obhrphd16

Silvia, Perhaps I can provide some additional advice. For context, I applied to programs last fall and will be beginning my doctoral studies in HR/OB this fall. I also happen to be joining one of the schools you listed on your choices. Most of my advice is based off my personal experience over the last year when applying to programs. My research interests are different than yours but I see some similarities with your profile so maybe my advice will help. First, as others mentioned, you need to boost your GMAT score. However, do not be discouraged if you don't quite score a 700. Many of the schools you listed are great programs but not necessarily "top programs" and I am pretty sure that I remember some of them having average GMAT scores around 680. This is not meant to disparage these programs but just to point out that if you don't score a 700, it's not the end of the world. That being said, the higher you score, the better. Your grades will help as well. Your grades will help even more if you went to a respected university. For building a list a of schools, asking your letter writers for advice is great (I did that as well). In addition, I would recommend two things. First, if you haven't already, go to the websites of schools you might be interested in, find the management department, and look through the faculty and their research interests. If you see interests that align with yours, go a little deeper and look up a few papers that they have written and see if the topics are interesting to you. Second, since you seem to have some idea of what you might be interested in researching, do some searches for papers in your areas of interest. Go to Google Scholar and type in "International Human Resources" (or something similar) and click on a few papers that seem interesting. Make note of who is writing these papers and what schools they are from. This was very helpful for me and ultimately was a huge factor in narrowing down my school list. A few you might consider adding to your list are Wisconsin, Maryland, Texas A&M, Cornell ILR, Kansas. These might be worth taking a look at. In regards to your age, I honestly have no idea how much that will matter. I know when I looked at schools, there were definitely students in their mid-30s for what its worth. You might want to take a look at the PhD student directory when looking at faculty research interests. Once you have narrowed down your list of schools, I would ask your letter writers if they know anyone at those schools that might be worth contacting about your interest in their program. I did this and it was very, very helpful when applying. I basically sent an email that said "Professor XYZ recommended I reach out to you regarding my interest in your PhD program" and then I included a bit about me and my interests/experience and my CV. A few more things and then I'll stop! Make sure that your first answer is always research when discussing why you want to pursue a PhD. When you answered the question "What made you want to pursue a PhD" above, you didn't even mention the word research. All of those things you mentioned are great reasons, but you have to show the ad coms that your primary reason for pursuing a PhD is research. All of the other reasons need to be secondary. It is definitely implied in your previous answers but never assume that people know you want to do research. I point this out because I made that mistake. I was meeting with a group of PhD students on a visit and they asked why I wanted to get a PhD. I assumed that they knew I was interested in research so I said something about the lifestyle and autonomy and ability to innovate. One of the other students said "You should be a consultant and not get a PhD." I fixed the mistake but I just wanted to share that as an example. Lastly, make sure to turn all of your past research experience into positives. Even if the work on a paper turned into nothing, make sure to mention what you learned and not be upset about it not working out. You have a lot of great research experience so use that to your advantage. Hopefully this was helpful. Happy to help more if needed. Good luck on your applications.

I basically did the same thing as Accgirl. When writing my SOPs, I found out that not a lot of programs fit my interests well and I ended up only applying to 3 universities from an original list of 10-12. Because my application list was small, I reached out to faculty at 2 of the universities ahead of time and received an early offer before Christmas. I also feel that I would have received an offer from the other university had I not withdrawn my application. I had very specific research interests so it was necessary for me to find not just universities, but specific faculty members that I was interested in working with.

Without knowing all of your information, I think it depends on what your goals are. If your goals are to improve your quantitative skills, that can be accomplished without pursuing another degree. My guess is that you could take stats and/or math classes, like linear/matrix algebra, etc., at a local university without pursuing a degree. If your goal is to gain research experience, then pursuing a Masters degree (Econ, MBA, etc.) would probably make it easier to get involved on research projects with faculty. Depending on your research interests, it might be just as beneficial to pursue an MBA as you would likely take strategy and entrepreneurship courses. This would potentially give you personal access to faculty who are conducting research in these fields and open up potential research opportunities. You can also pursue elective courses in stats, econ, etc. to boost your quantitative skills. Also, this might help give you some applied business knowledge that you might not have (again I don't know your background). Some might say that work/practical experience doesn't matter for research, but I think that having a better understanding of how businesses actually function can't hurt. I share this as an option because it is very similar to the path I took. I was only partially interested in pursuing a Ph.D. when I started my MBA. However, being back on campus allowed me access to professors who answered questions and helped guide me through my applications, and gave me great research experience. I know that working with these faculty (and having them write LORs) was extremely useful during the application process. Again, this is just another piece of advice. Ultimately, you can gain the knowledge and experience you want in a variety of ways, it will be up to you to decide what is best for you and go for it. Good luck.

