wannabephd

This was me. I'm not accounting, but I gave my job 4 weeks notice that I was leaving, and only because there was a bit of a staffing issue we had... I didn't get fly outs, I got Skype and phone interviews. Phone interviews were easy to do, Skype I had "a personal appointment" or something or in theory you could use the skype app on your phone and take the call in your car or something. One thing that may or may not help depending on where you live/are applying. Time zones. Take advantage of time zones. If you lived in New York, and are applying to California based schools, see if you could phone interview late in the afternoon Pacific Time. Like 3-4pm would be 6-7pm, which is generally OK to be out of the office . Conversely, if you were a California applying to east coast schools, try to get them in the morning. Now, I'm not saying you should interview at 8am EST/5am PST, but even a 10:30 eastern/7:30 pacific time might work. Also, can you in the optional essay explain why you're not getting your current supervisor recommendation, but make it less of a "I need my job and don't want to piss off my employer" spin and more of a "I wanted to provide examples of references that speak to my research potential (assuming you're getting all academics)? I've heard of schools saying that a recommendation from industry in lieu of an academic one is ok if you've been working, but I've never seen that as an requirement. Good luck!

Made me laugh too! I mean, I also had a p-value of 0.01 for a different DV in that same experiment, but the .993 - I almost wanted to say "so what made us think this was supposed to do anything?"

Oh, I'm far far far away from having anything worthy of submission. I kid you not, I had a experiment with a p-value of .993 for one of my DV's. I'm actually pretty impressed with myself for that one. I'm aiming for SCP 2017.

I didn't submit anything to ACR but I kinda want an excuse to go to Berlin :)

Jinx! Hello my bearded friend. :)

Not necessarily. I think it does mean you'll have a higher probability of getting an answer sooner, but what that answer is depends on a lot of things, namely how many people they interview for how many spots (read: how long their "short" list is). Some schools just operate faster than others, some may have ad com people whose teaching/travel schedules hate each other and they can't find time to meet right away. Some schools just want to get it done before a certain date, some may have early review dates to nominate people for school fellowships, etc. All the best to your dream school interview though. That's definitely a good thing!

I have barely been on the boards this year (well right now I'm procrastinating reading). But I didn't hear of any interview calls until early/mid Feb at the earliest (well maybe one literally a year ago). Just remember, no news is good news. No news is good news. If I remember correctly, most of the fun/action happens in February and maybe early March. You'll do fine!

Congrats on the interview request! I pretty much assumed it would be any other professional interview for my Skype interviews and dressed business professional from the waist up. And sweats from the waist down. A tie certainly won't hurt. I also happened to check out the background to make sure it looked clean (I didn't need ad coms to see my piles of laundry).

You have the coolest username ever

Hey I did this! After applications/etc were sent in, (conveniently timed since it was the holidays), I mailed them a handwritten holiday/thank you card. Once I got in, I sent them a handwritten Thank You card, a mug from the school I was going to and some fancy chocolate. I mean, everyone likes chocolate. Or if not, everyone can easily regift chocolate :) Someone told me that professors can sometimes feel uncomfortable getting expensive gifts, and there may be a limit to the dollar value that professors can get before it's reported or something. I thought about wine, but that seemed too tricky in the mail (I wasn't in the same part of the country as any of my recommenders). One key thing: don't drop off the face of the planet after you submit recommendations. Professors really want to know what happens to you.

Funny - I'm on this website as part of my ongoing effort to not pack. I'm just gonna pretend that I'm not moving in less than 2 weeks. I'm also pretending that these boxes will magically pack themselves. They do that, right? Right? I'm gonna agree with most of this and add a few more things. Oh, George, you should have gone to your former professors. Yes, it involves "cold calling", but if George didn't feel comfortable saying "hey, I was in your class 7 years ago, can you recommend me for PhD programs?", he could have essentially requested an informational interview. Industry George should know that this is a fancy way of asking to learn about the profession of the person you're talking to, asking how to go about the application process, etc., and can often lead to 'networking opportunities'. And I think most professors would be willing to talk to their former students. Then ask about PhD programs, ask for their specific advice on applications, rec letters, and how to prepare a strong application. If done early enough, George could have even asked to be part of their research. And then George could have gone from zero relationship to people offering to write LOR's in a pretty short time. George also might be surprised - some professors have stronger memories of students than you'd think. Now where I disagree (slightly) is about the industry recommendation. Depending on how old George is, adcoms are probably already wondering why George "waited so long". This is especially true once the first # of your age is greater than or equal to 3. In that case, I'd argue that you want to do everything in your power to not give adcoms a reason to reject you. I personally wouldn't have wanted to submit a industry letter and wonder if that's why I didn't get in. That said, only ONE industry recommendation. But I'd consider it a matter of last resort. And I do know of people who submitted an industry recommendation and got into a top program. True. Very, very, very true. But not a deterrent if your adcom doesn't know your recommender writers (I'm thinking a psychology or econ undergrad applying to marketing phd's probably won't have LOR writers who know b-school adcoms.) But definitely a huge help if they do know you. Yeah. This too. My LOR writers all emailed me thanking me for my thoughtful "here's where I'm going"/thank you gift. They are doing you a huge favor, essentially setting you up for your future career and life.

