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Test Scores : 336 GRE (167 VA, 169 QA, 5 AW) Undergrad GPA : 3.1 from Indian Institute of Management (one of the top 6 Indian business schools) Research Experience : 0 Work Experience : 5 Years Concentration Applying to : Organization Behavior Number of Programs Planned to Apply to : 15 in top 25 Dream Schools : MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Wharton, INSEAD What made you want to pursue a PhD? Love for teaching and the desire to have reading-writing-thinking life. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? My doubt is regarding my suitability to the program I am applying to. When I looked at OB faculty in most schools profs have a background in Psychology or Sociology. Mine is engineering (besides B school) Is that a big factor? Also, 0 research experience.

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. In today’s world, we often find ourselves engrossed in the clutches of so-called “Globalization”. Whenever the topic of “culture” springs up in family discussions, my mother always delivers a harangue about how the cities are losing their grip on the core culture of our country. Unfortunately but indeed, this view-point is true. The ‘actual’ society of a country resides in its small villages and towns in the countryside. Being a boy born and brought up in two Indian megapolises, I can corroborate this quite well. Indian women residing in the cities, generally tend to demur when they are asked to wear the ‘saree’ (our national dress for women) to their workplaces. People in Mumbai or New Delhi have an increasing predilection for Italian, Chinese, Mexican and Turkish cuisines inspite of having their own variegated cuisine, which ironically is desired by people all over the world. Nowadays, there is an increasing tendency of the people residing in the cities, to eschew their respective mother language and converse only in English, just to elicit awe and respect from their peers and acquaintances. But is this all what actually represents the most important characteristics of our society??? Absolutely not. As an Indian with most of my relatives living in a small town in the countryside, I know that people living in the towns and villages are still not very well rehearsed in the daily usage of English. My cousin sister working in a small private firm in her town, still commutes to work daily wearing the traditional dress, and with her do the plethora of women in the smaller cities and towns. My friends coming from smaller cities, have revealed that people in their native places have never even heard of any other cuisine existing apart from their own!!! But here comes the point of how one defines the so-called “characteristics” of a society. If a person sitting comfortably in his drawing-room in New York wants to find out about the current fashion trends in India or the most-viewed Hollywood movie in India, then he/she definitely has to go through the statistics of the major Indian cities’ customers’ preferences. If a multi-national company desires to open a branch office in Mumbai, it will of course go through the demographics of Mumbai and not some small village of 100 inhabitants up in the hills of the north-east. But inspite of all the contradicting views, I would say that if you want to understand the most important aspects and characteristics of my country, you would have to hop to the countryside and visit the people there to appreciate what it means to be a part of my society.

Kindly evaluate my profile: I want to join a good Econ PhD program, preferably in Europe, in the academic year 2016-17. · MBA (2011) from IIM Ahmedabad (India's top-ranked business school; FT MBA school rank 26 in the world for 2015) · M.Sc.(2011) in International Management, Bocconi University (Double Degree). · Thesis: "The role of advertisement-based sites in the growth of online advertising in India" · Bocconi GPA: 98/110 · IIMA GPA: 2.99/4 (While I was probably only in the top 70-100 in my ~300 strong batch, the MBA program of IIMA is one of most difficult in the world to get into, with admission rates around 0.1%. Each year this program is attended by ~300 of the best students in entire India, across disciplines. And this place uses relative grading. That means no one in the history of IIMA ever earned US-like GPA's such as 3.8+/4 etc. The max. GPA's would range around 3.4...3.5) · Working in the industry for the last 3.5 years (would be 4.5 years by the time I join a PhD program). For the last 1+ years I've been working in a Big 4 firm, in financial risk management advisory services. This role involves a significant amount of quantitative modelling in areas such as risk quantification (VaR, CFaR etc.), price forecasting using various models such as Vector Auto Regression etc. · B.Tech. in Electronics and Telecommunication in 2009 from one of top 20 engineering schools in India (Jadavpur University, Kolkata, for those who know) · Ranked 4/45000 in my state in West Bengal JEE in 2005. (Again, for those who understand what that is). The schools I'm targeting so far: University of Warwick, UK University of Nottingham, UK Paris School of Economics, France Toulouse school of economics, France Université catholique de Louvain, France Università Bocconi, Italy Tilburg University, Netherlands Maastricht University, Netherlands Erasmus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands (Tinbergen Institute) Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden University of Zurich, Switzerland National University of Singapore, Singapore [*]Given my profile, is it realistic to apply to these programs? [*]Given my profile, are there any other suitable Economics PhD programs in Europe (or Asia) which I should apply to? [*]Academic recommendations: Since I would be applying to Economics programs, I'd need recommendation letters from Economics professors in IIMA and/or Bocconi. Given my absence from academia for the last 3.5 years, it's difficult for me to get really strong recommendations from such professors. I plan to try and assist one of my Economics professors in IIMA or Bocconi on some small project over the next one year and request them for a recommendation on the basis of that. Given I work full-time as a consultant, this association (if at all possible) will have to be part-time and remote. There is no other credit whatsoever that I'm seeking out of such an association apart from research experience, enhancement of domain knowledge and support of my guide. Is this strategy at all realistic? [*]Thanks a million everyone for your very valuable inputs.

