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Fall 2021 PhD start - PhD Applicant Sweat Thread


plzletmein

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Note from Forum Admin

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Welcome to the 2021 Ph.D. in business concentrations' sweat thread! This is a thread for applicants (hopefully!) starting their PhD program in 2021! Use this is vent, discuss any frustrations, or random musings that you would like others to weigh in on! Best of luck to this years applicants!

 

For those of you just starting to browse this website, check out the Welcome to the Forum thread for information that has been helpful in the past.

 

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Hello,

 

I didn't see a sweat thread so I'm just going to make one for everyone grinding out the apps now.

 

*sweats nervously*

Edited by tm_associate
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Yes - Thanks for starting this! Best of luck to everyone who is trying to get applications in before tomorrow's deadline!

 

I'm applying to Management and OB programs. and crossing my fingers for a top-10 admittance. Have any of you been hearing more rumors about programs admitting fewer applicants this year?

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I'm applying to Management and OB programs. and crossing my fingers for a top-10 admittance. Have any of you been hearing more rumors about programs admitting fewer applicants this year?

 

Michigan said on an info session that they are likely only admitting one student per area (compared to 3-4 in a normal year). I haven't heard that from other programs though, how about you?

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Michigan said on an info session that they are likely only admitting one student per area (compared to 3-4 in a normal year). I haven't heard that from other programs though, how about you?

 

I heard UW, UNC, and USC had already gone down to 1 in OB/Management last year. Cornell's ILR school posted on their site that they are admitting fewer for the 2021 round and Cornell's Johnson school faculty (in a couple phones calls) said that they are cutting back to 1-2 for Management.

 

Makes me want to spread a wide application net. I already applied to 15 schools, but with the Dec. 15 deadline looming I am considering getting a couple more. I probably won't (considering the extra effort to get recommendations in on time), but the craziness of this round of applications is making me feel extra nervous.

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I heard UW, UNC, and USC had already gone down to 1 in OB/Management last year. Cornell's ILR school posted on their site that they are admitting fewer for the 2021 round and Cornell's Johnson school faculty (in a couple phones calls) said that they are cutting back to 1-2 for Management.

 

Makes me want to spread a wide application net. I already applied to 15 schools, but with the Dec. 15 deadline looming I am considering getting a couple more. I probably won't (considering the extra effort to get recommendations in on time), but the craziness of this round of applications is making me feel extra nervous.

 

Wow, thanks for the info! I didn't realize those had scaled back - that's too bad, makes for a lonely management cohort for the one student admitted!

 

And congrats on getting your 15 applications in, and good luck with any others you decide to do! I opted to apply to 10 this year, and if I'm not admitted anywhere, I will take another shot next year.

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Yes - Thanks for starting this! Best of luck to everyone who is trying to get applications in before tomorrow's deadline!

 

I'm applying to Management and OB programs. and crossing my fingers for a top-10 admittance. Have any of you been hearing more rumors about programs admitting fewer applicants this year?

 

On an information session, MIT Sloan said that there is no effect whatsoever on the admission in every subfield, i.e., same slots and funding as usual years.

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Hope everyone's applications are going well! Anyone else applying to marketing programs? I've also heard of a handful of top schools planning on only admitting 1-3 this year to mktg programs because of COVID, high enrollment in previous years, etc.

 

Hi! I’m also a marketing applicant! Are you applying for CB or quant?

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So one of my POI, sent me a message on linkedin, because her response to my email went undelivered.

She said that she is retiring so wont be available for doctoral studies. But she encouraged me to apply to the college and said my CV shows that i am strong applicant for phd studies.

I have spent the last 12 hours wondering, whether she was just being nice to everyone who mailed her because she is retiring or she genuinely meant that my CV looks good.

What is this insane overthinking life :sorrow:

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So one of my POI, sent me a message on linkedin, because her response to my email went undelivered.

She said that she is retiring so wont be available for doctoral studies. But she encouraged me to apply to the college and said my CV shows that i am strong applicant for phd studies.

I have spent the last 12 hours wondering, whether she was just being nice to everyone who mailed her because she is retiring or she genuinely meant that my CV looks good.

