Mathematics courses for PhD Business (Information Systems)

[Ancalagon The Black]

Hi everyone,

I had a niggling query and was wondering whether anyone could possibly help me solve it !!

I am applying for PhD in Business (Information Systems/IT/MIS) for Fall 2008. I am from India and my undergraduate major is business with a specialization in Finance. Indian undergraduate courses are generally rigid and do not allow flexibility. My university is one of the best for business courses at the undergraduate level in India. We also have the most number of math courses (I have checked over 30 universities in India to prove this)

Our courses are:

1. Business Mathematics (Differential/Integral Calculus + Differential Equations all rolled into one course)
2. Business Statistics (calculus and probability based statistics)
3. Quantitative Techniques in Management (Game Theory/Decision Theory/Optimization/Linear Programming/Markov Chain all rolled into one !!)

[Ancalagon The Black]

Now it seems to me that US universities need a disproportionate amount of mathematics for IT/IS concentrations (I thought you needed them for Finance/Economics only !!)
So, I enrolled in the following year long courses at another university for distance education.

1. Advanced Calculus (multivariate + harder calculus)
2. Linear Algebra
3. Discrete Mathematics
4. Real Analysis
5. Numerical Analysis
6. Probability and Statistics (calculus based and much harder)
7. Differential Equations
8. Mathematical Modelling

My question is, are any of these courses overkill because I have around 15 days to drop any of these courses (saves me money and effort) What are the basic minimum and what would look good on the application?

Thanks and pardon for the long post...

[Ancalagon The Black]

Another point is that most Indian MBA colleges also do not have an appreciable level of courses and the option for non engineers/pure science students to obtain maths courses at the undergraduate level is very very restricted and limited.

[EE570]

My guess would be that the courses you took in business will not be adequate training for the tough courses you will face in a phd program. I am in a PhD Finance program (I mostly do quantitative finance though) and I have an Engineering and and two Applied Math degrees and I still sometimes feel like I don't have enough math.

If you are going to have to take any courses similar to PhD Finance or Econ (i.e. micro from MWG) then you better take.

1) multi-variate calc
2) Real Analysis
3) prob and stats, cal based
4) Diff. eqns
5) Linear Algebra

Again, I am a Finance guy, and not a IT/IS, so I can only speak about my experience. But, I think that the more math you have the easier it will make life for you in the future.

Also, you should be forewarned that trying to take all of these classes in one year AND via distance education will probably not be easy (analysis is pretty tough).

Good luck

[Ancalagon The Black]

EE570:

I have been checking the courses mostly in IT/IS PhD courses. I understand that Finance needs a lot of math (my undergraduate concentration is in finance and we use a lot of calculus but no analysis) but I don't see how IT/IS can use analysis et al.

I reckon that linear algebra, multivariate and differential analysis will do (we already did calculus and calc based probability and stats in college) but anyway, I have signed up for these courses. I really don't have any choice. In India, there isn't any scope for taking additional classes in the university so I have to go for distance education.

I am applying for Fall 2008 and I will be mentioning that I am taking these classes. I hope that the adcoms realize my situation. Thanks.

[doubtful]

Originally Posted by Ancalagon The Black

Now it seems to me that US universities need a disproportionate amount of mathematics for IT/IS concentrations (I thought you needed them for Finance/Economics only !!)
So, I enrolled in the following year long courses at another university for distance education.

1. Advanced Calculus (multivariate + harder calculus)
2. Linear Algebra
3. Discrete Mathematics
4. Real Analysis
5. Numerical Analysis
6. Probability and Statistics (calculus based and much harder)
7. Differential Equations
8. Mathematical Modelling

My question is, are any of these courses overkill because I have around 15 days to drop any of these courses (saves me money and effort) What are the basic minimum and what would look good on the application?

Thanks and pardon for the long post...

sorry but you can take all this stuff via distance learning ?!?

so in my experience the most usefull ones are
Real Analysis
Numerical Analysis
Discrete Mathematics (especially if u are into Algorithms).

I took all of them at the phd level, so I wonder how you can take them online.

[Ancalagon The Black]

doubtful:

Well, it is not an online course really. It is a distance course from IGNOU (Welcome::Indira Gandhi National Open University) This is because under my education system, there is no scope to take additional classes which I really need.

However, do not think that just because it is a distance course, the courses are not tough. On the contrary, they are rather rigorous and are equivalent to B.S Mathematics (Honors) level. So, I think I have my work cut out for me...