Hey All, I have just finished my GRE and scored 322(V-157 Q-165). AWA Scores are awaited ~3/3.5. CGPA of 7.2/10(Information Technology, MIT Manipal). 1.5 Years from Oracle and 1 year at ZS Associates. Planing for Computer Science MS. Can you please suggest a few colleges? Also, any clue about selection criteria for CMU?? Thanks in advance!

Hi All, I have just started to actively pursue my PhD dreams. I have gone through this forum in detail and appreciate the honest feedback, comments and advice put forward. I hope you could help out in my pursuit too. About Me: Nationality: India Age: 25 years Post Graduate Diploma in Management - with dual specialization in Marketing and Operations Management; CGPA: 7.38/10 The course is recognized as an equivalent to MBA by Association of Indian Universities. [*]Bachelor of Science (Computer Science); CGPA: 7.28/10 [*]Yet to take GMAT and TOEFL - Have started preparations and planning to take TOEFL in September, GMAT in mid-October. [*]Research Experiences - A couple of decent projects during my Management programme. [*]Active in college level activities One of the winners (came 7th) of a national level marketing competition (Nissan Student Brand Manager). Was a leader in organizing Asia-level round of an International Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) for two consecutive years. Headed students associations and actively led multiple regional and college-level events. [*]Work Experience: 1 year as a Software Developer and 1+ years in Sales and Marketing. Expectations: A career in academics. I hail from a family of academicians and I think it runs in my blood too. Have two very specific areas of research (though nothing is finalised) Comes under PhD Marketing (is around B2B Branding) Not sure if it would come under Marketing or Strategy (is around high tech innovations by SMEs - mostly from a marketing perspective) [*]Initially wanted to do a PhD from India. But after some research, was saddened to find that the best of PhDs are merely MBA+ programmes. Hence is open to any university/country with good research culture and facilities (US, UK, France is my top 3; Scandinavia is another option I am thinking). Concerns: The universities I attended (esp the one for my Management degree) does not have a favourable reputation at international level. My grades are not all that great too. However, I would be in the top 20-25%. Breaking into 700+ in GMAT could be a challenge. To be realistic, I am expecting around 650 - 680. I am good in verbal and is working hard on the quant area. I am not really sure if I should even be targeting the Top 30 institutions. Recommendation letters- It is another challenge all together as only a very few of my professors have PhDs. Neither did I have any close interactions with those that have it. I can barely think of 2 valid recommendation letters! I am planning to start my PhD by fall of 2015. Please advice if I stand any chance and which schools I should be targeting. Also, if I manage to get a high GMAT score (around 720+), do you think I have a chance in schools like Harvard or Wharton? (In that case, I can wait and make it happen). Thanks in advance.

I have completed my B.Com from Mumbai University and would like to pursue a PhD Programme from a US University. Since my major is not Economics, I was thinking of taking the diploma in Economics from LSE via distance learning. How valuable is this diploma in US? I am also currently doing my Chartered Accountancy. I Will be a Chartered Accountant in an year. (If I clear my final exam) Assuming I get a decent GRE score and complete both the diploma from LSE and Chartered Accountancy, would I be able to get into a top PhD programme in USA? Any answer is most welcome.

An Indian undergraduate student currently studying in one of the best colleges in India....probably relatively unknown outside India. I have and undergrad GPA of around 3.3-3.4. I'd like to know if I've got any chance of getting accepted in any of the masters programmes in Europe....TSE, GSE,PSE, LSE, Warwick. What about the M.Sc. in Development Economics at Oxford?