Please Help: Case Western Reserve PhD or University of Colorado PhD

[Denver-Broncos]

Hey everybody;

I am an avid reader posting for the first time. I would really appreciate any feedback you may have about the following two programs:

Case Western Reserve - PhD Information Systems (Weatherhead School of Management)

and;

University of Colorado - PhD Information Systems (Leeds School of Business)

I have been admitted to one of the previous two schools and feel I might be admitted to the other soon.

In case you are wondering, my profile includes a Bachelors degree from the US and a Masters degree from a top school in Australia. My GMAT is around 650 and I have two research papers presented at conferences.

Without considering the value of any University funding or campus geography, I would really appreciate any information you might have on the reputation of each school/program.

Thanks,

Denver-Broncos (rock)

[mamoqilo]

Congrats!

I think Colorado is generally well known than Case Western. I have 0 knowledge about their MIS program, though.

[Denver-Broncos]

Thanks mamoqilo;

I've heard that the University of Colorado is generally more known than Case Western Reserve. However, I've also heard that because Case is a private school and Colorado is public, Case has some kind of "brand exclusivity" over the University of Colorado.

Do private schools have brand exclusivity over public schools? More to the point, would this have an affect on the University's ability to place students in academic positions after graduation?

Again, thanks for all the help,

Broncos

[mamoqilo]

Well, you are right and most of the Ivy schools are private but I don't think it applies in this case. Why don't you look through there website (or call/email some one in their department) and see where their graduates get their first job. That is I think the best measure.

[Gimpy]

I have an undergrad in IS from a good IS school in Canada (which of course, doesn't make me qualified given that I'm now going to do my phd in marketing), but from what I know anecdotally, Case Western is a HIGHLY REGARDED PhD program in IS. There are some great faculty there. I don't know if your research interests jive with Kalle Lyytinen, but from what I know from a big IS professor out here, he is as big as they get. Note, I don't know anything about the CU IS department, so please do take my advice with a grain of salt.

[Denver-Broncos]

Thanks mamoqilo and Gimpy;

Your feedback has been very helpful. I've heard good things about both schools and it is certainly nice to hear that Dr. Lyytinen is well regarded in the field.

Good luck with your studies,

Sincerely,

Broncos

[moomber123]

I hope this reply is not too late for admission decision.

I have personal and rather involved experience with the Case Western IS program. Even though for personal reasons I ended up not going there, I would put the program far above any of the "ranking" out there. The school is not considered top tier like Minnesota or Georgia State for IS, but there are many strengths that external ranking based on standardized methodologies would never fully capture.

1.) Professor Kalle Lyytinen alone is reason enough to go. Not only is he a big big guy in IS, the most impressive thing about him is his modesty. You will never find someone of his level of achievement this approachable.
2.) The rest of the faculty there is also top. Professor Fred Collopy, the chair of the department, is one of the nicest person. And Professor Richard Bolland is another prominent figure in IS.
3.) You will probably never find this anywhere else. Case Western is so candid, so sincere, and so upfront about their strengths and weaknesses. Any other department out there will likely have more politics than Case. These are people doing genuine, sincere, and serious academic research. Not just people trying to add fluffs to their CV.
4.) Case IS is doing some visionary stuffs in IS research, linking IS research with design discipline. If you are idealistic, and passionate about IS research, Case is the place to go.

I am not suggesting the Colorado is a bad place. And my personal experience with Case certainly creates bias. I just need to share this inside information to do Case IS some justice, given its lack of other superficial factors that put it lower in those rankings.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by moomber123

I just need to share this inside information to do Case IS some justice, given its lack of other superficial factors that put it lower in those rankings.

Great post. Just one question though: what would you consider as the superficial factors that out CWRU lower in the rankings in spite of the great faculty and the research being conducted there? Just curious.

