Piparoo

Hi RR, None of the programs that I applied for, and the one that I'm currently in, would be considered top 25. That may make a difference in the sorts of responses you get from faculty on the issue of age/family. With that in mind, I can tell you that the program I eventually settled upon (Alabama) has been perfect for an older student with family like myself. The professors are all understanding of the additional personal responsibilities, which is nice, but they end up giving us all the same amount of work regardless of our personal lives! To your questions, my response when asked what took me so long was to talk about the development of my academic and professional careers. I talked about my undergrad degree, how I was not as dedicated as I would have liked, and then talked about my life in business-emphasizing the path which led me to pursue my masters. Both of those bits were brief, I spent the most time responding to that question discussing my masters preparation and my discovery during that program that I was very interested in a career in research, wrapping up with the supportive comments I received from my masters faculty on my choice to pursue a PhD. I'm not sure what impact my age has on me being a graduate student. As I mentioned above it may definitely have a negative impact at some of the most competitive programs as faculty may be concerned about how many productive years you will have. That said, I can tell you that I'm older than one of my advisors and about the same age as a number of the other faculty members, but surprisingly I'm not the oldest one in my cohort. Personally, the age thing is not a big deal for me. I have a young daughter and a wife and I was more concerned about sharing that information with the admissions committee than anything else. I'm not sure what to say about the advantages or disadvantages to having a family while doing a PhD program. I can tell you that there's a Glick et al. article in Journal of Organization Behavior from 2007, "Making a life in the field of organization science" that flat out says you can't get a PhD with spouse or kids. It may be worth a read as I remember it may address gender and maternity as well. My experience so far has been pretty positive though. I can say that the majority of the PhD students, at least in management and marketing, in our program are married. I'd say maybe 15-20% have kids. Regarding the stories, I try to imagine every likely question that I'm going to be asked during an interview and then develop a flexible but articulate story response that answers the question, is brief but has a beginning middle and end, always trying to end on a high point. Obviously, some questions don't require that type of response and if I'm ever not sure, I usually aim to say less. I didn't ask about the number of journal pubs I wanted, I formed that as a portion of my response to the question I thought I would be asked about what are your plans during and after grad school. Signaling a research agenda during the interview process is very important. I think having an idea of what you're interested in and with whom you'd like to work are very important, but more basic than that, telling ad coms that your primary goal in doing a PhD is to do research and publish signals strongly that you know what the PhD is all about and are motivated to be successful. I hope some of this helps. Best of luck to you!

Institution: Alabama Program: Management OB Decision: Admitted Funding: $25k Notification date: 03/07 Notified through: Email Posted on Grad Cafe: Yes Comments: Great fit, faculty and facilities. I'm headed to Tuscaloosa!

Institution: Ole Miss Program: Management OB Decision: Admitted Funding: $11k Notification date: 02/17 Notified through: Email Posted on Grad Cafe: Yes Comments: Young energetic faculty, enjoyed interview, declined offer

Looks like, according to UT Dallas rankings, that UT San Antonio has a lot more publications than S. Florida. So, assuming your research interests fit equally with the faculty at both schools, my nod would go to San Antonio. Do you have a preference on where you want to live?

First thing, don't give up on that PhD if, after doing some soul searching, it still feels right. You applied to all high powered programs. I think what most people would advise is to cast a wider net next time around when you applying. If you can afford it, it seems the most successful strategy even for the most exceptional applicants. I'm not in your field so I can't offer advice on specific preparation but what I can say is that I wouldn't put your desire to teach in your SOP. A PhD is a research degree. You need to do everything you can to demonstrate that you will be seriously committed to research and knowledge creation. I'll hasten to add that many PhDs love to teach. I'm not saying you shouldn't love to teach when getting your PhD. You just need to be careful of how you would articulate to an adcom your desire to teach. I'd suggest not bringing it up at all. Good luck!

