eyekayare

Discipline: Operations Management Admission Year: 2014 Test Used for Admittance: GMAT Test Scores: 740T (98%) - 50Q (90%) - 40V (90%) - 6.0W (94%) - 8.0IR (92%) Undergrad GPA: 3.35 (last 60 credits - unrelated business topic) Graduate GPA: 3.74 (MS Supply Chain Management, not an MBA) Industry Experience: 1.5 years as an analyst for a financial services company, 1 summer internship in supply chain management for a manufacturing company Research Experience: Zero. Teaching Experience: 1 year TA for undergraduate/graduate statistics courses, 3 years volunteer tutoring Letters: 3 from MS professors - perhaps 1 was solid, and the other 2 were likely form letters Range/Number of Schools Applied: 11 schools total and, according to UTD with Ops Journals, 1 x T5, 4 x T20, 6 x T50 Offers Given: 3 offers (all T50 - came from only 2 interviews, since I got one offer without an interview), 6 rejects, 1 program cancelled (sad!), 1 withdrawn Final Remarks: I really feel like I was on the precipice of having a fairly strong application. My downfall, I'm thinking, were my letters of recommendation, my undergraduate GPA, and my quantitative background. My undergrad was plagued by not knowing what I wanted to do when I grew up and joining a fraternity. I ended up pulling up my GPA, but it didn't help. Mostly though, I really wish I knew that I was going to pursue a PhD and I would have established three very strong relationships with professors within my Masters program. I was able to earn a TA-ship, but an RA-ship would have behooved me, both in terms of research experience and getting those relationships on track. Lastly, I wish I had more recent math courses. I have tons of calculus, but it's all around 7 years old, and the evidence of my statistics knowledge is only in the TA-ship. I'm currently in a course, but it seems like too little, too late. That being said, I'm REALLY excited to have gotten into the school I'm attending this Fall. It's exactly where I wanted to be.

Has anyone heard anything back from either Florida (ISOM) or UNC (Ops)? I've only gotten radio silence from them, and they're the final two schools I'm waiting on before officially putting everything to rest and accepting an offer.

FF: Florida, Creighton, Michigan State, Louisville Championship Game: Louisville v. Michigan State Champion: Michigan State It pains me to go against m'Gators, but we can only turn it on in the 2nd half so many times. Plus, Sparty is adorable.

Boy oh boy. It seems quieter than I would have expected in March! I happen to be in two post-interview holding patterns with no acceptances, and I think my psyche would appreciate even the slightest hint as to which way they're leaning. I loved them both, so it's tough. I'm wearing my phone out by checking my email every 7 minutes. I did have a question, and since this is the Ops space and we're super geeky over math, I'm going to ask it algebraically: Let x = the number of days a POI said it would take for the committee to decide and then the POI would contact you. In terms of x, how long should I wait before contacting the POI and asking for a status update? If it helps at all, I've already contacted him once for a thank you/interview follow-up and was told that he would be in touch.

That's how I tried to explain it - I estimated 3-ish weeks (mostly just to discuss with the b/f and visit the city with him since I'm cursing him to a half-decade of me reading and writing at my desk while he actually experiences the city), but since it was a pre-offer conversation, I got the feeling that it may be used against me when it's brought to AdCom.

For those of you that have received offers, did you feel a lot pressure from a school to accept an offer around a certain timeline before you actually got the offer?

Well, after seeing this, I was hoping that I would hear word back from ANY school on Friday. Unfortunately, it ended up being my first rejection (Rochester). I probably should have been more specific with my hoping :apple:

Congrats!!!! That's the best way to get the ball rolling, haha.

Institution Name: University of Pittsburgh Concentration: Business Analytics & Operations Date of Notification: 1/29/2014 Type of Notification (e.g. email/phone/snail mail): email from professor Notification (e.g. Interview / Waitlisted / Accepted): Fly out for on-campus interviews Posted on GradCafe?: Not yet! Comments: First contact of the cycle. Exciting!

I'm in this same boat. Ops T-50 schools. I haven't heard anything back from anyone, but almost all of the programs I applied to had mid-January deadlines, so unless they were suuuuper on the ball, I don't expect to have heard back yet. Ergo, no stress! Oh, who am I kidding?! I check my e-mail 100 times a day, and also check my phone to make sure my e-mail is working correctly in case I am outside a 30 foot radius from my laptop. Nothing yet.

Yes I have. I've also been compiling the information and combing through faculty papers to look specifically at the places I could go that mashed up my preferred areas of interest, and that made me feel a bit more at ease that I could have a 4-5 year rumination on these favorite topics within the confines of a B-school. Assuming they allow me to, of course.

