Hi Guys,
I'm new to the forum, though I have been "lurking" for a bit. I'm looking to apply for a PhD in business in 2014 to study org theory under management/org behavior, depending on the department. My question though relates broadly to all business PhDs.
I've found these forums really helpful, but I wanted to ask further about "applying broadly". It doesn't seem as simple as applying to schools in buckets of 1-25, 26-50, 51-75, etc as some have suggested. Using the UTD rankings, for example, often less well-known schools are quite well-ranked, while the Ivies are much lower. It seems like in this scenario, neither is really a "safe" alternative to the other.
For example, using the UTD rankings sorted by management journals for North American schools, Cornell is ranked 46, suggesting it would be much less selective than say the University of Minnesota Twin Cities at number 7.
While I will obviously need to apply to a large mix of schools, I want to develop an intelligent mix. I appreciate that the UTD rankings are not gospel, and that there is a fair bit of randomness involved in the admission process. That said, to the extent possible, I want to follow the advice given on so many threads to apply broadly. I am concerned in this case, applying to number 7 and number 46 would not be very broad at all, and both would be quite selective. What are your thoughts?