Do I have a good chance of getting accepted into PhD at a reputable school?

[M16]

Do I have a good chance of getting accepted into PhD at a reputable school?

 

 

Hi,

I am an international student. I have a bachelor's degree in economics and master's degree in finance (taught in English) from my home country. Also, I have a master's degree in Accounting from a regional school in the U.S. In addition, I am currently pursuing an MBA with a concentration in IT. I worked at one of the big 4 CPA firms for one and half year and I am currently working at the same college I graduated from in the U.S. at the administrative level. My GPA is 3.72 and I am currently preparing for the GMAT. In addition, I have been approved to teach a few courses at the same college I graduated from. My question is, do I have a good chance of getting accepted into a PhD business program at a reputable school given the fact that I don't have any previous research experience? I am applying in particular to UMass Amherst's Management program. Thanks in advance for your invaluable input!

[daffodil5435]

I don't have any previous research experience?

 

This forum would be a good place to start....look at how others have structured their "profile evaluation" questions.....and hopefully you'll get valuable inputs.

 

Prima Facie: Economics-----> Finance-----> Accounting-----> MBA (IT)------>PhD Management..............I think Accounting ruined the alphabetical order...!!!

[jamharl]

I think you really do have the great chance. All you have to do is keeping the knowledge you and learning new useful information. and daffodil5435 is right. You gotta start it here for you're in the right place.

[rsaylors]

Heartburn... Shouldn't have had fish and chips at midnight... Oh Disney Down-Town, you know just how to charge $20 for something that isn't worth $10

 

Let's do this thing.

 

"I am an international student."

What nation?

 

"I have a bachelor's degree in economics and master's degree in finance (taught in English) from my home country."

Did this help or hinder your ability to comprehend the material?

 

"Also, I have a master's degree in Accounting from a regional school in the U.S."

That's a lot of education, but I can se...

"In addition, I am currently pursuing an MBA with a concentration in IT."

Oh..

"I worked at one of the big 4 CPA firms for one and half year and I am currently working at the same college I graduated from in the U.S. at the administrative level."

Ok, so are you concerned that age is a factor?

 

Why do you want to go from practitioner/admin to researcher?

 

"My GPA is 3.72 and I am currently preparing for the GMAT. "

Which GPA? You've got 4 degrees. Usually UGGPA matters most; but its hard to say since that was in your home country.

Overall subtract a .5 from your GGPA for a reasonable mark-down due to grad-level grade-inflation.

 

You should have practice GMAT scores/percentiles, we can't give you much without some sort of GMAT/GPA direction

 

"In addition, I have been approved to teach a few courses at the same college I graduated from."

This is likely a questionable thing. It would be much better to spend that time doing research than it would moonlighting as an adjunct.

 

"do I have a good chance of getting accepted into a PhD business program at a reputable school given the fact that I don't have any previous research experience?"

Lack of research experience won't kill you.

Lack of research interest will.

 

You need to explain why you want to be a researcher; why you have so many practitioner oriented degrees; and why you are focusing on teaching classes instead of spending your free time preparing to be a researcher (or at least preparing to do well on the GMAT).

 

"I am applying in particular to UMass Amherst's Management program."

This is a painful sentence.

 

1) You need to apply to many more programs than this, there's about a 5% acceptance rate among Ph.D. programs

2) Nothing in your research interests or educational profile implies you have any interest in management.

3) How do you know U-Mass is the program for you? Do you want to do micro-OB, do you want to do Strategy, do you want to do information systems and don't know that computer/managment-information-systmes are a whole different department?

4) This is a very specific program, when seeking proper research fit you cannot geographically limit yourself: both when it comes to where you go to school and when it comes to where you go to work

 

"Thanks in advance for your invaluable input!"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO3Wfenv4Mo

[M16]

Thanks daffodil5435, Jamharl, and rsaylors. I appreciate your input.

 

In a response to @rsaylors questions...

 

*"What nation? I am from Syria."

 

*"Did this help or hinder your ability to comprehend the material?"

I was just saying that I did that degree in English not in Arabic (my mother tongue)

 

"Ok, so are you concerned that age is a factor?"

Of course not.

 

"Which GPA?"

That is my GPA for the master’s degree in Accounting. In Syria we don’t have GPA on a scale of 4.0. We, however, follow the percentage system. I received 74% which is difficult to achieve.

 

 

I am currently preparing for the GMAT test. I have never taken it before.

 

As why I am interested in doing the Adjunct faculty thing, I am doing that to get some good experience for teaching and to earn some money (I have to send some money every month to my family given the very bad situation).

 

"why you have so many practitioner oriented degrees" Well, I come from a country that has zero research experinece. We had never had the chance to practive research back there. And when I decided to come to the US to pursue my master's degree, I picked my school because it fit my budget. Most of the research oriented instutituions have high tuitions which I can't afford. This is why I am so excited to get accepted into a PhD program. If someone couldn't have the chance to do something, that doesn't mean that they can't do it. It's just that life is not that much easy to get along with.

 

You're right about the number of programs I need to apply to. But I was thinking to give a try with this school since it perfectly fits my research interest and see how things would go from there.

 

Hope this all makes sense now. Thanks again for your input!

[daffodil5435]

But I was thinking to give a try with this school since it perfectly fits my research interest and see how things would go from there.

 

You definitely need to apply to more schools, 12-15 is the norm, you don't want to pin your hopes on this one school.

 

Quick question, how did you get into an MBA program without a GMAT ?