Just answered a question at Urch about stating the reasons for choosing a specific school in an SoP and, more specifically, about stating that the reason is a specific faculty research . Thought my answer could be useful to someone later here.
I believe different people have different reasons to want a school. So, if your strongest reason is really a specific faculty I think you should go ahead and say it. And of course try to explain why in a convincing way. If that's not the reason, then you should tell them what is the reason.
I think too many applicants try to write what they think the school wants to hear, or try to follow a magic prescription for an SoP. Then the reasons sound weak, vague, generic, without personality. Because they are not the true reasons.
A combination of reasons can be important too, instead of just the strongest reason. Even if the faculty is your strongest reason, it is probably also the strongest reason in many other applications the school is evaluating.
Again, I didn't go too deep into that in my SoP (not enough space for that), but I was really asked about that kind of thing afterwards in the interview. And when I was asked, I was able to list reason after reason after reason. And many of my reasons wouldn't make sense for another applicant. Because they are MY reasons. It would be very hard to find another applicant saying the same things. By the way, I don't think my reasons were that amazing, but they were honest, and so I can be much more convincing that way.
My PhD Tales - A Brazilian in the Land of Business PhD
Showing posts with label School selection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School selection. Show all posts
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Monday, April 3, 2017
Defining a List of Schools to Apply for Business PhD
To choose schools. That's one of the hardest parts of applying to PhD. Also hard to tell a good way to do it. I'll share my experience and hope it can shed some light on the process.
So, I had defined that I would apply to PhD in the US, and that it would be in the Marketing concentration. I also had my GMAT and my TOEFL (IELTS as plan B). Add to that my transcripts, and I felt I was ready to go.
It is extremely difficult to gauge your own strength about many things, including your application's strength. If you are overconfident, it's bad. If you don't believe in yourself, it's bad. So, I really recommend you talk with more experienced and knowledgeable people about your profile, to get other people's points of view.
You should talk, for example, with those who are expected to write your letters of recommendation. If they are willing to recommend, they are willing to help. They can show ways you could improve, evaluate your odds. And talking to them may help them to write better letters of recommendations too.
I also recommend to use the forum at Urch.com, since there you will find not only other applicants like you, but also people who are already PhD students and candidates. Most of those people are not privy to the admissions process, but at least they are people who were successful in their application and can tell what worked for them. There isn't a lot of movement, but it seems there is always a loyal user who check the forum from time to time. Things get busier closer to deadlines. Very nice people over there.
People will not tell exactly which schools you should apply to. But they will have a feel about the general level of schools. That you should apply to top 50, or that you have a shot at a top 20, for example.
It seems that your GMAT/GRE score is very important to define the general level of school. A guide I found is top 10 for GMAT above 730, top 10-30 for GMAT 710-730, top 30-70 for GMAT 680-710, and below that GMAT 640-700. Of course that's just a rough estimate. That should be adjusted according to the strength of other aspects of your profile, like research experience. But it is a start. Although my GMAT score of 750 was enough for a top 10 according to that guide, I dont' think the rest of my application was equally strong, so I thought top 30-70 would be a better range. I applied to schools above that, but really didn't have much hope for top 20.
But how do I know if a school is top 10 or top 20? Which ranking do I use? Please do not use ranking for MBA schools, since MBA and PhD strengths of schools can be very different. It is not perfect, but the best ranking I found for PhD in business is the UTD ranking. That ranking is based on papers published by top journals, and you can make a ranking only with journals of your interest (Marketing journals, in my case). Since top researchers are able to publish at top journals, that ranking should show where are the best researchers in your concentration and, therefore, the best PhD programs.
Then you will see something interesting. A very well known school may be ranked much lower than a school you never heard about. Everybody knows about Harvard. But you may be able to find a school whose research in your concentration is stronger than Harvard's, and competition for PhD will not be as fierce since a lower number of people will apply to a lesser known school. You can find some hidden gems there.
You will also notice that a school ranked 80th, for example, can still be an amazingly great and known school. There are really many good schools around the world. So, don't feel like you got the short end of the stick if your profile seems to indicate a top 100 school.
So, I started to list schools around the level people suggested. Since I decided to apply widely to increase my odds of getting into a PhD in the US, I started with a long list of schools. If my final list was composed of 20 schools, the first list had much more than that, maybe 50 schools (out of the 100+ US schools listed by the American Marketing Association).
You will have to do some research about every school on your list. Some of the things you should try to evaluate:
- Where the school is located? Is it a place you'd like to live for years? If you hate cold weather, you should stay clear of freezing cities. If you have big cities, schools in New York are not the best choice.
- What is the culture of the school? What are its values? You may find that some schools are a perfect match to your personality, while others are far from it.
- How is the job placement record of the school? PhDs from good schools should be able to find academic jobs at nicely ranked schools.
- How good is the schools' financial aid? A school may be great, but without enough funding it may not be realistic for you depending on your financial needs and situation.
- And, the most important thing: is the school a good research fit for you?
