phdcandid2014

I got my first interview request a couple weeks ago. I asked in my reply e-mail "Could you please tell me who will be participating in the call so I can prepare appropriately?" I got two very helpful answers: 1. They told me who would be on the call 2. They told me that I don't need to prepare, because it was their intent to take time in the phone call to tell me about the program and to provide me with answers to any questions I had. So I got the answer to my question and a little bit of a framework regarding how the call would be structured. I did do some preparation anyway (figuring it couldn't hurt, and it didn't), the call went great, and I should be receiving an offer within the next week.

Broader question for those that worked in industry or consulting for several years (5+) before coming back for the PhD. Have you found integration with your cohort to be fairly easy? I remember being in my early 20s in undergrad/grad school and not being particularly fond of the "old guys" that were around, who I felt came off as a bit know-it-allish (this was partly because of things they actively did, but partly because they could speak from experience and as a student with no experience, I tended to scoff at that). Now, being in the opposite position, I've been thinking about approaches to ingratiate myself with my fellow students without giving off that same vibe, particularly since one of the great things about grad school is being in the trenches with several others and making life-long friends or contacts. Any thoughts to impart?

Harvard alert, a new post on GC says they interviewed late January and just got phone acceptance today to the Technology, Operations, and Management program.

I'm in the exact same boat (coming from a field similar to consulting). We routinely hire PhDs and I'm always surprised at the lack of preparedness in terms of being able to grind for 50+ hr per week of doing, you know, actual work - sharp people, don't get me wrong, but there is still an edge that needs development when they come on board. It sounds like your plan is similar to mine, App, I'm definitely going to juggle multiple things during my time in school. The major difference will be that I'll only have to manage my time rather than mine, plus clients, plus a staff of a dozen or more. Will be refreshing in many respects!

If they really want you on board, they should have brought in Urban Meyer to close the deal.

Best thread I've read on here. I don't have any doubt about the choice I'm making. But it's a bit comforting hearing that there are other folks taking that 80% pay cut for 4 years to get back in the academic trenches and bang out a PhD. I personally am really looking forward to soaking in every second of the experience. I'm curious to hear the others' expectations in terms of relative work load (i.e., do those of you with a highly demanding job now anticipate the work load to simply feel different or perhaps seem to be at a slower pace than you're used to). Of course, the rigor of every program differs, but as someone who has worked for ~10 years post-graduation in a research position, I feel like my productivity will be through the roof once I hit the ground in my PhD program, especially if I compare to how I would have attacked the program if I went straight from my master's program to the PhD program without working.

That kinda sucks about Wharton, I was looking forward to at least participating in the interview process with them. The main POI I identified appears to be quite busy, so that coupled with my numbers and background may have sunk me.

This is a great thread. I own two businesses and am going to continue with one of them in grad school. I already have my master's degree, so I know what my grad experience was before (I probably work about 3x more efficiently now and am much more diligent). I'm going to present my current schedule and then give a hypothetical one for next year - I welcome any current PhDs to tell me I'm crazy. One of the intriguing things about getting back into grad school is having more unstructured time to think about singular problems, rather than a dozen+ at a time and managing 10+ people. Current 5:30 - 6:30: Gym 6:30 - 7:00: Get ready for work 7:00 - 7:15: Commute (take kids to school, too) 7:15 - 6:00: Work. It is detailed and has very few distractions. 6:00 - 6:15: Commute 6:15 - 8:00: Dinner and playing with kids 8:00 - 10:00: Time with the wife Next Year 5:30 - 6:30 Gym 6:30 - 7:30 Breakfast, time with kids, take kid(s) to school 7:30 - 8:00 Commute 8:00 - 12:00 Writing, reading papers, coursework 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch with adviser, fellow students, or family 1:00 - 5:00 Reading papers, coursework, seminar(s) 5:00 - 5:30 Commute 5:30 - 7:30 Family time 7:30 - 10:30 Wife time and/or thinking time (more reading, writing, preparation for the next day) Weekend - 10-15 hours writing, reading, working on my business. Rest with kids and family.

These are good points. The couple of programs I applied to appear to have lots of lecturers and senior lecturers that handle mostly teaching duties. They also have a nice complement of researchers who are not faculty. The impression I get (at least from looking at top schools like MIT, Harvard, and Penn) is that it appears to matter more to take a handful of elite students rather than a large pack of good and elite students, since the resources needed to teach the droves of MBA people are already in place and really don't impact faculty. I also find it interesting that the selectivity of B-Schools is more transparent when compared to different engineering programs. For example, Harvard and MIT were both very clear about the number of applicants and admits (~800 applicants for ~20-30 spots). At engineering schools (at least the ones I've looked at), they will give you a percent admitted rate but no idea of the denominator.

Magoosh Math: The volume of practice problems was great and the visuals/explanation videos were also great. I echo previous positive comments. The most valuable thing from Magoosh on the verbal was the few tips they had for websites that had lots of good "GRE words". Specifically, Arts & Letters daily and Word Dynamo (GRE Study Guides | Word Dynamo). These were great tools to help re-build the latin/greek root knowledge that had gathered cobwebs over the years. The Magoosh practice verbal exams were great, although I was not a big fan of the guy that did the voiceover - he sounded like he was doing his best Fred Armisen impression from "The Californians". Relevant information: I signed up for Magoosh one month before I took the GRE. Magoosh, the GRE manual explaining the writing section, and the above-mentioned resources were all I used in my preparation. I took it one time and got a 332 and 5.5 (I did not take the GRE prior to signing up for Magoosh).

I'm still reeling over getting an acceptance e-mail from a non-business program, only to have it retracted later (there was some mistake and every applicant got an acceptance letter). Getting an interview invite for OPIM or TOM would make that sting go away, though.

In checking Gradcafe, it is totally quiet with both OPIM and Harvard TOM. I put a spreadsheet together with a projection of notification date based on past years (again, data reported on Gradcafe) and I put notification from Harvard at ~February 1 and Wharton OPIM at ~February 15. Problem is, there are so many funky things that happen with reported data on Gradcafe, it's hard to have too much confidence. But it appears fairly certain that no interview invites or notifications for Harvard TOM or Wharton OPIM have been sent out yet.

A few days ago I received an e-mail telling me I was accepted to one of the graduate programs I applied to (doctoral program) for fall 2014. Then I received an e-mail a bit later saying that there was some error and the e-mail was not supposed to be sent out and that evaluations are still ongoing. I found the situation actually a bit funny, probably since I'm not really stressing out about acceptances, but has anyone ever heard of this happening? I thought it would be a funny story to share.