nosaed

I'm 39, 760 GMAT, very good lors from 3 rsh active professors - all full+, etc... 17 applications, 3 flyouts, 2 admits. That may give you some idea about age being a factor (my target schools may have played a part as well :). One admit was to (what I believe is) a t10 in my field. PM me if you'd like to discuss further.

Only about once a day :) Seriously, I'm with you on everything falling into place. Everything is in line for me to be successful - and I "just" have to be certain that I show up every day. Which, quite frankly, shouldn't be much of a problem given that I'm finally in a position in life to do what I love! Have a great weekend kayaking!

Why would you do a MAcc and not a MS-Economics? I realize I'm running counter to the prevailing view on this board that UGPA is all-important, BUT - and this is just my personal experience from talking with professors - a MS-Econ, Math or Stats trumps an extremely low UGPA... assuming you do it at a good program AND keep a 3.6+GPA AND score well on the GMAT (you got in Duke, so I'll assume you "test well" in general...). That said, I do not believe a high MBA or MAcc or any other professional terminal degree GPA carries very much relative weight.

You have a BBA, so find a one-year MBA program. You could probably get in this year and, assuming you like the fall, you could apply for PhD programs the following year...of course, you'd have to move quickly and get involved with some research active faculty in order to get LORs in...have you taken the GMAT and/or what is your UGPA? Alternatively, Iowa and Wisc have good PhD programs, and Minn is solid, so if you go to one of those schools and impress the faculty then there's a non-zero probability you could get accepted for one of their PhD programs. Just be strategic...

Your answers in brief: #1: Masters. #2: Yes. That's equivalent to a 2.72 grad GPA and, assuming N(3,1), that 61% puts your undergrad at 3.28 while N(2,1) puts it at 2.28. So say a 2.78 or so. The consistency is laudable, but I’m not certain it sends the message you want to send to an AdComm. You need to improve your academic profile. Find a very rigorous MS-Econ or MS-Math and be absolutely certain to come out of that program with all of the following at a minimum: 1. At LEAST a 3.5GPA 2. A very solid research-intensive thesis and 3. Incredible LORs. Then go and score at least a 720 on the GMAT with a solid/high (48+) Q score. Your priors demonstrate a lack of focus - quite frankly, working on four research papers reinforces that impression. I'm assuming you've followed rsaylors advice (it's ALMOST always spot on). I'm just teasing rsaylors (you helped me quite a lot last year!). Back to the question, you do need to read the literature. Pay special attention to the level of mathematical rigor. This isn't a field for the mathematically challenged (or even the just "sort of good"). On the other hand, you're obviously interested enough to find and then post to this board. I'm definitely not attempting to be discouraging, just to help you get to the best program fit for you. There can never be too many people out there who love doing business research and, if that's your passion, then you'll find a way to make it work whatever it takes. Good Luck!

First of all, we're in fairly similar boats (I’m 39 – and plan on staying that age for the next 5 years). Congrats on overcoming the age barrier! Cool that you have a supportive spouse; mine is as well and she's been simply awesome...and no, I don't think she's reading this – at least I hope not :) jk On to the MBA question. Some places it buys you instant “student in advanced standing” status. Which at my school doesn’t get me anything, but at some schools it buys you an additional plug for your stipend. I leave you to find out if that applies and do the DCF analysis… One thing to consider is the prestige of your current parent university…if you want the name somewhere on your resume, then do it. If you just want an MBA, many PhD programs will award you one upon completion of your comps – this would be especially true if you just have a few classes to finish. I’d guess that it wouldn’t hurt to ask them – maybe you can complete it while in residency just doing your PhD classes and having them count. Finally, if I didn’t already have mine, I would spend the summer doing what I’m doing anyway…which is: getting prepped for the fall semester (MathCamp, Micro and Research Methods) classes and reading pertinent research in my area. Good Luck!!!

TraderJoe does this explaination much more justice than I could...and that's generally where I was trying to go. Thanks!

Ahhh...just found out that CMU does.

I have to assume your reference to qualifying exams (i.e. those directly following the first year) is to the Econ-like micro and macro Quals which precede the Field exams (which we term Comps). From my pre-app. research, having to take the Econ Quals actually appears to be most prevalent in the middle tier of schools (25-50) rather than at the top universities (that’s NOT to say some top universities don’t have them, obviously from the above comments NW does). For instance: Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, Berkeley, Emory, Northwestern (I just looked it up and NW calls them quals - for my area - but they also note that they are field exams), Duke, etc. In other words, I can’t find a top-20 school that requires other than the field exam…Could you clarify please??? And no, I've never heard of a top school (this being in business, this is obviously not true in Econ) not giving someone a second try at Field/Quals/Comps...

phdhope: Apologies that I wasn't clear; I only meant to imply that the "tools" courses are the same among the three disciplines. The research is quite different. OP: Certainly you couldn't do much, if any, work in accounting. I'll caveat that by saying... without significant additional training (eg taking the two years of seminars plus at least another 6 courses) and you'd have a difficult time in corporate finance with just an Econ PhD. That said, some forms of asset pricing would be easily within your reach and you might have access to seminars in either corp or asset. Do what you think is best but know you're most likely going to piss off the Econ dept. Overall I have to say that I think it's a pretty poor idea. Therefore I also second rsaylors' post...

There are a few schools that offer programs leading to a JD/PhD. Columbia and Northwestern come to mind. I'd take a look at the type of research those programs prepare their graduates to pursue and then think about whether or not that fits with my interests.

It's hard for any school to beat UCLA in finance (I can think of...oh...about 5 right off the top of my head) while UCSD has and continues to build a fantastic Econ department...so it's really going to be what you want to study. If it's behavioral economics, then why don't you choose the school where there are 2+ professors that are willing to work with you asap in areas where you're interested? Personally, I'd choose UCLA over UCSD. Either way I doubt you can go wrong.

Don't know what exactly you're hearing, but Econ PhDs are a large component of many top school's finance departments. Econometrics (and Economics) are such a major part of Finance and Accounting (and probably many other Bus disciplines as well) that the differences in the core tools classes are going to be minimal (and you can make up any deficiencies through electives). Look for an Econ department that is housed in the B-school (as a few of the older forum folks once advised me to do) and you should be ok. That all said, I'm not certain your premise is correct in that it may be easier to get into an Econ PhD program, but it certainly is not easier to survive. Business doctoral programs primarily do their weeding out on the front end while Econ doctoral programs do theirs a bit later (all this being generally true - like in a regression analysis :)).

I'm glad you found the post helpful. Assuming that just appeared to be, but wasn't actually, a spammy link, pm it to me. I'm always interested in research...if it is spam though, please refrain :). Best of luck on your project! Nosaed.

Emory! But then, I'm biased :)