myun

Erin, you are keeping up a good job, and I am sure that this forum and your web page full of info will help more and more people in coming years, as it helped me. I am doing fine with my studies (mostly course work for now), and I am enjoying my life here. This is perhaps nothing new, but in the first one or two years, the course work + qualifying exams keep everyone busy. I should say that the course work is pretty demanding, especially coupled with teaching assistant duties. For instance, the GPA has to be kept at above 3.5 just to stay in the school, and getting a C even in one class is unacceptable. Fortunately, most students here have no trouble with the grade requirements. I will start looking into a research problem hopefully this quarter, and I am looking forward to it. Although I don't remember the exact number, there were about 700 applicants this year, but the total number was slightly lower than last year. I wonder if it was because of the prospect of economic upturn. I don't know how many actually got the admission offers, but my guess would be around 30, I further guess that around 50% of them would end up accepting the offer.

First of all, you should check if Anderson got your application. If they had, you would most likely have received an acknowledgement notice already. If you never got any acknowledgement, you should check with Anderson doctoral office. Secondly, if your applications are correctly processed, but if you still have not heard from them to this date (3/26), that may mean that you are either (1) not accepted or (2) put on a waiting list; they usually make admission decisions early enough so that the admittees have weeks to decide before 4/15. On the other hand, it may just be that there is a significant postal delay. Either way, you should call up the doctoral office to find out for sure. Good luck.

Hi long time no see! I am a PhD student in B & Management. I wanted to share with you an interesting article in Businessweek. Should interest those interested in research in Econ or Business area. The article basically tells you that PhDs in Business and Management are in short supply unlike in any other fields. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_09/b3872103_mz056.htm Good luck!

Oops, I missed the most important site :D: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/programs/ms-phd/adm/faqs.htm

For those interested in PhD programmes in B-schools, here is a list of sites which quote the admin stats from some of the toptier Bschools: http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Phd/apply_1.html http://www-1.gsb.columbia.edu/doctoral/admissions/faqs.html http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/phd/phd_facts.html http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/doctoral/faqs/index.html http://www.stern.nyu.edu/phd/admissions/stats/ http://www.kellogg.nwu.edu/doctoral/apply/statistics.htm http://www.hbs.harvard.edu/doctoral/admissions/index.html As you can see, a couple of them do not give the actual numbers and half of them do not mention the average GPAs. But they all seem to share similar profiles; in fact, the admission statistics (of scores) does not seem to vary much from one school to another, although there is occasional deviation (probably within a standard deviation, i.e., statistically not meaningful) since ALL of them enroll only about 15 to 30 students per year out of 600 to 1000 applicants. Again, there are many other factors that are hidden behind the statistics, and the high GPA and GMAT scores alone is not enough in most cases although there is a general correlation between competitiveness and the GPA/GMAT scores. I would assume that high GPA/GMAT works as an eye-catcher for admission committee, but after that, the decision depends on other non-quantitative quality of the applicants such as SOP/reference letters/research potential. Hope that helped.

I get the feeling that the info session will just be an info session, and nothing more or nothing less, especially if they do not have your full application. I have been to an informational interview held by a representative at Stern PhD programme, and it was what it was: an informational interview, which is pretty remote from the actual application process. Its impact on the admission decision was supposed to be minimal if any. Even though it was an informal interview, everyone who came for the interview had a formal dress. My feeling is that the attendants at the interview overdressed, considering that it had little effect on their admission. I for one dressed casually, and I don't think anyone minded. But of course, MBA sessions may have a different dress code -- after all, PhD students are routinely notorious slobs and well-known for underdressing. :D

I wonder if you guys have read this article. It looks kind of discouraging, especially for me who is about to get into a B-school although I am not going for an MBA. My question here is, does anybody notice the drop in the MBA admission standards this year? This article seems to imply that it may have been easier to get into an MBA programme this year. Now this is another critical reasoning question. The evidence is that there is 30% drop in the number of applicants; if you assume that the distribution of quality of applicants remains the same as in the previous years, then you may conclude that it should have been easier to get into an MBA programme. Any comments? JULY 14, 2003 (From BusinessWeek) http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_28/b3841053.htm As the likelihood of a hot job fades, so does the MBA's allure Recessions usually are good for business schools. Applications flood into such august institutions as the Wharton School, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, and Stanford University as the young and talented of the corporate world opt to hide out in graduate school, earn an MBA, and emerge when jobs are plentiful again. For the first two years of the current downturn that pattern largely held. But this year, business school is suddenly less of a draw. Applications for the B-school Class of '05 -- the students who will hit the books this fall -- have fallen by as much as 30% at some top schools compared with last year. The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, for example, has received 27% fewer applications for the autumn term than it did in 2002. ... (More on the website http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_28/b3841053.htm)

hi majid, I don't know much about MBA admission. But in case of PhD in business and management, you would be better of having had a strong background in econ + math with high grades in these subjects. I feel that the info you gave is not enough for me to make a suggestion on the kind of schools you should shoot for. But if you want to see the range of schools purely based on your GPA against the average GPA of admitted PhD students, then you should see the individual websites of the schools and look for the admission stats there, or look up some book on Bschool admission stats. Beware that PhD stats are not easily available, but they are normally higher than MBA stats and very competitive. For eg, admitted students at toptier B-schools routinely have average undergrad GPA somewhat higher than 3.5 and graduate GPA even higher! And I can only believe that their econ and math average GPA's are significantly higher than that. BUT then again these are simple stats, and there may be a wide spectrum of admitted students there, and it depends on the specialisation and your research experience + referece letters and of course GMAT score. Good luck!