What is this insane overthinking life :sorrow:

It would be really weird for a professor to reach out with something that positive and not mean it.

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It would be really weird for a professor to reach out with something that positive and not mean it.

I agree with this! I don't see any reason for her to waste time looking you up and sending an encouraging note if it wasn't genuine.

 

Does anyone know what tracks tend to be most competitive? I have no clue which tracks are more or less popular than others (I'm a micro OB applicant).

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I agree with this! I don't see any reason for her to waste time looking you up and sending an encouraging note if it wasn't genuine.

 

Does anyone know what tracks tend to be most competitive? I have no clue which tracks are more or less popular than others (I'm a micro OB applicant).

 

Thanks for the assurance y'all.

 

From what I know, finance and accounting are pretty tough to get into, in terms of quality of applicants . Marketing, OB are difficult in terms of no. of applicants vs the no. of places available. At least this is what i feel.

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I think it's dangerous to compare different fields, or use simple metrics to evaluate that.

 

For example, I've seem some discussions about the quality of applicants, and opinions seem to be very biased. I remember someone saying that applicants in finance often have perfect GMAT quantitative scores while in marketing that's rare, so the quality of applicants in finance is higher than in marketing.

 

But, oftentimes, applicants in finance have perfect quantitative scores with low verbal scores, while applicants in marketing have high scores in both quant and verbal sections. Can people in finance really say their score is better than mine because they are better than me in one section, while I'm better in the other section?

 

So, I think that quality of applicants is very high overall, being hard to tell who are really better. The meaning of quality is different from field to field. In some fields, quality may be associated with strong mathematical background. While in other fields, quality may be associated with prior experience with experiments.

 

I see people making the mistake of misjudging the strength of an applicant just because of a low GMAT score, for example. One of the most successful applicants I have seen here at Urch didn't look that strong if you looked at their profile. Because some strengths are hard to see or evaluate, like the strength of the letters of recommendation.

 

Also, marketing has two clear different tracks (consumer behavior and quantitative marketing), and research interests can be quite narrower than in finance. It's not like marketing applicants compete with all other marketing applicants. Marketing applicants tend to be highly qualified for specific tracks and research interests. So, the number of applicants vs. the number of places available can be a really misleading metric.

 

If there are 100 marketing applicants in total, and you are applying to a quantitative marketing track to do empirical research about salesforce management, you are not competing with 99 marketing applicants. You may be competing against 5 applicants only, but they are all very well qualified for that. Competition for marketing applicants trying to do empirical research about digital marketing is very different from the competition for marketing applicants trying to do theoretical research about pricing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

Can someone please elaborate on what is to be expected in the interviews? I have probed across multiple forums but haven't been able to get something concrete.

 

I do understand that it would involve the basic, "Why PhD", "Why us", "Why now" and some check into the stuff mentioned in CV/SOP. But what bothers me is how deep do they probe us on our research interests? Do we need to read research papers and be able to stay on top of work done thus far? Does it involve answering questions such as "Where would you get the data from? What kind of data? Discuss some paper?" I am an MBA so exposure to research has been limited hence answering above questions would require extensive time to be devoted.

 

Any help in the form of a link or elaborate response from you good Samaritans is appreciated.

 

Happy New Year, and hope we may get the schools that best suit us!

 

PS: PhD in Finance applicant

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Hey, I got the access as well. Do we need to fill out financial documentation right now? Isn't it something that should come up after we've been extended an offer? Also, they are asking for transcripts to be mailed NOW? Again, strange. They mentioned on the admissions website that it's needed only after offer.

 

Would you have any idea in this regard?

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Hey, I got the access as well. Do we need to fill out financial documentation right now? Isn't it something that should come up after we've been extended an offer? Also, they are asking for transcripts to be mailed NOW? Again, strange. They mentioned on the admissions website that it's needed only after offer.

 

Would you have any idea in this regard?

 

I am super confused, because on their website it says

 

Graduate students can access Atlas after they have been initially admitted into their program and the department forwards the application to OIA for final review.

 

And I am not sure whats going on. Surely they wont extend an offer so soon. I submitted my application on 15th Dec. Its way too early. Also, no interviews. I have mailed the admissions office. Lets see.

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