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BCB

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  1. BCB
    I am sorry that you had such a poor experience in the application process. However, I hope that you are not too discouraged as it sounds like you have a strong profile since you received interest from some top schools. Remember, these PhD programs are highly competitive and it only take two or three people who have a better day on the interview for it to make a difference between an acceptance or a rejection. It definitely sounds like you have the drive to be a good academic. Bocconi is a great placement and a PhD from there will set you up well for the job market. I would say that they are easily on par with top 30-50 programs and could also possibly help you crack top placements if you have a stellar publication record. So I would think hard about going there if you feel that you can make it work. It sounds to me like your motivations for getting a PhD are not research driven which likely set off red flags for a lot of the top schools you applied to. They care a lot more about research and may have passed over your application in favor of someone who was more research focused. Your interest in teaching is not bad and I think a good number of people who get PhDs are initially motivated by teaching interests. However, if you choose to go through another application cycle, I would suggest emphasizing research interests rather than teaching interests. If you feel like research is not something that you would enjoy (and I mean really enjoy to the point that you are happy doing it 40-60 hours a week throughout the PhD program), then I would also recommend shooting for lower ranking R1s that will create less of a research-centric "pressure cooker" environment. Any R1 PhD program will still be research intensive but some are more ok with students placing in balanced or teaching positions.
  2. BCB
    I would suggest that if you ultimately want to end up in the US it would be a good idea to go to a PhD program in the US unless you can get into a top ranked international program. Limiting your search to the top 20 is a risky strategy for anyone so it may be a good idea to expand your list a bit based upon your research interests. I cannot comment on the managerial economics programs but a 690 is good enough to get you into a decent management program at an R1 university.
  3. BCB
    I was just on the market in Management. This forum is probably directed towards PhD program applicants but I would be happy to discuss my experience in greater detail with you through pm. Natsume is pretty much correct. All jobs will have a combination of teaching, research, and service. you'll find that research expectations decrease as you move down in rank while teaching expectations increase. In terms of service you may find that teaching schools have more service expectations initially but I think service moreso aligns with your job title. Assistants have have fewer service requirements than associates and so on.
  4. BCB
    This is really school dependent. At some places, qualifying exams are just a box to check and virtually everyone passes. At other places, they are very difficult and even the top students require multiple attempts to pass. You should ask the PhD students at the universities you are considering for specific information. The qualifying exam itself can also vary widely from one school to the next. Mine was the summer of my second year after I had completed all coursework and was three days long. Some universities require a full paper while others have an oral component. I think some schools even give two sets (written exam after 1st year, research paper after 2nd year).
  5. BCB
    I would add Kentucky, Rutgers and maybe Penn State to your list of schools. Kentucky has the best OB social networks group in the world right now and Rutgers is pretty good too if you're OB focused. Penn State may be a good option due to your interest in mixed methods. The schools you've already listed are all great too but also kind of a crapshoot even with your great test scores. Not sure about these schools in particular, but I expect that covid coupled with the anticipated economic downturn is going to make this a pretty competitive year for admissions. Schools are likely to have more applicants and possibly more limited funding if the last recession was any indicator.
  6. BCB
    Rescinding admission offers is very rare. At this point, I would say that this is highly unlikely. Not impossible, but I think that things would have to get much worse than they currently are. It is much more likely that schools will choose not to go down their wait lists and leave phd student "lines" unfilled. I think that this year's market is going to be delayed, but hopefully not too badly impacted. I have a lot of friends who are going to be on the market this fall and they are all pretty stressed about this.
  7. BCB
    Bocconi has an outstanding reputation. I would easily rank it on par with the schools you've listed. It may not have the name recognition among the general public, but a PhD from Bocconi should allow you to place at many top universities.
  8. BCB
    Stanford is definitely going to open doors that other engineering degrees may not so I agree with the other posters that you should have plenty of options if you go this route. Prestige doesn't always translate perfectly when it comes to ranking PhD programs so it might be helpful to compare recent placements and pub records of students of the other management programs but I think they would still need to surpass a pretty high bar compared to Stanford. Congratulations!
  9. BCB
    The major accreditation body (AACSB) requires that a minimum percentage of faculty are classified as a certain type of academic researcher which usually translates into having received a PhD from other accredited business schools and being actively involved in research. Thus, many schools list a business PhD from an AACSB school as a minimum job qualification and will not consider candidates without it. I do not personally know any engineering PhDs who are tenured faculty in a management department, but I know a couple who have PhDs in IO Psych, Sociology, and Education/leadership. I think that you will have a harder time getting a tenure track management position with an engineering PhD compared to a Business PhD. However, you could potentially overcome this if you have a very strong CV (A level pubs in mgmt journals). That being said, A level journals are are not easy to publish in and management likely requires a different approach compared to engineering. I think it would be incredibly difficult to accomplish this as a PhD student. Did you apply to any management programs? If you are committed to landing a position at a business school, it might be better to wait until the next application season.
