asdf1234 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Hi Everyone, in the fall I will be starting a PhD in Management and want to get a jump start with preparing for classes. What do you suggest I self-study before orientation? Stata? R? Calculus? Linear Algebra? Stats? I welcome as much detail as you are willing to provide. I do not have a strong math background, so hence my question about prep. My goal is to make the first year of classes as painless as possible so I can have more time/energy to devote to research. Thanks to all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
se9154 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Hi Everyone, in the fall I will be starting a PhD in Management and want to get a jump start with preparing for classes. What do you suggest I self-study before orientation? Stata? R? Calculus? Linear Algebra? Stats? I welcome as much detail as you are willing to provide. I do not have a strong math background, so hence my question about prep. My goal is to make the first year of classes as painless as possible so I can have more time/energy to devote to research. Thanks to all! I think it would really depend on your research area. In most cases, you should be able to find the required courses for the PhD program you will be starting on (e.g. probability, linear algebra, micro economics, calculus). I would suggest to start from there! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf1234 Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 You're awesome. Thanx. This makes complete sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaSvoboden Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Your best source is probably the first and second year students in the program that you will be attending. Ask them for advice. Also, consider trying to get there in the summer and take courses at the university to do this prep. A lot of school will give you your stipend for the summer and pay for the classes and software. Whether this makes sense depends on a ton of factors, but we always encourage our students to come out early. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PobleNou Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 Thanks YaSvoboden, this is good to know. I may be jumping the gun, as I don't have an admit yet. But, given that I am in my mid thirties, and have been away from business school for a while, it would be good to start the preparation in summer. BTW, congrats to the OP. Your best source is probably the first and second year students in the program that you will be attending. Ask them for advice. Also, consider trying to get there in the summer and take courses at the university to do this prep. A lot of school will give you your stipend for the summer and pay for the classes and software. Whether this makes sense depends on a ton of factors, but we always encourage our students to come out early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf1234 Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Same here...more than mid thirties though, I will be 39 when I begin classes. As a result, I also want to get a jump on things. Thansk PobleNou, I was very lucky to get an early admit last week. Now the big pressure is off. Well, the pressure of at least knowing I will be in a program in the fall. As a "mature" candidate I heard that ageism is an issue for b-school doctoral programs in the U.S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gecko Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 i would humbly suggest calculus and statistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finninja Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Any suggestions for good books please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf1234 Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Yes, please suggest a few books and whatever else you think (math, analysis, anything) would be helpful for pre-PhD students. Thanks a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PobleNou Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Another spin on this topic. When I was interviewed at one of the schools, there was a direct question on how will I transition from corporate world to academic world. I started talking about reading books for preparation and possibly taking some courses. The interviewer specifically told me don't worry about it as you have first year for classes. And steered the discussion towards working on my own, no teams to guide, change in lifestyle. Having said that, a little headstart would help anyway. If I can't start at the school full time, I would atleast start looking into Coursera. I remember MIT making their course material public, will also look into that. Sorry to hijack, but looks like a few admits in our age range. Few of us are sweating as well, and hope to get an admit soon. Same here...more than mid thirties though, I will be 39 when I begin classes. As a result, I also want to get a jump on things. Thansk PobleNou, I was very lucky to get an early admit last week. Now the big pressure is off. Well, the pressure of at least knowing I will be in a program in the fall. As a "mature" candidate I heard that ageism is an issue for b-school doctoral programs in the U.S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finninja Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Another spin on this topic. When I was interviewed at one of the schools, there was a direct question on how will I transition from corporate world to academic world. I started talking about reading books for preparation and possibly taking some courses. The interviewer specifically told me don't worry about it as you have first year for classes. And steered the discussion towards working on my own, no teams to guide, change in lifestyle. Having said that, a little headstart would help anyway. If I can't start at the school full time, I would atleast start looking into Coursera. I remember MIT making their course material public, will also look into that. Sorry to hijack, but looks like a few admits in our age range. Few of us are sweating as well, and hope to get an admit soon. I understand what you are saying but let me put another spin to this tale. The class you would enter will be very heterogeneous unlike say an MBA class. Many would be younger than you and quite a few would have done these things in their undergrad. This would be stressful especially when you need a minimum GPA to stay in the program. I can tell you that preparation beforehand will definitely not hurt you. In fact it would be very good if one could brush up math and microeconomics before entering class so as to avoid stress later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf1234 Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 Finninja, I agree; those are my goals exactly - - achieve solid GPA & minimize stress. This way classes/grades do not get in the way of research. I do not want to spend the first 2 years worried about classes while trying to keep up with remedial work. So since I have a few months before the program begins, might as well invest time in learning/refreshing important topics (especially those important for the 1st year). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tutonic Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Victor Bryant's Yet Another Introduction to Analysis is a relatively informal and good introduction to real analysis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PobleNou Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Completely agree, MBA is mostly a walk in the park. This is why probably PhD admission committees consider MBA grades with a pinch of salt. Still think, getting those grades to stay in a PhD program shouldn't be a problem, how much ever old you are. Hopefully, will be able to analyse in detail next year. I guess, PhD in Finance is much more intense than say Strategy or Management. Having said that, there are other pressures such as RoI on the big bucks invested into an MBA. Used to hate those networking sessions from the different clubs. Even MBA programs have those non poets (first time when I read poets it cracked me up, being a quant jock myself) from big 4 consulting, investment banks, not to mention those super smarts from IITs and China. But, the pressure is definitely less than in a PhD. Thanks for the subject tips. I will definitely brush up Microeconomics, if I am admitted. Math should be fine, given that I have worked in R and other statistical packages. I understand what you are saying but let me put another spin to this tale. The class you would enter will be very heterogeneous unlike say an MBA class. Many would be younger than you and quite a few would have done these things in their undergrad. This would be stressful especially when you need a minimum GPA to stay in the program. I can tell you that preparation beforehand will definitely not hurt you. In fact it would be very good if one could brush up math and microeconomics before entering class so as to avoid stress later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdf1234 Posted February 8, 2017 Author Share Posted February 8, 2017 PobleNou, could you please suggest some resources to help me learn R through self-study? I have not used a statistical package before and any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PobleNou Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 I have used R for mainly Machine Learning and business analytics, so please take my recommendations with a pinch of salt. I remember a website by a U Toronto professor around Data Mining map. That gives a good understanding of the applications. Once, you understand some of the algorithms from a theoretical perspective, I would download R and start playing with it. It is a free software anyway, and there is lots of online help available. There are a few interesting YouTube channels dedicated to R programming as well. I recommend watching them as well. Most of them use standard datasets from a UC Irvine repository for examples. I don't know how R is used for academic research, but this should be a good starting point. Good luck with it. PobleNou, could you please suggest some resources to help me learn R through self-study? I have not used a statistical package before and any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gecko Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 you could run R for econometrics if you are doing empirical research Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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