That last item is really a lot of work, but one you should do. You should check who are the professors at the schools you listed. After you know that, you should find the papers they wrote, what kind of research they have an interest. Your goal is to find professors whose papers are a good fit to your own research interests. Right now you don't need to read those papers in depth, but take a look of them to know what they are about. If you don't find any professor with any work related to your research interests in a school, you probably should exclude that school from your list. If you find several professors aligned with your interests, that school should be a priority for you.
It may be a good opportunity to define or improve your research interests too. If you find too few schools, maybe your research interests are too narrow, too specific. If every school seems to fit your needs, your research interests are not specific enough. There may be cases where you know your research interests are really too specific, and you have your reasons to stick with them. But I believe having some flexibility about research interests is important to a PhD, since they are something that is expected to evolve.
The American Marketing Association has been saying for years and years, in one way or another, that Marketing metrics are a research priority. So, it was not a surprise to me that I found many schools with research about that. Some were really more closely related to the kind of metrics I am more interested (like customer lifetime value), some were not so close but still enough.
In my case, I also excluded schools from the list based on another factor. For most schools, application is totally online. But there are schools which require that you send documents like transcripts via snail mail. For me, it would increase the workload and the costs (it is very expensive to mail documents from Brazil to US), and I would have to rush to finish applications a lot earlier (since it takes a long time for schools to issue additional transcripts and to make them go all the way to the US). So, I applied to only one school which required physical copies, and that's only because I was informed about that after I finished by online application.
So, I ended with a list of 20 schools. Which, as I wrote before, it's much higher than the average.
So, I had defined that I would apply to PhD in the US, and that it would be in the Marketing concentration. I also had my GMAT and my TOEFL (IELTS as plan B). Add to that my transcripts, and I felt I was ready to go.
It is extremely difficult to gauge your own strength about many things, including your application's strength. If you are overconfident, it's bad. If you don't believe in yourself, it's bad. So, I really recommend you talk with more experienced and knowledgeable people about your profile, to get other people's points of view.
You should talk, for example, with those who are expected to write your letters of recommendation. If they are willing to recommend, they are willing to help. They can show ways you could improve, evaluate your odds. And talking to them may help them to write better letters of recommendations too.
I also recommend to use the forum at Urch.com, since there you will find not only other applicants like you, but also people who are already PhD students and candidates. Most of those people are not privy to the admissions process, but at least they are people who were successful in their application and can tell what worked for them. There isn't a lot of movement, but it seems there is always a loyal user who check the forum from time to time. Things get busier closer to deadlines. Very nice people over there.
People will not tell exactly which schools you should apply to. But they will have a feel about the general level of schools. That you should apply to top 50, or that you have a shot at a top 20, for example.
It seems that your GMAT/GRE score is very important to define the general level of school. A guide I found is top 10 for GMAT above 730, top 10-30 for GMAT 710-730, top 30-70 for GMAT 680-710, and below that GMAT 640-700. Of course that's just a rough estimate. That should be adjusted according to the strength of other aspects of your profile, like research experience. But it is a start. Although my GMAT score of 750 was enough for a top 10 according to that guide, I dont' think the rest of my application was equally strong, so I thought top 30-70 would be a better range. I applied to schools above that, but really didn't have much hope for top 20.
But how do I know if a school is top 10 or top 20? Which ranking do I use? Please do not use ranking for MBA schools, since MBA and PhD strengths of schools can be very different. It is not perfect, but the best ranking I found for PhD in business is the UTD ranking. That ranking is based on papers published by top journals, and you can make a ranking only with journals of your interest (Marketing journals, in my case). Since top researchers are able to publish at top journals, that ranking should show where are the best researchers in your concentration and, therefore, the best PhD programs.
Then you will see something interesting. A very well known school may be ranked much lower than a school you never heard about. Everybody knows about Harvard. But you may be able to find a school whose research in your concentration is stronger than Harvard's, and competition for PhD will not be as fierce since a lower number of people will apply to a lesser known school. You can find some hidden gems there.
You will also notice that a school ranked 80th, for example, can still be an amazingly great and known school. There are really many good schools around the world. So, don't feel like you got the short end of the stick if your profile seems to indicate a top 100 school.
So, I started to list schools around the level people suggested. Since I decided to apply widely to increase my odds of getting into a PhD in the US, I started with a long list of schools. If my final list was composed of 20 schools, the first list had much more than that, maybe 50 schools (out of the 100+ US schools listed by the American Marketing Association).
You will have to do some research about every school on your list. Some of the things you should try to evaluate:
- Where the school is located? Is it a place you'd like to live for years? If you hate cold weather, you should stay clear of freezing cities. If you have big cities, schools in New York are not the best choice.
- What is the culture of the school? What are its values? You may find that some schools are a perfect match to your personality, while others are far from it.
- How is the job placement record of the school? PhDs from good schools should be able to find academic jobs at nicely ranked schools.
- How good is the schools' financial aid? A school may be great, but without enough funding it may not be realistic for you depending on your financial needs and situation.
- And, the most important thing: is the school a good research fit for you?