  10. BCB
    Those are all great programs that will open the door to solid R1 placements pretty much anywhere. Columbia is probably the clear top tier school that would appear on most people's top ten list but I think the others are not far behind. That said, with this list, I would not worry as much about rankings and focus more on research/life fit if you have competing offers (unless you are wanting to place at a top 10 where pedigree matters a lot more). If you have geographic considerations, that is also important too. Most (all?) of these universities post their placement results and that is probably the most solid indicator of where you could go following the PhD. This is a great of schools to be considering! good luck!
  11. BCB
    Top ten and top twenty programs tend to be generic placeholders I think as rankings are going to vary based upon who you ask, what research area they are in, and where they are located. If you ask a handful of people to list the top ten schools you will probably end up with a list of at least 20 or 30. Generally, I would not put much weight on rankings and what constitutes a top ten or top twenty program until after you've determined what your research area is going to be, if you have any geographical preferences for eventual placement, and how much stock you put into pedigree and prestige. I am a late stage strategy PhD student and I am happy to discuss my own idea of relative rankings if you have specific schools in mind.
  12. BCB
    I know of a handful of people who have transferred programs. In every case but one (following their advisor to a new school), they had to completely start over again. Honestly, I think you might be better off further developing your pipeline/improving test scores and applying again next year if you are not happy with the program that accepted you. The first couple of years of the PhD program are HARD and I couldn't imagine willingly subjecting myself to that again just to go to a higher ranked program unless there were some extenuating circumstances (losing funding or being asked to leave the first program). I echo phd2020's advice of looking into predoc programs as well. That was my plan if I didn't gain admission into a PhD program the first round. Also, many disciplines offer pre-doc symposiums at their conferences so you may want to look into those to better develop your network. The reality is that pretty much any R1 PhD program is going to be a "reach" judging by conventional metrics like acceptance rates. While test scores can get you through the initial rounds, there only needs to be 2 or 3 applicants with a better profile to knock you down to the waitlist in many cases. The process itself is also a bit more arbitrary. You can have a great profile but if your research interests only overlap with one or two professors who don't want to take on new students then there's a good chance that you may not get an offer. You should count any acceptance as a win!
  13. BCB
    Waitlists can be a tough position to be in. There are years where our school will go down the waitlist and other years where they don't. I think it is largely dependent upon what type of students they are looking for, how many spots they have available, and how busy the faculty is with students who are already in the program. I would not give up hope just yet if you've been waitlisted at a place where you really want to go. It might be a good idea to periodically check in with the coordinator every couple of weeks to see if there is any movement and show that you have continued interest. The nice thing about PhD admission is that (most) schools abide by the April 15th rule for accepting/rejecting offers so you know that everyone else in this process is working under the same deadline as you. Also, don't be bummed or doubt yourself about not making it into the primary group! Oftentimes schools have to make arbitrary decisions based upon expected research fit/advisor availability or even test scores in distinguishing between who gets the initial offers and who gets waitlisted. If you are on the waitlist, then they have already decided that you are a great applicant and it probably just comes down to things that you don't have as much control over.
  14. BCB
    One note on craigslist - While there are many great deals, you should be careful about how you approach those ads. There are many scam postings in my area and some of them are pretty convincing - particularly if you are international and won't be able to verify things in person. I would advise not using craigslist unless you are already here and can meet the landlord and see the property before putting down a deposit. That being said, many craigslist ads are through individual landlords/subletters who may be a little more flexible on lease terms/etc. Another plus with craigslist is that there are often rentals that are available immediately too. I agree that it is definitely a good idea to talk to PhD students who are in the area too! I am always happy to provide this information to incoming students and would also be willing to go check out apartments for people.
  15. BCB
    This is very dependent upon region. I don't think it would hurt to start looking soon. Many college towns will sign leases quite early for August move in dates. I am in a hot housing market where we opted to buy instead of rent and we closed on a house at the end of April and moved in near the end of July. I think several of the other students in my program secured housing around May or June.
  16. BCB
    He clarifies in a later tweet that he only included tenure track jobs. The majority of jobs listed in the 600 figure I gave above are also tenure track but there are a few lecturer/VAPs listed as well (No adjuncts or post docs). However, the spring market is just starting so I suspect that more job postings are coming. Although the Management market is healthier in terms of PhDs:Jobs ratio and probably pay, your program does make a difference. If I were in your position, I would probably plan on sticking with Management. But if you get into a top ten sociology program and a much lower ranked business program, I wouldn't immediately discount the sociology program. One of the most gifted early career researchers in my area actually has a PhD in Sociology and is at a reasonably ranked R1 business school. It is rare, but a strong sociology PhD can make their way into a business school if they study the right research topics.
