WELCOME TO THE FORUM! Please start HERE for important past threads!

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Welcome to the PhD in Business Forum on urch!

This forum is a rich resource of information regarding opinions and experiences of former and present applicants for doctoral programs under the umbrella of ‘Business’. A good opener may be found here, a guide about Business PhD Applications: A Guide to Business PhD Applications (Nagaraj 2010). Also, here is another good piece on competition in academic markets, specifically in the management field (Certo, et al. 2010), but likely generalizable to other business domains:

Which Rankings to Use when Considering PhD Programs?

Note: Please let a moderator know if any of the links are broken or you uncover any other relevant rankings for specific concentrations.

Another question that often comes up is what ranking scales are used to assess business PhD programs. A common metric used is the publication productivity of department/business colleges in top tier journals. Below are links to some of these rankings (please note that these rankings are limited to their methodology, so take note of that when assessing the validity of them):

Global Ranking
UT Dallas Business School Ranking (note: recommend you also limit sorting 'By Journals', thus you can limit the search to relevant journals in your field)

Accounting
BYU Accounting Rankings

Finance
Arizona State University Finance Productivity Ranking

Management
Texas A&M Management Productivity Ranking

Marketing
DocSig (derivate of UTD, specific to marketing) Productivity Ranking

What does a Successful Applicant Profile Look Like?

The next section contains profiles of successful PhD applicants in their respective concentrations that have been kind enough to share their profiles online. NOTE that this is relatively small group of individuals and that there are MANY OTHERS whom (1) have successfully gained entrance to good doctoral programs, and (2) have very different applicant profiles than those that are posted here.

Accounting
Finance
Information Systems / Tech Management
Management
Marketing
Operations

Relevant Applicant Threads by Year

The year (i.e., 2015 Applicant thread) refers to the year applicants will begin their programs. Below are some of the most relevant threads from past years:

2020
PhD Business Sweat Thread

2019
PhD Business Administration Sweat Thread
PhD Business Interview/Admission/Rejection Results

2018
PhD Business Administration Sweat Thread
PhD Business Interview/Admission/Rejection Results

2017
PhD Business Administration Sweat Thread
PhD Business Administration "Un-Sweat" Thread
2017 Business PhD Interview/Admission/Rejection Results

2016
Ask a Current Student Thread (2016)
Applicant waiting/sweating thread

On School Rankings
An in-depth post about one applicant's "Lessons Learned"

2015
Ask a Current Student Thread (2015)
Current PhD Student DAY IN LIFE (2015)
Applicant waiting/sweating thread
Admission/Interview/Rejection: Accounting
Admission/Interview/Rejection: Management
Admission/Interview/Rejection: Marketing

2014
Applicant waiting/sweating thread
Admission/Interview/Rejections: Accounting
Admission/Interview/Rejections: Management
Admission/Interview/Rejections: Marketing
Admission/Interview/Rejections: Operations

An example regarding test score percentiles (note: n = 1)

2013
Applicant waiting/sweating thread

2012
Applicant waiting/sweating thread

Thanks for stopping by the forum and best of luck to all future applicants!