jmf0790

International student here, applying to OB/Management departments; I've had two formal Skype interviews so far and one school let me know that they'll be sending out offers within 3~4 weeks. I'm surprised at how fast some of them are! So if a school gives me an offer by say, early February, then is it all right for me to let them know that I'd still like to wait to hear back from some other schools? Or will there be some pressure to commit even if the final 'deadline' to respond is April? I'm asking because during the interview, the professor blatantly said that I would probably receive offers from many other schools (haha I wish) and asked what attracted me to this school in particular. I'm getting ahead of myself here but hey, we can all dream right? Hahaha One thing I want to mention is that even though programs do most of their interviews at more or less similar times, the actual interview invitations might be send out with some variations. Many of peers in my graduate program have applied to almost exactly the same programs as I have (my school successfully sends all students to US PhDs every year, which is both a blessing and a curse!) and I was freaking out because some of them had gotten e-mails about interviews but I'd heard nothing. About 5 days later, I got an e-mail from the same program that had sent out those invitations earlier and this turned out to be the school that seemed to want me the most, at least on the surface :) So yeah, don't panic too much over what's posted on thegradecafe or whatever. Good luck everyone!!

Hi everyone! I'm applying to Management/OB/OT programs this year. Everything for my applications is complete except for my writing sample, which I'm quite worried about. None of the schools explicitly require a writing sample, but I'm assuming that the ones that have the option of uploading one will expect it. I'm just curious - what kind of writing sample are you all submitting? Do schools want to see a full-blown empirical paper (complete with data, methods, and results)? I'm working on two empirical papers but I'm still collecting data for both, and the finished one that I have is coauthored with two professors and I heard that's really not recommended as a writing sample. I thought about submitting my theoretical article with propositions (like the ones you might see in Academy of Management Review) because it got great feedback in the research class I submitted it for, but I'm worried that the schools want to see empirical work. :/ What do you guys think? I'd really appreciate any input on this!

Hi everyone! Thank you in advance for taking the time to evaluate my profile. Any comments or tips you might have will be greatly appreciated. Test Scores: GMAT 740 (97%), 48Q (71%) 44V (98%), AWA 6.0, IR 7 // TOEFL 119 Undergrad GPA: 3.71 BBA from top university in the country Graduate GPA: 3.96, same university, expected next year Research Experience: 3 working papers, 1 book chapter (in a book authored by my professor), RA for 1 year during undergrad, 1 year working as a policy researcher at think tank Teaching Experience: Guest lectured every semester for classes in International Business and in Entrepreneurship on topics related to organizations (thanks to existing contacts with professors) Work Experience: Ran my own private tutoring business since undergrad and went full-time after graduation. It was extremely successful (I don't mean to brag) but I ultimately felt a calling for academia. I had connections to a professor who got me into doing policy research for the government for a year before I went to grad school. Concentration Applying to: OB (micro) Number of programs planned to apply to: Not more than 20 Dream Schools: Harvard, Haas, and Kellogg are the best in terms of research fit (I know they're insanely hard to get into, but that's why they're called "dream" schools, right? :) ) Other Questions: What made you want to pursue a PhD? I'm an inherently curious person, and research has been the best outlet for this curiosity so far (hence the 3 working papers). I didn't become interested in research until my last year of undergrad, but my business was flourishing at the time so I decided to put academia on the back burner for a few years.. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? 1) Will my GMAT quant score and lack of math background kill my chances at a Top 10? I took the bare minimum in economics and quant classes in my undergrad, including a calculus class and a statistics class, both of which I took in my very last semester and got Cs (because by then, I was so ready to be done with school). I did, however, get As in applied math management classes, such as Management Science and Operations Management. I tried to make up for this deficiency by taking econ, international finance, and statistics classes in my Masters program, making sure to tie them all into my overall research area (OB and economic sociology). Though I did get As in all of them, I'm worried that the 71% percentile will get me booted off in the first round. 2) Should I briefly mention how I've tried to mitigate my lack of verifiable quant skills in my SOP? Or will that just sound like I'm making excuses? I took the GMAT 2 years ago, before I took all those quant-related classes. I was actually advised by users on this forum not to retake it! :) 3) Can I include my policy research experience as research experience? Both of them were government projects led by renowned professors. I got to work with a lot of data. However, the intentions of policy research are very different from academic research and there's no real 'output' except the report (which I can't even list on my CV since there would be too many co-authors).

I'm not an expert by any means (I'm not even close to applying to PhD programs yet) but my dad is an adjunct business school professor who teaches Entrepreneurship (his PhD was in Finance though - but this is probably because there weren't any Entrepreneurship doctoral programs back then!), so I just wanted to add my two cents. In my country, at least, there's been a huge influx of start-ups from young people and the top business school here now offers entrepreneurial components in the program. I might make the tentative prediction that entrepreneurship is starting to gather a lot of attention as an independent area of study.

