Leeeee Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 (edited) Hi everyone, I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from top Canadian university, GPA 2.7/4.0 I am finishing my second undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the middle rank Canadian university, GPA 3.93/4.0, with two research experience from the field of data visualization, two faculty level awards and one national award. No publication. I want to apply for the PhD in quant Marketing in the future, according to my current background, is it a good idea to pursue a Master degree in Economics to enhance my research experience in business related field? Thank you. Edited June 13, 2020 by Leeeee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentvenus Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 Hi everyone, I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from top Canadian university, GPA 2.7/4.0 I am finishing my second undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the middle rank Canadian university, GPA 3.93/4.0, with two research experience from the field of data visualization, two faculty level awards and one national award. No publication. I want to apply for the PhD in quant Marketing in the future, according to my current background, is it a good idea to pursue a Master degree in Economics to enhance my research experience in business related field? Thank you. Just a thought, it might help your application if you leave out the first degree and avoid questions on the low GPA for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zshfryoh1 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Just a thought, it might help your application if you leave out the first degree and avoid questions on the low GPA for that. DO NOT DO THIS! If you hide a previous degree or grades and they find out you will definitely be rejected. If they find out after you start the program they can and probably will kick you out for academic dishonesty. And if your second degree is from the same University you would not be able to do this anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentvenus Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 DO NOT DO THIS! If you hide a previous degree or grades and they find out you will definitely be rejected. If they find out after you start the program they can and probably will kick you out for academic dishonesty. And if your second degree is from the same University you would not be able to do this anyway. I don't quite understand why this would be academic dishonesty though. It is not as if I am saying that I scored GPA 4.0 when I clearly didn't. It is simply filtering out unappealing parts of my profile. Unless the admission committee clearly asks for ALL academic history, I don't see why leaving this out would constitute dishonety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zshfryoh1 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 I don't quite understand why this would be academic dishonesty though. It is not as if I am saying that I scored GPA 4.0 when I clearly didn't. It is simply filtering out unappealing parts of my profile. Unless the admission committee clearly asks for ALL academic history, I don't see why leaving this out would constitute dishonety. Every PhD program that I know of (in every field not just business) requires full academic transcripts for all degree coursework even if the degree was in an unrelated field - let alone the OP's situation where it is in a related field. Many even require transcripts for all coursework taken at accredited institutions even if it was not used towards a degree (for example HBS has this requirement). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gentvenus Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Every PhD program that I know of (in every field not just business) requires full academic transcripts for all degree coursework even if the degree was in an unrelated field - let alone the OP's situation where it is in a related field. Many even require transcripts for all coursework taken at accredited institutions even if it was not used towards a degree (for example HBS has this requirement). Wow that is stringent! I was actually looking at some programs at Australia institutions but I have not seen specific mention of FULL academic transcripts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zshfryoh1 Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Wow that is stringent! I was actually looking at some programs at Australia institutions but I have not seen specific mention of FULL academic transcripts. I am only familiar with US/Canada but I did a quick check and saw that UNSW asks for all post-secondary degree transcripts and U of Queensland asks for all post secondary education (like HBS). I assume the other major Australian universities are the same. Some schools don't mention it on their websites, but on the actual application they state the full transcript requirement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zshfryoh1 Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Hi everyone, I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from top Canadian university, GPA 2.7/4.0 I am finishing my second undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the middle rank Canadian university, GPA 3.93/4.0, with two research experience from the field of data visualization, two faculty level awards and one national award. No publication. I want to apply for the PhD in quant Marketing in the future, according to my current background, is it a good idea to pursue a Master degree in Economics to enhance my research experience in business related field? Thank you. Sorry about hijacking the thread with other stuff. As to your original question, the biggest consideration is why were your grades so poor in your first bachelors? If your overall GPA was pulled down mediocre grades in econ or math classes then the econ masters might be worth it. If your math and econ grades were good and your overall GPA was pulled down by poor grades in other classes, then you can probably apply with your current coursework. Another issue with your application as I see it is in recommendation letters. These matter a lot in PhD applications and you don't mention anything about who they would be if you applied right now. It would probably be a good idea for you to post your full profile in the format commonly used here and on the econ forum. This would help us get a better idea of your qualifications and chances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tm_associate Posted June 20, 2020 Share Posted June 20, 2020 Hi everyone, I have an undergraduate degree in Economics from top Canadian university, GPA 2.7/4.0 I am finishing my second undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the middle rank Canadian university, GPA 3.93/4.0, with two research experience from the field of data visualization, two faculty level awards and one national award. No publication. I want to apply for the PhD in quant Marketing in the future, according to my current background, is it a good idea to pursue a Master degree in Economics to enhance my research experience in business related field? Thank you. Just my 2 cents here.... economics and computer science don't really have a clear link into marketing .... the degrees might be helpful in signaling your comfort with more technical stuff, for example if you want to do quant marketing, or marketing with big data.... it might be better to spend the year or two getting close to and working with a marketing faculty on actual research so that s/he can speak to you interest in marketing topics as well as your actual ability in doing research.... An economics won't hurt, but i don't know if it will help that much either. It may have the indirect benefit of making you more comfortable with graduate level statistic, which because its econ may give you more confidence for quant/big data type research. Best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrazilianPhD Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 economics and computer science don't really have a clear link into marketing .... the degrees might be helpful in signaling your comfort with more technical stuff, for example if you want to do quant marketing, or marketing with big data.... At least from what I see here in my department, for Quantitative Marketing I'd say there is strong link to economics. Utility functions, game theory, pricing, competition, behavioral economics, all the econometrics, and much more. One of the top professors here is a PhD in economics, not marketing. At least two professors here have a bachelors and a masters in economics. And I'm sure there are more with at least a bachelors in economics. Even one of the most important journals in quant marketing is called "Quantitative Marketing and Economics" If the research is for empirical modelling, then dealing with things like big data is really the way to go, and I suppose computer science would help a lot. We spend most of our time coding, and quant marketing students here are often very good with coding in several languages, and stuff like machine learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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