SEEKING A PROFILE EVALUATION (for FALL 2016 ENTRY)?? (PLEASE POST HERE)

[lawret]

Fair point ... here is the list I got from the site .... with the categories they use ....

 

STRONG (top candidate):

U of Connecticut

u of Pittsburgh

Southern Methodist

 

COMPETITIVE (above par, solid shot):

Boston U

Penn State

Temple U

 

PAR (similar to other candidates):

NYU

Carnegie Mellon

Cornell

 

POSSIBLE (need to address gaps):

Columbia

U Chicago

Tuck

 

STRETCH:

HBS

Stanford

Wharton

[lawret]

There is also an option to crowdsource opinions pretty easily on there ....

[YaSvoboden]

Fair point ... here is the list I got from the site .... with the categories they use ....

 

STRONG (top candidate):

U of Connecticut

u of Pittsburgh

Southern Methodist

 

COMPETITIVE (above par, solid shot):

Boston U

Penn State

Temple U

 

PAR (similar to other candidates):

NYU

Carnegie Mellon

Cornell

 

POSSIBLE (need to address gaps):

Columbia

U Chicago

Tuck

 

STRETCH:

HBS

Stanford

Wharton

Is this for MBAs? That is the only thing that makes sense.

[XanthusARES]

Fair point ... here is the list I got from the site .... with the categories they use ....

 

My bad. I updated my previous post. Anytime someone comes in without a previous post and links us to a site without showing us the actual link, I just assume it's spam.

 

I checked out the link and this is definitely for MBA programs. I doubt it would be particularly helpful for PhD's. Unless, of course, you are using it just to get an idea of places to look at. Even then I would suggest using the link in rsaylors signature.

[rise and shine]

I am looking for some idea on what range of schools should I be aiming for. Will be applying for fall 2017 entry, finance.

 

Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): Will take after summer, confident I'll ace at least quant.

Undegrad GPA: ~4.1/5.0

Graduate GPA: 5.0/5.0

Research Experience: UG Thesis, couple of 20+ page research papers for courses, 60+ page Master's Thesis. Outstanding grades for all. No RA work so far, will look to get some under my belt this fall.

Teaching Experience: None

Work Experience: Asset management/sales related, under a year. I've also passed CFA Level 1 test for what its worth.

 

LORs: One solid (thesis advisor, has connections in US), other two are still work in progress. Might try to play up my international experience and get letters from profs who supervised my research papers during exchange (both seemed very satisfied/impressed with the work I did) but I'd imagine these will be good at best.

 

Concentration Applying to: Finance

Number of programs planned to apply to: ~10

Dream Schools: Planning on applying to at least Stanford, Berkley, UCLA, UCSD, Duke, U of Texas Austin and about 5ish more, probably inc. couple of dream schools and two safer picks

 

What made you want to pursue a PhD: I enjoy doing research and have no problem with doing big projects on my own. PhD is also a gateway to pretty much all jobs I'm interested in finance, whether it'll be industry or academia.

 

Concerns you have about your profile: My B.Sc and M.Sc (both finance) are from a very solid European University but it isn't usually ranked that highly, around T20-50 in Europe depending on which ranking you wan't to believe. I got two study abroad semesters under my belt, one in T20-30 US University and other in T3 Canadian MBA program. How much these will make up for the lack of name of my home Uni is unclear to me. I have also crushed the degree in pretty much record time, over one year under the target time, and will graduate at the top of my class given my perfect GPA.

 

Any additional specific questions you may have: Like I mentioned in the beginning, I'm looking to get an idea of the range of schools I should be applying to and the chances I have at the schools I mentioned earlier. Any ideas of what I can do with my profile before winter, except for the obvious (ace my GMAT, secure good LORs, get more research experience)?

[lawret]

Hmm... Looks like some more degree options have been added. I was able to pick a list for comp engr for example ... Probably not scientific but a good starting point for someone who doesn't know where to start...

 

 

STRONG (top candidate):

U Mass-Amherst

Boston U

Northeastern U

COMPETITIVE (above par, solid shot):

U of Virginia

U of Colorado-Boulder

U of Arizona

PAR (similar to other candidates):

Penn State

U Penn

Texas A&M

POSSIBLE (need to address gaps):

U of Washington

U of Wisconsin-Madison

UC San Diego

STRETCH:

Stanford

Carnegie Mellon

UC Berkeley

[BryceL]

Applying to OB programs for Fall 2017.

GMAT: 730 (96%). Q 50 (89%), V 40 (90%).

Undegrad GPA: 3.48. Finance major. T 50 university.

Graduate GPA: 3.80. Experimental psychology. Small state school.

Research Experience: Completing a masters thesis in goal setting, which is what I want to research in my phd program.

Teaching Experience: None.

Work Experience: Sales jobs.

 

Concentration Applying to: OB.

Number of programs planned to apply to: 10.

Dream Schools: Michigan state. University of Toronto. Stanford.

 

What made you want to pursue a PhD: I am very interested in OB research. My interests include productivity, self-regulation, and goal-setting in organizations.

 

Concerns you have about your profile: My first two years of college were at a community college, and my GPA went downhill during my last two years of undergrad.

 

Any additional specific questions you may have:

I know that I should apply to programs where my research interests match those of the faculty. I'm not sure how to use that as a guide for selecting programs, since I don't know for sure which faculty members in each program are available to work with incoming phd students. Also there aren't many professors that focus exclusively on my area of interest, but there a lot of professors that dabble in it. I don't see a way to really determine whether one school is a better research fit than another.

 

Thanks!

[Bizz]

I'm a fellow 2017 OB applicant. I wouldn't worry about finding a professor who is doing exactly what you're interested in. One of my research interests is motivation, broadly speaking, so I looked for professors doing research on motivation, emotions, and other similar work. They can still offer plenty of insight and direction even if my research questions aren't the same as what they're pursuing. Even if I end up changing my specific research questions (which is likely), I am still interested in all of the different areas that my potential PIs are researching. However, I am not applying to programs that have only one professor doing research in an area I'm interested in, since like you said, if they aren't accepting students or if they retire/relocate I could be in a tough situation.

 

I'm sure you're doing a ton of reading for your thesis, and since your thesis is something you want to continue with at the PhD level, you should start seeing a lot of names of professors you'd like to work with. See what institutions they're at, if they have a PhD program in management or OB, and go from there. Read a few other papers of professors you might like to work with to see if their work catches your interest. Some programs and even specific professors state whether they're accepting new students on their websites. This isn't something I've seen a lot of, but you could always email them and ask, and include a thoughtful question or comment about their work (see the other post about reaching out to POIs prior to application/admission).

[BryceL]

Alright thanks for the advice! That's helpful.