Profile Evaluation

[bbiibbmbbu]

Fall 2023 Marketing Strategy Applicant

Undergrad GPA: Engineer from a Tier 2 Indian University (7.26/10 - First class)

Graduate GPA: MBA from a Top-10 Indian B-school. (3.29/4.33) 

GRE- 329 (167Q, 162V, 5AWA)

Research Experience: In addition to master’s thesis, currently working as a full time RA with marketing professors at top B-school in India. 
Hoping to have two working papers before application submission and a conference submission.

Teaching Experience: NA

Work Experience: 3 years in an Automobile Firm as Regional Manager- Marketing Analytics and Strategy 

Concentration Applying to: Marketing Strategy

Number of programs planned to apply to: 15

Dream Schools: UT - Austin, Texas A&M, UGA, Georgia Tech 

LOR - Two strong LORs from the marketing profs I am working with. Hopes for a third one from a professor with a strong presence in the US academia circle (he is currently a chair at one of my target universities) 

Other Questions: Is this good enough for acceptance. I had previously applied in 2020 without research experience and had interviews from 5 places but was eventually ghosted/ waitlisted. 

Should I be mailing professors beforehand? I have received mixed responses for this question since it’s a must in some fields and not really in others. I don’t want it to backfire so I want to be sure before I shoot any mails.

What made you want to pursue a PhD?

I was always interested in marketing as a field. That was the reason I took up MBA. However i soon realised this is not the kind of marketing I wanted to do. I wanted to understand it at a deeper and theoretical level. In industry, marketing means advertising and that’s not what I was going for. Due to study loans, I had to work to pay off the debt. As soon as that was done I applied to PhD programs. Got rejected and took up a full time RA role to learn and to see whether this is what I really want to do. And I guess I do!! 

 

Questions or concerns you have about your profile?

The GPA is kind of average. Do universities exclusively go for gold medallists? 
Again not sure about this since I have previously been shortlisted for interviews. 
I might not have a publication. Will this be a deal breaker? 

 

Any additional specific questions you may have:

Should I mention my previous applications in the SOP? Sort of to highlight that I persisted and persevered and so this proves that I am in this for the long haul? 

 

[bbiibbmbbu]

Would really appreciate an insight !! Anyone here? 

[Shah]

you have a really good profile and score. Aim for a more prestigious B-School. 

But please do tell me, how you got this high GRE score?

[BrazilianPhD]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

Other Questions: Is this good enough for acceptance. I had previously applied in 2020 without research experience and had interviews from 5 places but was eventually ghosted/ waitlisted. 

I think it's good enough for acceptance. But of course there is no guarantee. You being waitlisted shows your profile is good. 2020 was a bad year, lots of universities were forced to change plans, freeze hiring, etc., due to the pandemic. Even those who could get new people often decided to wait to be sure about the future, or reduce the number of students accepted. 

 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

Should I be mailing professors beforehand? I have received mixed responses for this question since it’s a must in some fields and not really in others. I don’t want it to backfire so I want to be sure before I shoot any mails.

I didn't email any professor, and I remember some schools explicitly advising against that. It is a must in other fields, but not in marketing. 

 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

What made you want to pursue a PhD?

I was always interested in marketing as a field. That was the reason I took up MBA. However i soon realised this is not the kind of marketing I wanted to do. I wanted to understand it at a deeper and theoretical level. In industry, marketing means advertising and that’s not what I was going for. Due to study loans, I had to work to pay off the debt. As soon as that was done I applied to PhD programs. Got rejected and took up a full time RA role to learn and to see whether this is what I really want to do. And I guess I do!! 

This doesn't seem to be strong enough. You tell yo don't want advertising, but you don't tell what topic you want and why.

You mentioned applying to Marketing Strategy, but at least when I applied a lot of schools made me choose between Quant and CB even though I'm mainly a Marketing Strategy guy. So, I think you need to better position yourself because it's not clear what is your approach here.  

I don't know what you mean by theoretical, but usually marketing strategy is considered the least theoretical among the research tracks for marketing. So, saying that makes me think marketing strategy can be a bad match for your goals. 

 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

Questions or concerns you have about your profile?

The GPA is kind of average. Do universities exclusively go for gold medallists? 

No. My undergrad GPA was crap, for example. Because my university's grading system is very harsh. Nobody seemed to care. 

 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

Again not sure about this since I have previously been shortlisted for interviews. 
I might not have a publication. Will this be a deal breaker? 

No. In marketing, I'd say it's rare to have someone with a publication. And, if they have a publication, it's probably a low level journal. So, it's nice if you have a publication, but it's far from being a deal breaker. 

 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:21 PM, bbiibbmbbu said:

Any additional specific questions you may have:

Should I mention my previous applications in the SOP? Sort of to highlight that I persisted and persevered and so this proves that I am in this for the long haul? 

I don't think it's worth it. It can show you persisted, just like it can show that you were widely rejected before. And I don't think this actually proves you're in this for long haul. It may be some evidence, but a much better evidence is a well-known professor saying that in the LoR.

By the way, we don't check the posts here often anymore since there is barely anything new. It may be better to send a direct message to some users in the field that helped people in the past, telling them about a post about a profile evaluation.