AppleAndOrange

If you honestly believe that both of you want to be with each other long-term, you will find a way to make things work out if you go for your PhD. My wife is in medical school in a different state and my first year in a doctoral program has been harder because of that. Still, in the long run, sacrifices can strengthen your relationship. By going through it together, by pursuing an outcome that is beneficial for your own and collective self development, you will both be comforted by the fact that you made the tough choice and succeeded in spite of it. Classic dissonance. My advice to you is to assess your relationship fully. If, as you suggest, he is not entirely supportive of you and is as selfish as he comes across, then I would go with what DoingFine says and break up. If he really is genuine, then you two can have a talk and realize that things can work out. Simply fly back and forth every month and speak to each other a few times a day. It can definitely work out.

The evidence does not bear this statement out. 10 out of 16 faculty members at UMN are from Big 10 schools and the others (barring 2 from Wharton) are from schools across the T50. To the OP: I had the same questions as you floating through my head last year. The truth is, focus most on "fit" with students and who your adviser is. If the better adviser for you is at a higher ranked school, then your decision is easy. If a lower ranked school feels like more of a match, go with that intuition 100%. Rest assured, you will be much better off at a place where you are comfortable, and the relationship between comfort and rankings is not clear.

My advice is to find someone in person that you can complain to, preferably another grad student in a different department. Grad school is hard, and it is super easy to feel overwhelmed or frustrated. Airing your grievances to someone feels good, and since they're not in your area you won't feel bad about showing your vulnerability and s/he might appreciate doing the same with you. Quitting is premature in your first year. While much of the conventional wisdom about getting a PhD speaks to perseverance, I would add the importance of a sense of humor. If you can step back a little bit, observe yourself in a "meta" way, the whole exercise of academia is kind of ridiculous and really funny. You're not going to understand everything, and you're not going to be the best, but you can make it through by accepting that fact and just going with the flow. I mean, at the end of the day, think of how sweet this gig is. First-world problems amigo. Just suck it up and laugh. You'll be fine.

No worries. No CBers are coming. They were waiting to figure things out and decided to go with just one quant student.

Your first statement may reflect the market to some extent, but it may also reflect the candidate. Assuming a baseline of potential and qualifications, the candidate who is nicer, more pleasant, and more generally agreeable to be around will get the offer. One candidate on the market this year had an A- pub with a few in the works and got a number of top offers. Another candidate was ridiculously qualified, many As, but was kind of a DB. Didn't get offers. You do raise some interesting issues surrounding tenure. It may change in terms of what is required to maintain adequate standing. I think, however, that it is very unlikely that it will disappear altogether.

Being a business academic has to be one of the best jobs in the world. No matter what we're doing, it is somehow 'work-relevant'. Our "job" (I'm in marketing-CB) is to think of experiments, attend talks, lunches, and conferences, and write some papers. Depending on the content, even teaching comes with slides from the textbook publisher, online supplements, quiz banks, lecture suggestions, etc. For me, the most desirable aspect is flexibility: how to use time, what ideas to generate , & projects to pursue. Next comes scalability (to borrow from Taleb)...think of one good idea, there are several papers waiting to be written. (Not that it's easy to think of them, but lots of upfront investment leads to exponential returns). Next comes money. $140k starting isn't too shabby. Then tenure. It generally takes 6 'A' articles to get it at an R1. In what other field can you do 6 projects and be guaranteed a job for life? Plus, the per project payoff divided by a lifetime of earnings ((25 years X $140k)/6) is $583,000 per project. Not a bad ROI. So, I guess the moral is: keep this to yourself. Don't tell anyone about this career. Especially those people over in social psych!!

Very good point. For marketing, even among CB schools, each is known for very different things (JDM, social psych, etc.). To the OP: One important goal for you should be to personally assess what benefits you hope to derive from an "elite" placement, both in grad school & as an assitant professor. If you have good reasons (i.e. people, research match, location) for choosing one over another, then so be it. There are numerous examples of elite graduates fizzling out and lower ranked grads making the so-called "upward jump", and one should go wherever one can work hard & have a group of supportive colleagues. If you do amazing research, which includes being proactive & forming sincere working relationships, you WILL find yourself in a very nice position.

You're right. Thank you.

As things stand, no model will ever give us any information that we don't already know. If two people on here are willing to do everything identically, while one takes credit for the pubs and the other refuses to be named, we could determine the effect of 1/infinite IVs. Everyone has already given the answers: pubs, advisor, friends, school, awards, interviewing skills, type of research, etc.

I'm heading to Ohio State. :)

Agree with minirex. Research is most important (evidenced by SOP & letters), & then GMAT. Definitely retake the test and aim to get above 700. Reach out to your teaching colleagues and offer your services for research. If this isn't feasible, try to reach out to other professors. There are a number of people on this forum who are older than the typical applicant and have been successful in getting a position, adstatus among them. Perhaps you could PM them to ask about specifics.

Good question Soheyl. We've probably all thought about this. If we're assuming (as was stated by Bloomsbury) that you have multiple strong research fits, and that each person is equally friendly/capable of mentoring, choose whatever option will make your collaborating network as broad as possible. Based on this, I'm in favor of assistant professors. By partnering with junior faculty (as your primary advisor), you can benefit from their incentivized work ethic & still leave open the possibility of being on familiar terms with more seasoned veterans. This does not work as easily the other way around. Plus, junior faculty have the advantage of being new to the scene; most likely, he/she will have close ties with one or more of their own advisors, which opens you up to collaborations (not just introductions) with them, their friends, and so on. From a value-added perspective, you can make the most difference in the research of a newcomer. Their reputation is partly based on the success of their grad students, and you can actually help them (and help yourself as well) by producing top quality research as a student. When these newcomers become seniors, the bond from having been on the "ground floor" with them might lead to great things.

On campus- Pros: close, safe, all-inclusive (internet & utilities), live with other graduate students. Cons: small (twin x-long bed!), seems juvenile, subject to hall bureaucracy. Off campus- Pros: "get away" from campus, large, cheap, appropriate for age. Cons: uncertain management, may require car, solitude is too easy, separate bills for everything (internet contract/electricity/etc.). What is everyone else going to do? Any advice?

Just curious if anyone checks out particular blogs/feeds, PhD websites, or subscribes to helpful listserves. Please add your suggestions. (To get started, here's some you might find interesting for marketing). Marketing Society for Consumer Psychology: Main Marketing Research - Knowledge@Wharton Kellogg Insight | Kellogg School of Management | Browse Neuromarketing | Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet Dan Ariely JDM-society listserv. MRKT-PHD listserv (DocSIG)

Thanks everyone. All great feedback. I have decided to go with school C, actually, which is unfair to you all because that wasn't part of the question. Still, I'm taking your advice and going with my gut--the one with the research fit & great potential for mentoring. So excited. And to everyone still waiting for a response, hang in there. 2 spots have been freed up, & there is always hope until the very end. Keep your heads up friends.