most of the recondite words used in my area of interest. I plan to re-apply for another Ph.D as a fresh start, and preferably want to move out of India and go US. US firstly because the Ph.D is funded by default for the whole period, and some of the research topics that I am interested in are more worked there.

 

Currently I am interested working on topics like employee engagement + gamification; or something revolving around gamification and linked to organizational studies.

Problems : Though I can easily claim my 2 years of incomplete Ph.D as research experience, but my profile isn't that good for the likes of Wharton and Stanford, as gamification is heavily worked upon there. Though I will still apply there, but to be realistic I have a bleak chance of acceptance there. 

Another problem will come for LOR, since my last grad school professors will not give me,  still I will be able to get LOR from my seniors who have joined in top B-schools of India, but have less than 3 years workex, when teaching is concerned.

Good : My aim is much clearer now, I know exactly what to do. And I am ready to set aside past and start again from basics, not looking for some exemptions.

 

Moving ahead, I use a research site and made a list of top 100, US B-Schools, with their research activity as criteria. Ideally next step should be to look for individual Ph.D faculty there, but that will take another one month to go through and with GRE slots getting filled up sooner than expected, the maximum that I can push is August 2nd week, later than that all is booked, at the GRE center nearest to my place, so I want to fill the 4 schools that I plan to apply while taking the date for GRE as mentioned under.

Current criteria set :Wharton, [Purdue, Haas,  Fisher, Yale (range 20-60)]. 

Plan to apply to 5 more so that, I do get admission somewhere. 

Any suggestions ??

[zapster]

you could consider researching some of the following - some of these may have "Mgmt" progs rather than OB

booth (U of Chicago), sloan (MIT). fuqua (duke), tepper (CMU), rady (UCSD), Samuel Curtis Johnson (Cornell),

[Jakrabite]

First of all, I remember your post on urch, so its good to see that you are still applying. The only advice i have for you is to apply far more widely. I have advised other Indian students about the the same thing, and nobody ever listens, but here goes nothing. The competition for top schools is tremendous, and putting all your eggs in these risky baskets is just a waste of time and money. Look at tier 2 programs too, they often have great faculty and a less cut throat environment. Also, flesh out your research interests. Gamification is a bit of a buzzword, it would work in your favor to have a substantive research agenda going by the time you apply. See if you can get your undergraduate professors to recommend you. Letters from junior faculty, that too lecturers, may not be of much value. good luck!