I'm coming out of my little Urch hiatus just to plead with you to in fact, do that. In fact, I'll somehow find a way to videotape this interviewer's response to you pulling up your leg and point. Perhaps you get the abstract of your first A journal tattooed on your chest, then when someone asks, you rip open your shirt like Superman? THAT would be awesome.

This too.

Football is also earlier in the school year, so it's more instant bonding with your classmates.

And I thought I was being proactive...my prescription hasn't changed in about a decade. We will see!

wait...I'm about to start a PhD program this fall, and I have to actually read for class? That's it - I'm not going anymore! (Sarcasm) Kidding, I even got an extra pair of glasses since I know I'll be reading so much.

Hmm...you might want to reach out to the former professors and try to reestablish the relationship with the professors. You never know - they may remember you. And given that it's mid-April and the earliest apps are due 12/1 (so they'd be writing letters in November), you may have time to build a solid relationship. Just be VERY specific - here's a mad libs version. "Hi, I'm knight44, a former student of yours. I took MBA marketing class X (list the actual class) with you in (semester, year), and I received (grade). My key project was on (topic). I was contacting you because I'm interested in applying to marketing PhD programs for fall 2016 admission and would love to talk to you/get your advice on next steps. I am happy to speak to you via phone or skype at your convenience as well as provide any info that may be useful (old papers if you have them)" If they reply, talk to them about how to potentially do research with them/learn the research/etc. You basically have to "cold call" the professors to build relationships with them - one can be to help with research, another can be to narrow down research interests/discuss papers/etc. I've been advised that the letters need to be academics. Not necessarily marketing professors, but it would help if at least one of them was from marketing.

Maybe you put a box of pizza right under where the printed papers come out? Pizza + "Reading". There. Problem solved. I'm gonna be such a great PhD student!

Ditto on the importance! I'm convinced this is what got me into school once I passed the minimum test score/grades cutoff. I don't think that they necessarily need to be in the field that you were applying to (mine all weren't). It certainly helps though. It also helped that they are all respected (and research active) in their individual fields. I think the more important thing is that they can speak specifically to your research potential - so if you're say, a management applicant, it's OK if one of your recommenders is a strategy or marketing, or even finance, professor.

And tax day!

Vacation from TGC/Urch? What? :) CONGRATS on the acceptance!

Congrats!!

Thanks! I am marketing CB. But this is the jitters talking. I just want to make sure I make a good first impression. I've also been in the working world and am not used to starting something that I had to interview with where I wasn't expected to just hit the ground running from the start (vs them training me). I've taken several stats classes in MBA, and had a very stats heavy job a couple of years ago (which required lots of additional stats training), but I'm a bit rusty. That job made me able to run a regression, a 2-sample-t and ANOVA (and other tests) in my sleep though :) Incidentally, I have a very old copy of SPSS I bought before I graduated from my MBA that I never got around to installing. I hope it still works so I can refresh myself! (even if my computer now is newer) I am also enrolled (but behind) in a coursera stats class taught by someone from Duke. It should be a good refresher, and I'll learn "R". Also, I'll pick up the Andy Fields book. I think SPSS is what my school uses for the most part. I know I'll be fine, and schools only admit people they think will succeed in the program, but still, jitters. (Though I recognize this isn't an actual 'problem'...)

That makes me feel better. Most people at my program say the same thing. But still, "working me" is so used to being able to hit the ground running. I even asked "how can I get off to a good start?", and they all said it's probably helpful to review stats and keep reading articles. Will do :) The excitement of getting in and starting is still there. I've just got some real jitters since it seems so "real" now. Especially since I'm researching moving costs, looking for a place to live, etc.

OK, now you all have me nervous - this may be jitters though. How much of this are you expected to already know before starting school? I'm definitely trying to get up to speed as much as possible before, but in general, do professors say "ok - GO!" or would I pick up some things from classes?