[moomber123]

A few things:
1.) Case Western's professors have a strong European ties. Professor Lyytinen is from Finland, and Professor Bolland is a fluent French speaker. They both publish substantially in European journals, in particular, EJIS. The ranking methodology here typically has an "American bias," which tends to put EJIS on a second tier. Most ranking only uses MISQ, ISR, and perhaps JMIS as the only A journal outlets for IS research, which can substantially underestimate the output for department like Case.
2.) Case Western IS is a very small department. There are only 3 professors. For those ranking that has some "reputation" factor, this is not a strength. But it is not hard to find ranking, especially for PhD level ranking, that eliminate this rather useless measure.
3.) Case Western IS is now heavily focused on new "revolutionary" type of research, tying IS research to design. They actually have hosted a few conferences, workshops for a few years already, in which IS researchers and designers, architects, got together. This is a very "unorthodox" way of doing IS research, and in all likelihood is not yet considered to be an impressive achievement by the "mainstream" or "establishment" in IS community. However, if you look closely at the participants, you'd find participations by prominent management/business scholars, like Karl Weick from Michigan. I guess this is an example of "exploration" vs. "exploitation." Whereas other established IS powerhouses "exploit" their existing strength to continue their dominance, Case is doing "exploration" works that are still in the process of gaining legitimacy. True, it is not necessarily a safe choice, as far as career development is concerned, because you never know if this type of research with heavy emphasis on design is going to gain traction, but I believe academics should be more about idealistic pursuit of excellence than just mechanically twisting things around to add items on CV. You will never find "idealism," "sincerity," or "extent of scholarly conducts" in those rankings, or else Case Western would come out much highly rated.
4.) Any ranking that takes placement into consideration would greatly harm Case's ranking. MIS in general is still struggling to recover from the hiring hell that started since the dot com bust. Placement for MIS doctoral students is still exceedingly difficult. In times like this, top schools are unlikely to hire from schools with no "pedigree" anyways, but teaching-oriented schools would prefer big school names over academic productivity. The result is that top schools hire among themselves, and middle-ranking schools take what the top schools did not pick up, leaving schools like Case in a very difficult placement situation.
5.) MIS is a highly fragmented field. There are people doing almost engineering-like research at Arizona, and at the same time, there are people doing almost OB like research at Minnesota. Most likely, they don't even know what the other group is talking about. They don't publish in the same journals, don't hire from each other. Case is more behavioral-oriented, but it's not exactly an OB shop. So in that sense, it kind of finds itself in a tough spot looking for a niche. This is not uncommon among some upper-middle ranked schools.
6.) I suspect the poor economic state in Cleveland, or in Ohio in general, has something to do with the declining prestige of Case Western as a university. A lot more prominent scholars come out of Case in distant history than in recent time.

In general, I find the rankings for PhD programs to be of limited use. (well, for all kinds of programs, this statement could be true to some extent) Ranking is inappropriate when you think program ranked number 21 is necessarily worse than number 20. I'd suggest taking ranking from a rough "tier" and treat schools in the same tier equally, and then focus on the research focus, the style, and the people in the departments. Case happens to be a hidden jewel, especially that many Asian students who are very competitive in admissions tend to take ranking far more seriously than they should, and pass on Case accordingly. This ends up limiting Case's reputation to those who interact with them directly.

[Denver-Broncos]

It was nice to read such insightful comments moomber123, thank you for posting them.

Over the past month, I've heard nothing short of outstanding reviews from a variety of sources about Case Western Reserve University and the Weatherhead School of Management in general. As you mentioned, the Information Systems department appears to be heading in a dynamic direction. Some have mentioned to me that over the past few years the IS faculty has progressively conducted some very interesting exploratory work. Personally, it took no more than a few minutes of speaking with the IS faculty to identify the unique feeling of genuineness you mentioned.

On the ranking bit, Case Western Reserve has generally struck me as an outstanding institution that is ranked quite well by most publications. I see your point about the value of clustering some business school rankings to gain a different perspective on the findings. Speaking in broad strokes, around what tier would you consider a business school like the Weatherhead School of Management? Or the IS department?

Thanks,