Average age at admission for PhD Business

[user_name]

Many business schools report average age at admission from 25 to 27. Is this about the same for economics departments or not? Doesn't it seem a little high? I mean, for each college senior (21-22) you need a 30-year-old guy to get that average age.

Business schools don't say that work experience is required, but is it actually preferred? If yes, is it so across diciplines, including economics-like fields (e.g. business economics)?

[Jhai]

MBA programs prefer people to have at least a couple of years in industry - since they're preparing you to work in the business world, it's useful for you to have experience so that you come into the MBA program with an idea of what the important knowledge is to succeed in once you graduate. You'll also be able to compare what you're learning in the classroom to what you learned on the job.

Most economics/business-y ph.d programs care far less for work experience, to the point where many regular economics programs encourage you to go directly from undergrad to grad so that you don't lose math skills. The ph.d isn't training you to go into the business world - it's training you to do research about the business world.

As far as average age at admission is concerned - in many ph.d programs that number is bumped up by international students, who tend to enter the programs a bit older than American students.

[shootermcgavin7]

Originally Posted by Jhai

The ph.d isn't training you to go into the business world - it's training you to do research about the business world.

What you just said was entirely true, but does that make anyone else cringe?

To me, it is a bit like researching bowling or billiards without ever having played it. One can study the angles, etc for a perfect game of billiards all they like, but imperfections in the ball & playing surface will ultimately screw up your model.

[user_name]

Originally Posted by Jhai

MBA programs prefer people to have at least a couple of years in industry - since they're preparing you to work in the business world, it's useful for you to have experience so that you come into the MBA program with an idea of what the important knowledge is to succeed in once you graduate. You'll also be able to compare what you're learning in the classroom to what you learned on the job.

The average age at admission reported was for PhD/DBA, not MBA students. For example: http://www.hbs.edu/doctoral/admissions/index.html

As you said, business PhD programs don't care much for work experience, why the high average age then?

[mosfro]

i wondered about this as well, but i think i have an idea after reading several "class profiles"
take Harvard for example...only 12 of the 21 have only a bachelors degree, so 9 of them have graduate degrees, so bump the age of the person up 2 years (roughly)
so then i was stumped...okay, so that still should be like 23,,,not 26-27
add in some internationals? - - there were 2 guys in my econ program who were 40 and 37....so yeah they bump up the age

but also i noticed that a lot of the people getting phd/dba in business have MBAs...most MBA schools require 2+ years of work experience, and while gettin the MBA they realize they want a research career...

so if you graduate college, get a job for a couple of years, get a grad degree, and then apply for phd/dba programs...youll probably be 26-27 yrs old....

Originally Posted by shootermcgavin7

What you just said was entirely true, but does that make anyone else cringe?

To me, it is a bit like researching bowling or billiards without ever having played it. One can study the angles, etc for a perfect game of billiards all they like, but imperfections in the ball & playing surface will ultimately screw up your model.

i completely agree wtih you shooter..and in my undergrad, i noticed that the best professors in the business school (i had a minor in mangement) were the ones who worked in the private sector for years and years, got fed up with teh corporate world, and decided to get their Phd and teach how it SHOULD be done

[user_name]

I like your post, mosfro.

So why do a lot of the people getting DBA/PhD Business have MBA's? Is it because the adcoms prefer them to applicants fresh out of college? Or is it because not many college seniors want to get a DBA/PhD Business?

I guess what I'm ultimately interested in is my own situation. I am a college senior and am applying to a bunch of PhD business programs. The reason is simply that I'm interested in game theory and its application, and many business schools are doing a great job producing researchers in this field. But the statistics seem to suggest that I'm at a disadvantage compared to people with MBA's. So I'm just wondering if I should be applying to more econ departments and fewer business schools because of that?

[Jhai]

I kept meaning to come back here and do a longer post, but classes have been hectic...

The thing about business Phd programs is that most of them are split up into severl subdisciplines - economics, operations research, accounting, organizational behavior, finance, marketing, etc. Some of these are very applied programs where having experience in the field is important (like org behavior, marketing, etc). Others of them are much more theoretical - for instance, OR is just computer systems and math. Even in the "real world", it's just computer systems and math. In this type of field having experience isn't that big a deal, so I don't see it as a "bad thing" that some incoming business ph.d students don't have experience in business. W/o a masters in OR it's not like you could get a good experience in the field anyways...

[scheng75]

I don't know if applicants with MBAs have an advantage in getting into Bus Ph.D programs but I do know that some Bus. Ph.D programs take FAR less than their Econ Ph.D program. Like UCLA Econ Ph. D program might accept 40+ applicants per year, but their Bus Ph.D program w/ Econ concentration may only take 5-15 per year which makes the program much more selective. Another example is UCSD, their Econ Ph.D program usually has an entering class of 20-35 but their International Relations doctorate program only take 0-4 applicants a year in recent years. You can usually find out by contacting the program and asking about last year's entering class size.

[mosfro]

Originally Posted by user_name

I like your post, mosfro.

So why do a lot of the people getting DBA/PhD Business have MBA's? Is it because the adcoms prefer them to applicants fresh out of college? Or is it because not many college seniors want to get a DBA/PhD Business?
?

username,
i think alot of ppl of MBAs because its the most relevant graduate degree to a Phd in Business. If you had a weak background coming out of college, or a big break between undergrad and grad school (i.e. private sector), then high grades in an MBA program signal to the adcoms that you infact remember how to study, etc.
Also i have noticed that some MBA students engage in research with MBA faculty, so that might be something these applicants are trying to do.

I think you are right that not many college seniors know they want a doctorate in business, however i DO think that the adcoms would prefer a fresh undergraduate with all the necessary skills and math to, say, someone who had been out of school for a decade or so...But i think i may only be speaking for bus econ., finance, strat, ---maybe not the management and other majors....

PS. its nice to scheng75 is back on the boards....u applyin to grad school all over again?

[scheng75]

Originally Posted by mosfro

PS. its nice to scheng75 is back on the boards....u applyin to grad school all over again?

Thanks mo! No, not applying again, I applied so that I wouldn't have any regrets and I was pretty satisfied with my admission results, but Ph.D is not for me right now. Glad some doors opened for me though .