  17. BCB
    My opinion is that the micro market is more challenging, but others may argue that Micro has more A-Level publication outlets which makes it easier to publish. I do not know of an easy way to determine this. The applicants figure may be a bit misleading as not everyone who is signed up for career services is actually on the market. I would guess that there are roughly 150 AACSB PhD programs in the US that each produce 2 or 3 new PhDs a year. About 600 Tenure Track jobs have been posted to start Fall 2020 but many of those end up hiring assistant professors.
  18. BCB
    Here is a link to a recent job placement presentation. Your experience on the job market will be largely dependent upon the program you are in and how productive you are. I am an ABD student at a mid tier R1 and every person who has left our program since I've started here has had no issue getting a tenure track job. Are you macro/strategy or micro/OB focused? I am assuming that since you also applied to sociology programs that you are trending towards macro? Top tier R1s will be in the 170K-200K range + summer support (usually 2/9s your base salary) Mid and low tier R1 jobs will range from 135K-170K + summer support (usually 1/9 or 2/9 base salary) R2s are probably in the 120-130K range (not all offer summer support) There are also some R2s that pay quite well. R3s/teaching schools are in the 90-120K range You will need to come from a solid program and have an A pub or late stage A R&Rs to hit an R1 if you are a macro candidate. Micro candidates tend to need multiple As. Of course, this may be completely different four or five years from now when you're on the market.
  19. BCB
    Yes - definitely a good idea to ask after you've been admitted. I think the comps related questions would be best answered by current students in the program and should give you more insight into distinguishing between students who drop out voluntarily vs those who are not permitted to complete the program. I think that comps is the metric that most programs use to weed out under performing students but PhD students will also drop out for reasons that have nothing to do with poor performance. You are definitely asking the right questions here. It would be nice if this data were more readily available!
  20. BCB
    This would be a good question to ask the PhD program coordinator or existing students in the program. I have noticed that fewer schools are publicly posting placements. These are very important questions to ask and I wish I had thought to ask them myself when I was considering programs. I would also suggest asking about the comps process and what the initial pass rates are.
  21. BCB
    Since you are pretty sure that academia is where you want to end up, it is probably a good idea to look more closely at the strategy/IS/MGMT programs rather than the econ programs. Econ tends to send a pretty healthy number of graduates to industry and academic jobs are a bit harder to come by comparatively. The impact of technology on markets and society is a very macro/strategy type topic. Strategy programs that have people with public policy/sociology backgrounds could be a good fit here (UC-Berkley, WashU, GWU, Indiana, Carnegie Mellon, etc).
  22. BCB
    Before I give you this advice, keep in mind that it is US-centric and probably not applicable if you are applying to many international/European style programs where research effectively begins day 1 with no/limited coursework. There is no need to upload a writing sample unless the application specifically calls for it. Honestly, it is probably something that would be used as a means of exclusion rather than inclusion in candidate pools. Most adcoms probably only evaluate the writing sample in terms of your ability to meet a minimum threshold to communicate effectively and not in terms of academic or scholarly rigor. Thus, a bad writing sample will hurt you more than a good writing sample would help you. In terms of being able to communicate scholarly ability, they will be looking for things like conference presentations (relatively uncommon for a PhD applicant) or publications/manuscripts under review (very rare for a PhD applicant) at high level scholarly outlets. What program areas are you applying to? Several big conference deadlines are coming up and it might be a good idea to submit it there so that you can list it on your CV as being under review/submitted for consideration. Do not attach the writing sample to your SOP. If you are pretty confident that your writing sample will convey information about your scholarly aptitude above and beyond what your CV shows, then I think it would be a good idea to email the PhD program director and ask if this is something that they would like included in your application materials.
  23. BCB
    It is probably a bit of a an overstatement that the DV is always firm performance. Innovation is a booming research area that falls under the strategy umbrella too. It may be more accurate to say that the unit of analysis in strategic management tends to be the firm and related firm level outcomes (although we also frequently look at industry level (social movements) and individual level (CEO/Board/TMT) outcomes as well). There is wide variation in strategy programs and many do place a heavier emphasis on exactly what you're looking for (Tech & innovation) with heavy econ based training. I suffered through econometrics as an undergrad and had no interest in pursuing that any further so I am not as helpful on that end but I have many contacts who selected more econ-rigorous strategy PhD programs. You may want to look into Information Systems, operations management, or supply chain management PhD programs. Are you 100% focused on getting a tenure track job as a professor?
  24. BCB
  25. BCB
    Wonderful news! I will be on the market next year. I'm super anxious and excited at the same time!
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