Question about strategy and OB programs

[MS115]

Hello all,

First off a big congratulations to all of you who have accepted offers for the 2009 year.

I've got a favor to ask. I'm going to be applying for the 2010 year to strategy and OB programs (my research interests are a mix of the two). I've made a preliminary list of schools I am interested in and am now working on narrowing that list down. I don't have the stats to have a good chance at getting into a top 10 program and am trying to focus on schools in the tiers below that.

Here is my preliminary list. Am I way off on any of these? Are some of these very hard to get into and should I perhaps focus my attention elsewhere? Are any of these below the top 75 or so schools? I just want to make sure I'm not way off track on any of these.

I really appreciate any help you might give me. Thanks.


University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson) Los Angeles, CA
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross) Ann Arbor, MI
Cornell University (Johnson) Ithaca, NY
Duke University (Fuqua) Durham, NC
University of Virginia (Darden) Charlottesville, VA
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) Pittsburgh, PA
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill, NC
University of Southern California (Marshall) Los Angeles, CA
Emory University (Goizueta) Atlanta, GA
University of Rochester (Simon) Rochester, NY
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities (Carlson) Minneapolis, MN
University of Washington (Foster) Seattle, WA
University of Wisconsin--Madison Madison, WI
University of Maryland--College Park (Smith) College Park, MD
Purdue University--West Lafayette (Krannert)
Boston College (Carroll) Chestnut Hill, MA
Michigan State University (Broad) East Lansing, MI
Pennsylvania State University--University Park (Smeal) University Park, PA
University of California--Irvine (Merage) Irvine, CA
University of Connecticut Storrs, CT
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey--New Brunswick and Newark
Syracuse University (Whitman) Syracuse, NY
Temple University (Fox) Philadelphia, PA
Colorado - Boulder (Leeds) Boulder, CO

[tabegl0]

Your question is a bit broad and lacks the important specific information, namely your profile, to get any meaningful responses. In short, apply to a bunch of place across a somewhat broad range of schools. The cost of the applying many places is, in my mind, money well spent.

Good Luck!

[MS115]

Thanks for your advice. I'll definitely apply to a large range of schools. Easier to put in the time and money now than play the what-if game later.

Here's my profile:

Age: Will be 27 upon entry
GMAT: 730
MBA GPA: 3.7 (from a European school. I was #2 in my class)
Undergrad GPA: 3.1 (I know. I didn't take care of business)
3 years work experience in financial analysis
1 year of teaching experience
No research experience (I will hopefully have LORs that speak to this quality)


Thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.

[longshot]

How much math do you have? I'm not sure how quantitative OB programs are, but I'd say Linear Algebra, Cal III, and a decent stats class should put you in okay shape. If you've got that kind of background, I'd say you're looking at a decent list.

I'd recommend dropping Rutgers, UConn, Temple, and maybe Colorado. If you apply to that many schools I don't think those "super safeties" are necessary (but then again, for only ~$200, why not leave them in the mix).

You look good, make sure you get the math. Take it at a local school if you haven't already. Get good recs, write a great statement of purpose, visit places, and good luck.

[doctoraldude]

You might want to improve your gmat score, if you want to have a shot at some of the higher ranked schools in your list.
The teaching exp and #2 in MBA should help imo ...
About the list - you might want to add Pitt there - they've got a very supportive faculty group in strategy, and have had some good placements recently (but you probably still need higher scores)

PS: ofcourse, take everything with a pich of salt - by the time you have collected scores of opinions, a lot of them will sound completely contradictory :P

[MS115]

Thanks again for your help everyone.

I don't have a super extensive math background; just lower level calc and a lot of stats. I'll take a higher level calc class ASAP to boost that section of my profile. Great piece of advice - thanks.

I'll look into Pitt as well.

Thanks again. I appreciate all the help.

[moomber123]

I am sensing some MBA ranking bias in this list. I know you might be trying to spread it out and make sure you have top and safety schools, but some schools in the list are just out of place for strategy or OB type of program. I suggest you go to UT Dallas' top 100 website, and select the journals that are most relevant to your research interests, and do a ranking for the past 4 years, you will notice a few decent schools not included in your list simply because of low MBA ranking. And some schools that are pretty low in the research output for the two areas are included in your list, presumably because of decent MBA ranking or overall business school reputation. IMHO, I think that is the wrong way to select a program.

A obviously exaggerated analogy to this kind of selection logic would be trying to get into MIT to study art history. Great school, world famous in fact, but do you really think you can learn art history well at MIT?

[moomber123]

Originally Posted by MS115

Thanks again for your help everyone.

I don't have a super extensive math background; just lower level calc and a lot of stats. I'll take a higher level calc class ASAP to boost that section of my profile. Great piece of advice - thanks.

I'll look into Pitt as well.

Thanks again. I appreciate all the help.

That might not be the best use of your time. I remember hearing all this "make sure you can do math" advice before my own application, but throughout my entire PhD and research career, I have never come across an application of advanced math. This of course reflects my chosen research area, but given that I survived, and am on the right path for tenure (overconfidence?), I would think the over-emphasis on math is some sort of doctoral program myth. Yes, if you are into finance, or if you are into strategy research based on game theory (you might think strategy research uses game theory heavily, but if you flip through recent SMJ, you will not see any game theory related articles. In fact, you will not likely see much calculus either!)

Keep in mind that business research is highly diverse. There is no so called "disciplinary paradigm" for this research community. Your objective is to answer business research question, not to showcase your ability to do the basic stuffs (which is the case in econ, unfortunately. as an econ undergraduate, I am fully aware of the need to show off your advanced math skills for them to even start paying attention to your silly idea.) You will likely need to do good solid statistics works (since most people aren't going to rely on qualitative work), but that is hardly the kind of advanced math that a lot of people here depict top programs to focus on.

I'd say it's a choice. Perhaps a choice that a lot of people make. But it's a myth that it's a MUST.