Thanks for the encouragement and I'm sorry if I sounded overdramatic! I guess this really varies from school to school, but maybe I should have phrased it as "I have a not-so-good UGPA". I've just seen so many people get in with 3.9+ GPAs that I was panicking a bit (which just goes to show how immature I still am, clinging onto numbers for PhD admissions).

Thank you for pointing that out. From what I understood while reading about different doctoral programs, macro OB is more about having a sociological approach to management (which can be considered OT). For example, Stanford distinguishes between micro and macro OB and Harvard has a psychology track and a sociology track for its OB program. So far, I know that I'm interested in neoinstitutional theory and isomorphism (as far as "organizational theories" go) as well as corporate social responsibility, all of which generally fall under Management/OB/OT. Some schools kind of merge them together (i.e. having an OB program where one of the concentrations is OT) and some group them together under "Management and Organizations" or some variation of that. Still others have a separate major titled something like "Strategy and Organizational Theory" and some even have them under entrepreneurship! The distinctions are quite murky and it varies from program to program, so I suppose the best thing for me to do is look deeper into faculty research for each school. However, I'll keep what you said in mind, especially about the greater emphasis on quant skills for more 'macro' areas! :) Thank you!

Wow!!! Thank you everyone for the informative and supportive replies! :) I now see that I'd be much better off doing as well as I can in my Master's and focusing on getting more research experience instead of wasting valuable time. I was foolish to be so caught up on the GMAT - I kept feeling like I needed to make up for the UGPA and lack of verifiable quant skills. I'll be competing with many brilliant students with fantastic math backgrounds (not to perpetuate any Asian stereotypes or anything, but we do usually try and compensate for substandard English skills with higher mastery of math) so I guess my best course of action would be to focus on strengthening my quant as much as I can while emphasizing verbal skills and preparing an awesome writing sample. Thanks again everyone, and I'm so glad I found this website. Information about Business PhDs is so hard to come by; I really, really hope I can contribute one day with a "successful admit" profile :)

Hi everyone! I'm entering a Master's program this Fall, and I'm trying to sort out what I should do in order to prepare for a PhD in Management (organizational theory/macro organizational behavior). I only recently decided to pursue academia, so I'd really appreciate any advice, even if it's not directly related to my question. :) I know that research fit, LORs, SOP, writing samples, etc. are what really counts, but for now I'm just concerned about my GPA and GMAT score. First off, I have a very low UGPA (3.54/4.0, top 30% of graduating class). My only consolation would be that I graduated from the top university in my country :( I never thought about grad school until literally my last semester of college, so my transcript is far from perfect. Worst of all, I got C's in two calculus and statistics classes I had to take. While I did get A's in all the quant-related business courses I took, I hate 'pure math' (though ironically, I excelled in it in high school, but it's not like I can mention that anywhere in my application) and avoided it like the plague during uni. I procrastinated and took both of them in my final semester of college. There's a long story behind it (I fell ill during that semester, almost couldn't graduate, etc), but at any rate, my track record in math is terrible. It's been 2.5 years since I graduated and I'm returning to the same school for my Master's. (I worked in social/policy research.) I plan to mitigate my shortcomings by taking as many quant courses as I can and studying my butt off, but I know that for international students especially, GPA and GMAT/GRE scores are extremely important, unless I manage to get published as the first author in a top journal or something. I'm already at a disadvantage because of my UGPA. Right now, I'm trying to decide if I should take the GMAT again, but I've already taken it three times. I first took it in my last semester as an undergrad because I briefly entertained going straight to grad school, but I stupidly did so without any preparation and got terrible scores (640 without studying, 710 after reading a few chapters of the OG). This was in late 2012. Then last December, I hurriedly retook the GMAT to apply for my Master's program. This time, I actually went through the whole OG, but I was balancing full-time work and a grueling project so I can't really say I gave it my best shot. I got a 740: V44 - 98%, Q48 - 74%, IR - 7, AWA - 6.0. Given my terrible math record (even when I got a 710, my verbal score was 99% - so you can imagine how terrible my quant was!), I'm really inclined to take the GMAT again. I'm pretty confident that with actual dedication and focused studying on reviewing core math skills, I can score higher - my goal is a 780 with a math score at least above 90%. I'm hoping that a higher GMAT score and a great GGPA will help a little bit in making up for my UGPA. I know that near-perfect GMAT scores aren't uncommon for PhD applicants. While 740 is okay by MBA standards, I feel that it's a little bit low for doctoral programs (some programs I've looked at had median GMAT scores of 720~750, and I have a bad UGPA to make up for). However, I've also read that retaking what seems to already be a "high" GMAT score is frowned upon by adcoms. Also, I heard that taking it four times is viewed very negatively. In other words, it's possible that raising my quant score will have a negligible effect (or possibly even hurt my application) and I'll just be wasting time and money. Do you guys have any opinions on what I should do in my situation? Or realistically speaking, am I already doomed because it's too late to make up for my bad track record? I'll be eternally grateful for any advice you might give! :)