majid, as I said before, your work experience will probably not affect your chance to get into a PhD programme, but your MBA transcript + research experience + recommendation letters will. For MBAs, I think I heard that part-time experience does not count in the admission process. As to your actual chance to get into a PhD programme in the US, that depends on lots of things, especially what levels of schools you want to apply to...

hi majid, you are young with lots of potential! As far as I know, toptier B-school in USA would want you to have a few years work experience before you apply to their MBA programmes. Other than that, I don't know much about MBA admission process. When it comes to PhD programmes, you don't need work experience, but a prior graduate degree (MS or MBA) with a focus on quantitative subjects would be a plus. Of course, there is a big difference between MBA and PhD; PhD is for academic research/teaching.

I think you have potential to get into internationally competitive schools. But of course it depends on too many things--what specialty you are shooting for, how strong your recommendation letters are, or even whether you are shooting for economics dept or B-schools. My impression was that econ depts are very competitive, and top econ schools routinely require strong econ background plus strong mathematics including real analysis. I could be mistaken though. You may have a fair chance at top business schools, but it may depend on what specialty you want to do. My feeling is that if you raise your gre score on verbal to 90th percentile, then you definitely have a good chance to get into toptier Bschools (meaning that the top Bschools will not have obvious reason to reject you up front based on your stats), assuming there is no other red flag in the other aspect of your application package. Ideally, all your gre scores should be at or above 90th percentile. If you are from an EU school, you may have a much better chance at INSEAD or LBS than US schools of comparable quality.

taotao, Sorry I misled you in my previous post. My comment on MS degrees applies to almost all other disciplines as well. For eg, even in MS prgrams in computer science, you are generally not likely to get much financial support. You may still ask if it is still easier to get one in CS than in B-school, but well... in my opinion, it is like asking whether it is easier to breathe on the moon than on Mars. Such is the case in USA. You have a couple of options: (1) Get into a PhD program with a generous financial support, and drop out of the program after receiving a MS degree. Unless you have a genuine initial intention to finish a PhD, this would be a DISHONEST and dishonourable strategy. If the professors in the phd program find out this strategy, they may be unhappy. (2) Try out schools in other countries. Japan is not the only option here. In Korea, there are a few schools where tuition is free and you get stipend + you don't need to speak Korean.

taotao, I am not sure if you are talking about PhD, MS, or MBA degree. In case of MBA degree, financial aid opportunity is very slim. If you are an international student, you probably won't get any internal financial support. (Not even loans, I think.) MS degree won't give you much chance for financial aid, either. However, if you are talking about a PhD degree, that is a different story. Virtually all PhD students in business schools will get full financial support. That includes tuition, regi fee, and stipend of 15K to 25K per year. In that sense, there is hardly any difference between B-school phd programs and any other science phd programs, except possibly that stipend from B-schools may be higher. Of course, if you are wondering about whether it is more difficult to get into B-schools than other depts of similar discipline, I do not have the answer to that.

I have the impression that if you do well in a school in Korea, you can move to a good US grad school afterwards.

hi, long time no see everyone! I know for a fact that most doctoral/MS programs of business school accept both GRE and GMAT scores. Some programs will tell you that they prefer GMAT over GRE or GRE over GMAT, but in the end they usually accept both. So I believe that you can take either test. In rare cases, some specialties will require GRE only.

Hi, as Erin mentioned, I was applying last year to business schools for an econ-related specialty. Since I was not applying to econ programs per se, I cannot help you much. In the end, I got into a couple of top-tier schools, but it so happened that the programs that accepted me were the ones that did not require economics background, and I got rejections mostly from the ones that explicitly wished students with extensive econ backgrounds. My results are not very strange, considering my econ background: zero! I never took a single course in econ in my life. But I had thought that self-study was good enough, but it really didn't help me much in admission even though I stated in my essays that I DID learn economics by myself. My advice is that (if you do not have enough math background to apply to econ programs now but if you are serious about getting into only top programs) you should consider applying to grad schools after the first-year cycle of the MS program so that you can show your transcripts which include your one year's worth of math courses that you will have taken. One year's delay is really nothing. I also believe that you will automatically be able to get a financial aid if you are accepted at a top program, and that usually covers tuition and living expenses. For eg, ucla grants about 15k as stipends for the grad students in econ. Unless you have some interesting research results to show, contacting professors in advance will not compensate for lack of backgrounds in specific subjects such as math. Also I believe that non-academic work experience does not count much in phd admissions. So I think it is a good option to do well in the MS program and apply to phd programs with better preparation + better gre results. I believe that high GPA is a long-term strength, whereas gre scores can be improved over time. Good luck!