I am an applicant this year and I wore a tie whenever I Skyped with faculty. Most of them usually commented that it wasn't necessary but they seemed to appreciate it. My interactions were never formally called interviews but essentially they were informal interviews. I would recommend wearing a tie. Whether it is necessary or not, I think it sends a signal that you are taking this seriously and consider this a job interview. Perhaps others have a different perspective though.

Does anyone have any advice on withdrawing applications? I have accepted an offer (OB/HR applicant and happy to share the university names once I withdraw my app) and I would like to withdraw my application other universities. Is e-mail the best (especially if you have had interactions with them) or is there typically an online form to fill out? Thanks for the help and good luck everyone!

Hello all and good luck with your applications! For the more experienced members of this forum, has anyone ever received negative repercussions for posting admissions information on here? It seems to me that some universities might frown upon this. I am curious as I would like to post my acceptances/rejections as they occur in case it helps anyone else. However, I wouldn't want this to negatively affect any of my outstanding applications. As others have said, it really isn't that hard to figure out who people are on here if you really want to know. Any comments are appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for the answers to my previous post! This forum has been incredibly helpful to me and I really appreciate all the feedback. I do have another question though. Has anyone attended the DocNet recruiting events before and can share their experience? I am planning to attend the Chicago event in November. I have seen posts on here before about these events but I am just curious what you all have to say. Thanks again!

Hi all, Does it matter when you turn your application in? Do schools typically begin reviewing the apps as soon as they are received or do they wait until after the application deadline? Is there any advantage to being the first or last to apply? I think I have seen this question answered on here before but I wanted to ask again in case anything has changed. I'm curious because I am planning on attending the DocNet event in Chicago in mid-November. I was going to wait to finalize my applications until after that event in case I learned anything that could help my application. Thanks in advance for the help. Good luck everyone!

Thanks for the feedback horses and evergreen. It's very helpful to get honest feedback as opposed to the standard information on the university websites.

Evergreen, Thanks for the feedback. The papers I am working on are in my area of interest. My undergrad GPA is low because I was an apathetic journalism major my first two years before switching to Accounting and getting all A's until my last semester where I performed poorly again because I was already working almost full time at my post grad job. There is a clear pattern on my transcript. In your experience, do ad coms look that closely at transcripts? Or will they simply discard the application before getting that far due to the low GPA? I was planning on trying to explain but not make excuses for the low undergrad GPA and I was hoping my grad GPA would offset it some. Any additional feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Does anybody have any thoughts on bobthebuilder's profile or mine? Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): 730 (46Q, 45V, 8IR) Undegrad GPA:3.23 (Accounting undergrad at 75-100 Business School, but highly ranked accounting program) Graduate GPA: 3.97 (MBA Same University, 75-100 Ranking, went due to full financial aid and additional fellowship funding) Research Experience: 1 Year RA Experience (Co-author on two working papers) Teaching Experience: 1 Semester - TA for 2 classes Work Experience: 3+ years financial and trade accounting experience at large well known US Private company and 1 year at regional bank in similar role, also college recruiting experience Concentration Applying to: Organizational Behavior or Human Resource Management (depending on the university) Number of programs planned to apply to: At least 10 Dream Schools: Wharton, Michigan, Kellogg, Wisconsin What made you want to pursue a PhD: My work experience left me with many questions about how firms manage and motivate talent. I am interested in researching how firms can better manage their employees and how that translates to improved firm performance. Concerns you have about your profile: Low Quantitative score on GMAT Low Undergrad GPA Both undergrad and graduate degrees from the same university which is not highly ranked Any additional specific questions you may have: My LOR will be strong (two from quality professors in intended field of study and one from the dean of the business school. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!