This is an anxious time for every applicant, I know. Have you considered contacting the department or graduate school office at both universities? I find that the secretaries are usually pretty nice. I would ask them at ASU is there is a typical time frame for when they make decisions and notify applicants. Likewise with Auburn. As far as applying to other programs, I think you can find a number of schools that do rolling applications. Since you're already looking in the South, have you taken a look at University of Alabama - Huntsville? From what I've heard their CS department is pretty good. Good luck

I'm assuming he's talking about Organizational Behavior here (micro). The other area of focus for a management PhD is Strategy (macro)

I say go for it. Depending on length of the paper it should take a few hours to read, reread and digest, maybe less. Then another few hours to write a response unless they're expecting a thorough evaluation of the quant stuff. Of course, I'm an OB guy so my comments may not be as relevant for an accounting paper. But what choice do you really have anyway? If you want to go there I'd say go for it! Good luck!

Just a comment about this. One of my graduate professors offered a bit of advice on this point. She said, "You can absolutely do a PhD with the main goal of teaching, just don't ever mention that to your adcoms or program faculty." Others here may disagree but I think that's solid advice. Good Luck!

You're right. i sent in all of my applications in mid-september. My Stats- Bad undergrad GPA from large Midwestern state school 4.0 masters (MBA) GPA from smaller Southern state school GRE - 1430 (about 700-710 GMAT equivalent) some graduate research experience but no publications A note about Wyoming's timing - Both of my interviews with their faculty have been in the last two weeks, after the deadline. Have you heard anything from them yet?

Good comments so far. I've been on 5 interviews in the last few weeks an would agree with most of what's been said. Let me echo some of the earlier comments about asking when they're going to make a decision. I see absolutely no problem with this. I simply asked, when it seemed the interview was wrapping up, "when do you anticipate making a decision?" A couple of times the interviewer revealed some very important information in response to this question, aside from the date. They've told me how many other applicants they're bringing/talking to and when. They've also said at a couple of different schools, "we expect to complete the process by x date but I feel confident that you can expect an offer by ___" I agree with the basic questions Why PhD in ___? Why here? What are your research interests? What faculty members would you like to work with? What are your plans after graduating/ in X years? Since I'm an older applicant (36) I was asked Why do you want to do a PhD now? I was also asked about my family and marital situation In preparing for my interviews I found it very useful to read/reread at least one recent article from every faculty member I was interviewing with. I don't think that faculty mind if you can genuinely say, "I was reading your article on this and it got me thinking about some questions I'm interested in pursuing" I developed stories for all of the interview questions I anticipated. This technique has always been useful for me professionally and academically. Without going on too long I find that having natural sounding story answers prepared is really helpful for me in being concise, consistent and knowing what not to say and when to stop talking. One more thing. I think it's super important to get an idea of how much the professor likes to hear themselves talk as soon as you can in the interview. With those kinds of professors, I think you can simply say a few things early on that make them realize you are a good candidate and then let them go on and talk. With those kind of people I felt it was important to use some of the time they gave me for questions to hit some more of my good points that we haven't yet covered. For example, they will ask if you have any questions. I might say, "One of my goals is to have X publications in A journals during my PhD program, do you think that sounds about right?" Good Luck!

I applied to Wyoming in marketing because I liked their focus on sustainability. So far I've had two positive interviews with different professors there.

My experience as well. I'll be 37 in the fall and have already had an admit (in OB) from adcom and feel really positive about the interviews I've had with the other two schools I applied to. Only one faculty member asked "Why do you want to do a PhD now?" and I was already well prepared for that question.

Thanks for all the great comments on this. They've been really helpful. As a related question, do most programs provide an office computer for their PhD students?

I know that many of us are in the midst of waiting right now so I thought I'd ask about something somewhat less serious but still important. Also, I'm not trying to start any fanboy fights. So anyway, I'm really hoping to be in a program this fall. If I get in, do you think it's a bad plan to get a mac for my school work? The past year or so my family has been moving away from PCs but we do have one older one around just in case there are compatability problems. We need to get some new computers. I'm obviously not super familiar with all the ins and outs of macs but I'm wondering if the same statistical programs will work for it as a pc and likewise presentation and document software. Thanks.