evergreen

Consulting firms will hire business PhDs for the reputational boost. Research firms will hire PhDs that have specific methods skills they're looking for, or for client-facing leadership roles. Lots of data science roles as mentioned above. Think-tanks and government research roles will also hire a fair number of PhDs. In my experience, you need to find specific opportunities that are specifically looking for that PhD. If an employer doesn't have experience hiring PhDs in the past, they're likely going to be wary or not understand the value that a PhD brings to the table.

Assuming you've taught a wide array of accounting courses, you could say something like as you were prepping for "advanced accounting class" you were doing some research into xyz accounting issue and you got intrigued by it, and it led you down the rabbit hole of research. Then you can transition it into the types of accounting research you're interested in, and how you want to approach research etc. .. In the process of researching for your courses, you reached out with current professors that you know, and one thing led to another and talking with them really ignited your passion for the latest and greatest academic research in accounting. Basically, use your life experiences (as Rando has said) to paint a narrative and tell a compelling story (you've already painted some of it in your previous post, you just need to expound on it)

5 years of research assistant, 3 research articles, and presenting at an INFORMS marketing conference are all very good. However working against you, is your GRE scores (I just checked and your verbal is about 68th percentile) Plus, where did you do your schooling? Was it in the USA? If so, what type of institution? Now, the number one red flag that comes up when I look at your profile are your dream schools, since you say you want to do CB. Emory and Georgia Tech are quant schools. Were you able to find people at those schools which do consumer neuroscience (a relatively niche area to begin with)? To get an idea of where to apply, you should be reading consumer neuroscience articles which interest you, and then find out where the authors are located. Since this area is relatively small, you should be able to go through most of the literature and get to know everyone in the field.

Also not in fenance, but will offer my 2 cents. Your test score is decent, and your undergrad GPA will hurt you. Your masters looks like it's doing a lot to help your profile. It looks like you have some good math courses there, and an interesting finance related thesis. Hopefully you'll have a 4.0 GPA in grad school, or as close to that as you can get, this will help to alleviate the concerns about your undergrad GPA. It's nice that you have some programming experience. If your "absolutely stellar" and "pretty good" recommendation letters are from productive academics in finance, then that will really strengthen your profile. I think you'd have a decent shot at middle tier programs but just like Xanthus, I'm not in finance, and as a result, have no real clue (so you really shouldn't put any weight on what I'm saying).

Zero impact. Schools don't even ask for your PhD grades, let alone your undergrad grades.

If you want to go quant track, you're going to need to score a 50 on the GMAT quant section. Unfortunately, a 55% quant, applying to quant marketing, is not going to do well in any adcom's eyes. It's already iffy if you're going for CB, but it becomes a huge red flag if you want to do quant. Maybe if you've taken PhD Micro and PhD Econometrics from a Top 10 school in Economics, and scored an A, you could alleviate the concerns about your quantitative abilities, but short of that, I don't see how you can offset a bad GMAT quant score. Edit: I wanted to add that scoring a 50 on the GMAT Quant section would be a necessary but not sufficient condition for admission. You would need to couple that high test score with a solid background in mathematical courses and economics courses which show you have the background to pass all the 1st year courses and qualifying exams as well. And then all the usual stuff we talk about in this forum like having strong letters of recommendation etc.

I assume that the OP wants the MA in Econ as prep for either Business Econ, Finance or Accounting, in which case, I think any good econ MA would be good preparation. Then they should check out the PhD in Economics as the topic of which MA Econ programs in Canada has been discussed a LOT (just do a search). For Queen's placements (across all disciplines): https://smith.queensu.ca/grad_studies/MSC/careers.php

At the bigger programs (in terms of prestige and faculty size) it probably doesn't matter if you tailor or not for the first few cuts, since there will be plenty of people to work with. You still might get points if everything else is equal to another candidate (ie. same grades, test scores, and research experience), then fit becomes the deciding factor and tailoring could definitely give you that last point boost. At the smaller programs (small in terms of faculty, smaller in terms of funding, and a smaller PhD program) then fit becomes of paramount importance, because it's up to the individual faculty to step up and say they see a good fit between themselves and a particular candidate.

You don't have to start with the generic statement. Most people start that way, others start with a quote that inspired them, or some anecdote which is also illustrative of why they want to do this/captures attention. Just explain what you have, the RA experience and what you did, and the coursework and what that covered. Don't need to put strong labels such as 3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE. It's the quality of experience that matters. Ie. 6 months of RA experience actually helping in experimental design will be better than 2 years just sitting in the lab collecting data to which you're blind to the hypotheses. Good luck!

You can start here: Search by Journal, University, Author and Article - Naveen Jindal School of Management - The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings Edit: Oh you meant of the PhD program not the overall program. Most programs in business are tiny. But your best bet is to look at placements (usually accessible on the website)

Even in the case of the former, the questions tend to be the same (ie. What percentile would you rank the student academically (top 1%, top 10%, top 25% top 50%), describe their research potential etc.) Lots of the case of the latter too.

@tutonic, I'm not going to speak specifically to Behavioral Accounting since I know very little about it. But in general, you should not assume you can just switch into something right after you graduate (some have done it with great success, but there's no need for anecdotal evidence). If you go the academic route, you are going to be on a tenure clock and that creates enormous pressure. You are not going to have the luxury of time for learning something new (and a whole new field no less). The luxury of learning part was your doctoral studies.

@youngi You have a great GMAT score I assume your undergrad score is good (it looks low by american standards, but it could be tough grading) so as long as you can explain that your GPA in undergrad was ranked near the top, that will be good. Your research experience doesn't sound that great, it's better if you talk about your research in a big picture sense. Ie. in terms of projects that you're working on, or things you contributed to, for a professor. You don't need a working paper to apply, admission committees just need to see the glimmer of potential from you. So if you have ongoing projects that would definitely be glimmer worthy. I'm assuming in your mphil, you took statistic, psychology, and research method courses? The fact that you have doctoral courses that you did well in, in a good signal! So, I think your profile is quite good. The reference letters are key, but they don't need to be from super famous professors (obviously that would help, but it's not a necessary requirement). They just need to shed light on your future potential as a researcher. So as long as they can have you come across as a promising, bright candidate, then you will do well. I think applying to 20+ schools is really good. Apply widely and broadly. Good luck! Edit: I just saw that you wrote your undergrad GPA was low (then you say 30-40% -- does that mean you were in the top 30%?). Not the best signal, but it is slightly mitigated by your grad GPA and the fact that you can handle doctoral level courses.

Even if not interested in PhD, post in PhD in Economics to get more responses.

Your dream schools are big brands in marketing, so you are definitely setting your sights high. I will echo what everyone (and especially Xanthus) said. Your GRE score is super low and will cause desk reject at all the schools you listed (your writing score is not going to balance it out). Take a look at the average GMAT/GRE scores for all the schools you're interested in. You want to be around that range (and even better is if you're above that range -- especially given your low GPA). Now, because your GPA is a bit on the lower end of the average GPA of people who get accepted at these prestigious programs, you will need an even higher GRE or GMAT test score to show that you can do well on the coursework. Your research experience on the other hand, is fantastic. So if I were you, I would get that score up, and also apply broadly across the Top 30, and I think contingent on a better test score, you will have a good chance getting in somewhere! Good luck!