Getting thee to a research nunnery (so to speak) This is now something I'm currently sending feelers out on - I understand that it's the area of my application that is both under my control and could stand to be improved upon the most. As far as research while holding down a full-time job is concerned, how likely is it that professors would accept me as a volunteer if I work full-time? I mean, I would be able to take time here and there, but to have research hours in the workweek would be something that I desire, but is infeasible. On that, the local universities in my city do not have a wealth of OM professors. I'm unfortunately may states removed from my alma mater, otherwise I could use some of those relationships. Basically what I'm asking is: Assuming that I would be unable to snag applicable OM research from afar, is the applicability of the research vital to the process? Or is the fact that I have some research unrelated to OM still a boon to my application? I do know professors/dissertators that have offered to let me help with their research from afar, but unfortunately they are contacts from non-business areas (education, math, and mechanical engineering). That person would then pen an evaluation letter for me, but it would not be necessarily apropos to OM.

The main difference between the GMAT and GRE non-quant sections were vocabulary. The vocabulary always tends to ding me on standardized tests (happened on the SAT as well). I didn't study terribly hard for the GRE because I had been told my MS program, for the most part, didn't look at the Verbal score. Also, I think I just wasn't feeling the non-quantitative parts of the test that day. My AWA on the GRE was also fairly low - 3.5, while my AWA on the GMAT was a 6.0. I have no idea why there was such a massive discrepancy between those scores. I mean, it could be that the GMAT was a bit more strategic in topic, whereas the GRE was more broad. It could also be that my testing room was REALLY cold.

It's been established that it's not a tremendously huge aid to my future application, but I rechecked my score report. Something rang true in the above quote. It turns out that I got a 740, not a 720. There still was a 90/90 split, but the overall score was different. This was awesome news to me - it felt like I was just given 20 extra points. I have no idea what made me think 720. It's Friday - does that grant me any leeway? :stupid: My masters was actually a GRE entry (800Q 540V).

What I'm looking for is admission in 2014 for PhD programs in Operations Management/Decision Sciences. I feel like I have kind of a weird profile -- lots of highs and lows. I'm interested to see what y'all think. ----- PROFILE: Age: 26 Undergraduate: Finance degree from a third-tier public school - Undergrad took 7 years to complete (part-time, gaps, and an academic dismissal). My undergrad was plagued by a terrible first year (starting college and living in the dorms at 16 was a mistake) and an average upper division (working full-time and going to school) Undergraduate GPA: 3.37 upper level, ~3.0 overall Graduate: MS in Operations Management/Supply Chain Management from a Top 50 public school Graduate GPA: 3.75 on the nose. I didn't really start applying myself until grad school. It was neat. GMAT: 720 - 90th+ percentile for both Quant and Verbal, 6.0 writing Research Experience: I wish I had some. Teaching Experience: TA for Undergrad Business Statistics for 1 year, TA for Advanced Managerial Statistics for 6 mos. Work Experience: Currently an Ops Analyst for a retail bank, and I will have been at this post for almost a year by the time my apps hit. I also have past internship experience in supply chain/manufacturing. Math Courses: Lots of Statistics, Calculus, DiffEq Research Interests: Operations Management, Revenue Management, Inventory Planning, Demand Planning Letters of Recommendation: 1 will come from the prof for whom I was a TA for Undergrad Bus. Stats. 1 will come from a prof from grad school with whom I have a close relationship - he helped me discover that I wanted to dive into academia in the first place. 1 will come from my current supervisor. SoP: I have yet to make any headway, but I'd love a few pointers here and there. Concerns: Tons. So, I originally went into my Masters degree program with the intention of entering the workforce directly after graduation. In my last semester, I had a conversation with a professor about the merits of a PhD and the lifestyle that comes with it. I had just accepted a full-time offer, and I decided to put it on the back burner. To be perfectly honest, a PhD hasn't left my mind since that conversation. Also, my undergrad is an absolute mess. How much would a good (although not amazing by any stretch) graduate GPA make up for that horribleness? Lastly, I have no research experience. It's not really for lack of trying - the institution where I did my Masters only had PhD RAs. The program I was in was seen as a job pipeline rather than an academic one, and I'm afraid that may be to my detriment. Applying to: Below is my stratified list. This isn't a definite list by any stretch of the imagination - just some schools I've been kicking around this week. It changes constantly. In my dreams: UNC, Duke, UCLA, Northwestern Possibly?: Georgia Tech, Florida, Pitt, Minnesota Hopefully: Rutgers, South Carolina, Oregon, Cincinnati