Profile Evaluation

[Quant]

Hi All,

 

I am in the process of applying for PhD in marketing 2016. As my profile is quite unusual, I am having tough time figuring out which schools to apply to, additionally I also seek advice in deciding the right balance of specificity and flexibility in my area/topic section. I will greatly appreciate your help :).

 

Here is my profile-

 

1) Goal:

 

 

Area- Modeling consumer choice behavior

 

Methodology - Still debating between {Experimental(behavioral) economics vs Statistical modeling} - As of now, I am open to take either of these. Though, I find myself more interested in behavioral economics. Overall, I want to quantitatively model consumer behavior(choice)

 

2) Standard scores:

• GMAT(2013, 1 attempt) - 730(Q-50, V- 39). IR and AWA were not as good.
  
• TOEFL - 110 - though not relevant now.
  

 

3) Academics:

 

3.1) Currently 2nd year MBA market research program in around 30th ranked B School in the US(Business Week). I also work around 13 hours/ week as TA with a senior professor.

 

• Recipient of Dean distinguished fellowship for 1 semester, and graduate assistant-ship for 3 semesters.
  
• (University has very high reputation for research and the marketing dept is also well respected. the B school ranking is not that great though.)
  
• Thanks to the flexibility my MBA program offers, I have taken a lot of courses in research apart from major MBA(management courses). :)
  

 

I have taken/ am taking

1) Data Analytics,

2) Market Research,

3) Quantitative Modeling in Marketing,

4) PhD seminar in marketing (Behavior modeling),

5) Analysis of Psychological Experiments (Psych dept),

6) Analysis of Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables (Socio dept).

 

Next semester, I plan to take a mix of statistics(Causality and others) and economics (econometric, game theory) courses and one more PhD seminar in marketing (Statistical modeling of Consumer choice).

 

GPA- 1st Sem - 3.8, 2nd sem - 4.0 on a scale of 4.

 

3.2) Master of Management Science from A grade university in India, school among top 40. (2003-2005)

 

Specialization - Mktg / Finance

GPA - 9/10, WES US equivalence - 4.0/4,.0.

 

3.3) Bachelor of Science (Mathematics/ Physics/ Chemistry) from a local university in India - 2000-2003

 

Percentage - 59.4% (very low by Indian stds,though I was still among top 12-15% of 800+ students), WES US equivalence - 3.52/ 4.0. My grades in important courses were even lower.

 

The poor performance here was justified in given the circumstances. Had to work 50-60 hours/week to support my family.

 

 

4) LOR's: Many senior professors at my school will be happy to write favorable LORs for me.

 

 

5) Essays/ SOP's- I have decent clarity about my research goals so I should be able to do a good job here.

 

 

6) Work Experience -

 

Research -

 

• Nill, just project/ assignments as part of the grad research courses in the school.
  
• Some exposure to market research projects in my job. Also worked for a local bank and interned in global consumer insights dept of global consumer product firm in the US.
  

 

Teaching - Taught an undergrad Mkt course at my university in India in 2009-10.

 

Had an analytic role (2005-2007) as portfolio manager for individual investors with a large brokerage firm. I got good exposure to both analytics and consumer decision making (investment and perception of risk).

 

Other work exp in business development, thus not relevant.

 

 

I am concerned about my undergrad performance a lot :(. Do you think it's going to be a big turnoff?

 

 

Thanks

[XanthusARES]

You should move this to the PhD in Business forum. You'll get a lot more responses. I'll wait until you move it to respond, just so we can get some more people in the dialogue.

[wasleys]

Moved.

[XanthusARES]

You seem like a pretty solid candidate. Your undergraduate GPA may be a bit of a issue at the top schools, but what are you going to do about that now. Your master's GPA will help to compensate for that a little. Just as a bit of a heads up, don't try too hard to make excuses for poor undergraduate performance. Adcoms have heard them all, and there are plenty of people who worked throughout the program and still managed great grades (I am not one of those people).

 

Your GMAT is good as well. Here's the bottom line (because Stone Cold said so), nothing really stands out about your application. One of the biggest things that schools are looking for is research experience. Nothing about your profile says that you have any specific research experience. This is going to hurt your application. That is what I'm currently hung up on. Nothing says why want to pursue a PhD. Have you read some papers that are of interest to you? Did you do some research project you just forgot to mention? Without specifics it's going to be hard to express why you want to do a PhD.

 

As far as specifics of your research area, you should mostly just be concerned with finding professors doing research in areas of interest to you. There is enough of a difference between research methodologies (i.e. whether they are doing experiments or collecting data), that it shouldn't be too difficult for you to decide which area you are most interested in. You should talk this over with professors at your current institution. Tell them about what you are interested in studying and ask them how they would characterize it. Then ask them for some people doing this kind of research at other institutions. Don't ask them to get you in contact, but rather find out who is studying this area so that you have a good place to start when trying to decide where to apply. Since you are applying next fall for entrance in 2016, you have plenty of time which is great.

 

Also you need to start working with a professor right now on research. Not TAing, but researching. If you start now you could potentially have a conference submission by next fall when you are ready to submit your applications, this will push you over the top.

 

Right now I would suggest you look at programs in the T50, maybe focusing more on T30ish. You'd have a solid T20 profile with some research experience, so get on it. Good luck!