Sheetrockero

Oregon hippie

So it's April 15th... does that mean application season is pretty much over?

Most of the PhD students at the program I'm joining in Fall say that I could start from scratch and I'd learn every thing I need to in the first year stats sequence, but I want to be able to get on a project ASAP.

Yeah, one of the PhD students at my future school let me borrow his copy of Andy Field's Discovering Statistics with SPSS. Only read the first chapter, but I like his style so far.

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I think I'll start out with SPSS as my "native language" so I can get started on research ASAP and then try to pick up R as my "second language" for those situations when R works better.

I took all of "Rejected" pins off of my map, after reading this. I feel a lot better now.

Thanks evergreen! Yes, I am CB.

I want to get a head start on learning stats before I start school in September, but I'm not sure which statistics program/ language I should try to learn. It seems like most of the Professors in the Marketing department at the school I will join this Fall use SPSS, but the buzz around the interwebs seems to indicate that R is rapidly becoming the statistics program/ language of choice in most fields. In fact, some of the current first year students in the program I'm joining are already using R and singing it's praises... plus R is free. My main concerns are: -If I learn SPSS, will I eventually need to learn R? Will SPSS eventually become obsolete? -If I learn R, will I be unable to communicate with my Professors and other collaborators? -I've heard that R is harder to learn for those of us with no programming experience. Is it worth the added trouble? -Does learning one help you learn another, and is there a significant benefit to knowing both? Thanks!

Another part for me is a little OCD. I want to finish checking schools off of my list/ map. I have a map with all the schools that I applied to marked with color coded flags that say "Accepted", "Rejected", or "Waiting". So, that's how I deal with obsession and nervous energy.

Yeah, I've heard nothing from UCSD, UCLA, and WUSTL. Those are the last 3 that I've yet to hear from. I haven't sent any withdrawal notices. I didn't interview at any of the schools I'm waiting to hear from so I'm not expecting to be on a Waitlist. Part of it is curiosity, and part of it is that I paid good money for my official rejection letter and I'm gonna get what I paid for!

Looks like NYU, South Carolina, and Erasmus sent out rejections today.

Thanks! Yeah, I don't know what I would have done without this forum for the past several months. Being out of school, I would have been a much weaker applicant without the helpful advice I've received on this forum and I might not have survived the waiting process... pretty sure my head would have spontaneously exploded at some point... Anyway, it sounds like you might have a non-WUSTL admit already, so congrats! I wish you all the best as you make your decision and be sure to update us when you do!

Yeah, it can be tricky to get access to a lot of articles if you aren't currently a student. If there is a university with a biz school nearby, you might try to go to their library, assuming they allow public access. Once there, you can likely access the journals on-line (if they have a subscription) or they might have physical copies of old volumes of business journals. Another option is to look up the Professors you're interested in on-line and sometimes they'll provide links to free copies of their articles on their university webpage, personal webpage, or CV. A third option if there is an article that you REALLY want to read, but you can't find via the other methods, is to e-mail the Professor directly for a copy and explain that you have been out of school for a while and are exploring your possible research interests in preparation of applying to PhD programs. If your interest is sincere, this could lead to some interesting conversations and they might offer some further reading suggestions for you as well. Again, you would want to be VERY selective about using this option since Profs are very busy people, but if you are sincerely interested in their work, they are also very helpful people as well.

Congratulations! Such a great feeling to know where you'll be in Fall. But I guess this means you're not heading out my way then...

I'll go ahead and share my story so more people who didn't get into a crazy high ranked program feel more comfortable about adding their successes, because getting into any program with a 5 % acceptance rate is a pretty big deal. Admission Year: 2015 Test Used for Admittance: GMAT Test Scores: 740 (Q 49/ V 42) Undergrad GPA: 3.33 in, um... German Studies, but from a top tier public university Graduate GPA: 3.66 "fully employed" MBA from a different top tier public university Industry Experience: 9 years in Sales for a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. 5 years calling on large retailers which sparked my interest in consumer behavior, and 4 years calling on other types of accounts. Research Experience: Desperately sought any sort of research experience last year after getting feedback from this forum. I was able to work with a Prof from my MBA school long distance gathering data for his book about how a well known Indian conglomerate transformed itself to compete in the global economy. Teaching Experience: Taught "Sales Strategy and Management" on-line at a small private college. Tutored a lot in college. Concentration Applied to: Marketing - CB Range of Schools Applied: 4 in T10, 4 in T25, 4 in T50, 2 in T100 (UTD Rankings vary depending on how you slice data, but this breakdown is pretty representative of where my schools would land in worldwide rankings) Final Results: I had interviews with INSEAD and University of Oregon. I got into Oregon, but got rejected everywhere else, although a few schools said that I did make their shortlist. Final Remarks: In the end, even though the one school I got an acceptance to was probably the "lowest ranked" school according to UTD, I know this is the perfect school for me. There was certainly a part of me that was rooting for this result the entire time. In fact, when I first started to seriously consider doing a PhD, Oregon was the only school I thought of applying to since I could bike there from my house. I started talking to PhD students and reading papers from UO faculty over a year ago in preparation of applying there. Unfortunately, I did better than expected on the GMAT, which made me think I should drop a ton of money on applying to "higher ranked" programs. The upside, is that this also motivated me to seek out the all important research experience which my application was lacking. I also greatly expanded my reading program so that I could figure out what schools to apply to. While I sometimes lament the money spent on all of the other applications, the process certainly helped me become a much better candidate since I moved my target higher. Of course, shifting to a higher target may have been necessary for me to actually reach my initial target.