RomaDindi

Yes, shall do. :)

Yes, shall do. :)

I have both personal and professional reasons regarding why I want to do a PhD. Personally, I think I have always functioned much better in an academic set-up than industry set-up. The kind of work I do right now has very little to do with core research, is very service-oriented and is not satisfactory. Yes, I do not have academic research experience and I wish I did. Working with my professors during my time as a student at my university has to an extent, given me a vague idea of how academic research works? What I miss the most right now is the way I worked and the type of efforts that were expected out of me (by my mentors) as a researcher. It was never too easy but the work always had the right kind of challenges to deal with and also, the results were extremely gratifying. It is not the same anymore. The reasons why I took some time off after graduation was mainly to understand my research interests and what I was good at and also, I needed the money to pay off my education loan :) The decisions I made so far have put me in this position today but, I wouldn't say I regret any of it because it has helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses as an individual and as a professional. I think now, I will be able to use these industry learnings to my advantage for my research study in the near future. I have tried many ways to get back to the kind of research work I did back then and I am willing to work hard. I believe a PhD program is the only way I will be able to fulfill my career and personal goals. My academic performance is not up to PhD standards but, I believe my performance in the research specific subjects (for example, statistics, research methodology, etc.) has been good. I am not sure if this will help and there is not much I can do about it anymore. I will definitely consider this suggestion. Thank you so much! A right direction is all I need at the moment. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.png I am quite comfortable with Math. I think all I need is some practice at the moment and I should be fine. I do not have any core programming experience but, I do work on technical executions at my workplace that requires a bit of programming (depends on the scale of work) Also, I have a basic understanding of how R tool works and though I haven't used it for my work, I do practice on it once in a while. Economics or Econometrics are subjects that I wish I was good at. If given the chance and the time, I would explore it. I have started re-working on my research skills and knowledge at the moment. I have tried getting hold of few research projects at universities but, sadly only few in India are recognized globally for their work. I haven't stopped trying. Thank you so much for your time, BrazilianPhD. Your review has helped me a lot and I will do what is required. - Roma P.S. Love your blog too! The information is exactly what we applicants look for. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.png

Thank you and yes, I understand. I will keep this in mind. :) It is not a converted GPA value and the highest score at my university was 3.7/4.00. So, maybe I can assume that it's a good thing? Not sure. I have started brushing up on my statistics knowledge by studying online courses - MIT Opencourseware. Will this help or would a paid course that offers a certificate add any value to my application? Kindly, suggest. I do plan to write my GRE exam this August and I want to be able to score at least 320 or more if that's possible. I am assuming that GRE scores are also used for screening applications and that there is no preference for a GMAT score. I have tried applying for 'research assistant-ship' at few good universities but, I haven't received any call yet. I haven't stopped trying. I have sent emails to few students (current PhD students) from some of the universities like Marshall School (USC), Simon (Rochester) and others asking them about their research work. Few have responded while the others haven't yet. Maybe, I am not asking the right questions. I have tried reading few published papers too. Honestly, I am struggling with shortlisting universities that offer programs suitable to my skills/research interests. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon9.png I believe my experience with so many marketing research projects has helped me understand few things about what I want to focus my research study on. I have always enjoyed analyzing the effect of each marketing experiment on a set of audiences and the responses recorded in the analytics tool(s). I provide suggestions improve on-site visitor experience or product delivery experience and I do this by looking at multiple parameters like the user purchase funnel, micro-interactions on site and other similar engagement parameters from each marketing source. I do know that I want to explore this field further. So, it's more inclined towards internet marketing, website effectiveness, funnel analysis (digital field specific) and mainly, marketing performance. I haven't been able to find many papers based on these research topics. Should I be looking at any specific journal because "marketing" based search isn't helping. I am definitely taking this seriously. Thank you so much! I want to work with somebody who is an expert in this particular field. I will consider taking the quant route as most of the other research fields (consumer behavior) demand otherwise. This advice has been the best so far. It has given me clarity regarding what I should be expecting. I do want to work on my skills and research experience. I will consider all your suggestions. Thank you, XanthusARES :) P.S. Apologies for the super elaborated response.

Hello, Yes, I am aware that getting into the top 10 programs with my performance so far is impossible especially with no academic research experience and it is a little upsetting. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon9.png I am working on creating a better list of universities that are more specific to my research interests. I will definitely consider looking at the works of professors from the University of Arkansas and other universities that specialize in this area. Thank you so much for your review and help. Appreciate it.http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.png

Hello Everybody, To tell you a little bit about myself, I worked a part-time job during the final semester of my engineering as a Content Researcher with a media company I was responsible for collecting information and gathering requirements through in-person interviews, on-ground surveys, and online search for composing content for the company’s publications. It was during this time when I realized where my interests lay and so, I decided to undertake a research course in media communications to explore my options further. After earning my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I went on to pursue an MBA in Communications Management with a specialization in Media Management. Some of the courses that I enjoyed in the program were the ones related to Marketing, Research Methodologies, Statistics, and Consumer Behavior. During my internship, I worked on two research projects, one that involved determine meta-data values with the help of information collected from secondary offline and online sources based on their requirements, which was used to improve their TV content discovery and search across multiple device formats and the other project involved in-depth analysis of the Southeast Asian television market. With the organization's market presence already in Indonesia, they were looking to expand their business across other Southeast Asian countries. I enjoyed this project in particular as it involved extensive research work. I worked on several other research projects during my time at Symbiosis University, my favorite being the development of a white paper for one of the most renowned media networks. The objective of the project was to analyze technology adoption and, identify and understand digital content consumption patterns of users across multiple device formats. We used the secondary online databases and industry reports to put together all our observations. After graduation, I took a small leap from the Media to Information Technology industry and joined a marketing research firm. During my short stint as a Market Research Analyst here, I worked on forecasting demand, identifying new technologies and new investment opportunities in the Information Technology sector. Realizing that my strengths lay mainly in the Media industry, I joined a digital marketing agency. I have been working here as an Analyst in the Marketing Analytics department for almost 1.6 (will be 3 by next year) years now. As an analyst, I work on evaluating marketing channel performance, consumer-product interaction on the brand website, consumer’s purchase behavior, formulating key performance metrics to check for brand/product interactivity and website performance concerning site engagement by using different analytical tools (Google, Adobe, etc.). I have always enjoyed working on retail industry-specific projects, and this is one of the primary reasons why I want to undertake research in this field. I haven't had the chance to work in an academic set-up after graduation. Also, I needed some time to figure out my research interests and I am still working on figuring out a specific area of interest in the online retail space. I think my academic performance has been OKAY so far. I have narrowed down my research interests into three broad areas in online retail - Identifying gaps in user buying journeys to improve and create better product delivery experiences online at each touch-point (focused on micro-moments), effect of each marketing experiment on user buying behavior and comprehending the actual purchase intent of the consumers. Undergraduate: 60% B.Tech in Computer Science, JNTU, Kakinada) Post-Graduation: 3.12/4.00 (MBA - Communications Management, Symbiosis International University) Work Experience: 2 years and more I plan to take GRE and TOEFL this August (2017). I am considering applying to some of these schools - University of Chicago (Booth), Maryland (Robert H.Smith) NYU Stern, University of Georgia, Univ. of South California, and similar other schools. I have read some their research papers and it is very much aligned with my interests. Could you please suggest if there is anything else that I should be doing to strengthen my application and schools that I should be looking at? I would prefer a brutally honest response on my profile. Would really appreciate it. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.png Thanks, Roma P.S. Apologies for the long post.