I assume that your dilemma is whether to be honest about your negative aspects in your essay. Of course, you should be honest in your essay. But there is one thing that comes to mind. In the spirit of game theory (rational behaviour of participants in a game), if the rule or the expectation of the schools admit com is that all the applicants should be frank about their negative characters in their essays (for instance, "I am awful at mathematics" or the like), then there will be applicants who take advantage of such expectation and say nothing negative about themselves. In other words, such an expectation or rule will not be an equilibrium point and not tenable because of those who can take advantage of it. In the end, everyone will have noticed such chance of advantage and nobody will be frank about their negative points. In other words, I don't believe that the ad com will expect such a blatant explanation of negative aspects from applicants. On the flip side, if you are unskillfully honest about your negative aspects, it will be a BIG minus for you. It will be better if you state your negative aspects ONLY with a disclaimer that it was or can be overcomed, and explain how it was or will be overcomed. That is just my thought. Good luck with your application!

Erin said: Many of my students have taken courses before applying, but for some reason, this doesn't seem to impress many of the better programs, I guess because they simply have the option of choosing those who already have those courses under their belts. Erin, could you elaborate on your statement above? What would qualify as "under their belts" as opposed to "taken courses before applying"? Thanks.

Erin, I did, in fact. Now I am trying to plan my transition.

After carefully considering my interest and the locations of my future whereabouts, I have almost decided where to go. It will be LA. Thanks for your encouragement and suggestions! Ever since I decided on my career change, I did a lot of things including tedious test preparation while doing my daily job. AND a lot more things lie ahead of me at school. The difference is that it will be the things that I would like to do. :) I think it takes more courage than intelligence alone to pursue this path.

Thank you very much for your congratualtions. I get the feeling that I may get an admission from UCLA, too. I have not yet heard from the other places though.

Hi, long time no see! I am excited to tell you that I just got admitted to INSEAD phd program. :) Much thanks to Erin for this excellent forum.

Hi folks, long time no see. I was too busy with my work (I still have a life before getting into grad school :p ) as well as with my applications. Finally I am submitting an on-line application to one school that has an early deadline. I wanted to ask a question about on-line submission of essays. Actually I am submitting an essay in the text file format rather than in any word-processed form because I figure that text file form is the most generic and is portable in any form of editor. However, I am also supposed to submit my resume/CV; as much as I like to play around with text files, I think it is difficult to make a nicely formatted CV (which is rather long) in the txt form. But I do not want to use MS-word because I feel that it is unreliable, i.e. it sometimes gives different output in different machines. The only reliable form of documents that I know of is PS (postscript) and PDF files. Well, PS file is out of the question because not many people know about it, and most people do not bother to install ghostview in their Windows box. PDF, on the other hand, is a widely used and reliable form of a document, and I believe that most machines have acrobat readers. So I am thinking of submitting (or rather uploading) a PDF form of my CV as an addition academic info in the, what else, "Supplementary Academic Info" entry of the on-line form. My Q: Is it appropriate to upload a PDF file? The instruction says I can choose my "favourite" word processor. But PDF is not a word processor although you can generate a PDF file from any decent word processor. Or should I write a text file? Any thoughts? Personally I think it is a pity that Tex/LaTex has not taken over the world.

1. As an international student and a person who is not good at writing, I want to know whether it is a big problem. Now facing the essay topics, I think I have some good ideas. But to convey them effectively and beautifully is not my strong point. Compared to some essays I have read, I feel very worried and ashamed with my writing. What should I do now? I wonder what your intended field of study is. Does your future studies require you to write beautifully? If not, (if you are applying to chemistry, for eg.) then I think you should focus on writing clearly and effectively rather than beautifully. For one thing, the length limit of the essays practically may not allow you to write beautifully in the first place. The example you gave: "I no longer wanted to hide under the shell of a lethargic tortoise, or act as a pariah, " sounds too extreme. I am not a native speaker of English, but I have lived reading, hearing, writing, and speaking English in the US for 10 years, but not only that it is impossible to write such a sentence, but also that I cannot even understand what that sentence could possibly mean! (Says something about my level of English...) It would be much easier to convey the meaning if you said "I did not want to feel and act shy anymore." or something like that. Obviously my example does not quite cut it, but that is besides the point. You should also consider the fact that a lot of the faculty members (perhaps 50 % or more in physical sciences) in US universities are non-native speakers of English themselves. But I think you need to do your best not to make grammatical or spelling errors. Besides being annoying, grammatical errors often blur the exact meaning of the sentences. Perhaps a much more difficult task would be to compose an essay in "native English." That, probably you cannot help. My guess is that the readers are more forgiving in this respect. In any case, you have to accept the fact that international applicants have relatively less chance to begin with.

So how can I participate the forum on graduate admission essays? Is there a separate board?