That last item is really a lot of work, but one you should do. You should check who are the professors at the schools you listed. After you know that, you should find the papers they wrote, what kind of research they have an interest. Your goal is to find professors whose papers are a good fit to your own research interests. Right now you don't need to read those papers in depth, but take a look of them to know what they are about. If you don't find any professor with any work related to your research interests in a school, you probably should exclude that school from your list. If you find several professors aligned with your interests, that school should be a priority for you.
It may be a good opportunity to define or improve your research interests too. If you find too few schools, maybe your research interests are too narrow, too specific. If every school seems to fit your needs, your research interests are not specific enough. There may be cases where you know your research interests are really too specific, and you have your reasons to stick with them. But I believe having some flexibility about research interests is important to a PhD, since they are something that is expected to evolve.
The American Marketing Association has been saying for years and years, in one way or another, that Marketing metrics are a research priority. So, it was not a surprise to me that I found many schools with research about that. Some were really more closely related to the kind of metrics I am more interested (like customer lifetime value), some were not so close but still enough.
In my case, I also excluded schools from the list based on another factor. For most schools, application is totally online. But there are schools which require that you send documents like transcripts via snail mail. For me, it would increase the workload and the costs (it is very expensive to mail documents from Brazil to US), and I would have to rush to finish applications a lot earlier (since it takes a long time for schools to issue additional transcripts and to make them go all the way to the US). So, I applied to only one school which required physical copies, and that's only because I was informed about that after I finished by online application.
So, I ended with a list of 20 schools. Which, as I wrote before, it's much higher than the average.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Why Did I Choose the US for my PhD?
So, I'm from Brazil, but I'm going all the way to the US for a PhD. Why? Some people think I'm doing a mistake. And maybe I am, and I should stay in Brazil.
I could very well do a PhD in Brazil. If I do my PhD abroad, to be back in Brazil after I finish my PhD, I am expected to face a few hurdles. One, my PhD will not be officially recognized until I go through a long and expensive bureaucratic process, with uncertain results and timetable. Two, I will not have developed a strong network with Brazilian schools, professors, and researchers. And that may hurt my chances of a job once I'm back.
However, while doing my master's thesis, I noticed that there are very few works published by Brazilian researchers about the subject I'm interested. My research interest is very strong in other countries, but not in Brazil. So, if I am to get a strong education, I should go abroad to learn from the experts.
But there are many countries in the world. Including many with strong Marketing PhD programs. But I want to go to an English speaking country, since that's the language I can talk. I don't see myself living in a country without talking the language. That excludes top schools in places like Denmark.
Among the main English speaking countries for a PhD, it seems that US and Canada follow a style of PhD that is different from UK and Australia. PhD in US and Canada takes longer (about 5 years) and includes a heavy coursework, while PhD in UK and Australia are shorter (about 3 years) with no coursework. There are exceptions and other differences, but those are some important differences between those styles. (update: I had a nice feedback on PhD in UK and Australia, posted here)
I don't think I'm ready to dive directly into my dissertation research. I think following a coursework will make a lot of difference to me. It will take longer, it will be harder, but I think I'll be a better researcher in the end if I do my PhD in America. But depending on your degree of experience with research, how prepared you are, and what are your goals, that may not be your case.
For me, it makes sense to try a PhD in America. I only applied to US schools. If I could go back in time, I would have also applied to Canadian schools. Top Canadian schools are very equivalent to top US schools, and they should be on my list too. By the time I realized that, I was already too deep into the process of applying to US schools.
So, I applied to Marketing PhD programs in the US because that's a country with a very strong history of publishing about my research interests (something I could not find in Brazil), it is an English speaking country, its PhD style seems to be better suited to prepare me to become a researcher, and I ignored Canadian PhD when I shouldn't,
I could very well do a PhD in Brazil. If I do my PhD abroad, to be back in Brazil after I finish my PhD, I am expected to face a few hurdles. One, my PhD will not be officially recognized until I go through a long and expensive bureaucratic process, with uncertain results and timetable. Two, I will not have developed a strong network with Brazilian schools, professors, and researchers. And that may hurt my chances of a job once I'm back.
However, while doing my master's thesis, I noticed that there are very few works published by Brazilian researchers about the subject I'm interested. My research interest is very strong in other countries, but not in Brazil. So, if I am to get a strong education, I should go abroad to learn from the experts.
But there are many countries in the world. Including many with strong Marketing PhD programs. But I want to go to an English speaking country, since that's the language I can talk. I don't see myself living in a country without talking the language. That excludes top schools in places like Denmark.
Among the main English speaking countries for a PhD, it seems that US and Canada follow a style of PhD that is different from UK and Australia. PhD in US and Canada takes longer (about 5 years) and includes a heavy coursework, while PhD in UK and Australia are shorter (about 3 years) with no coursework. There are exceptions and other differences, but those are some important differences between those styles. (update: I had a nice feedback on PhD in UK and Australia, posted here)
I don't think I'm ready to dive directly into my dissertation research. I think following a coursework will make a lot of difference to me. It will take longer, it will be harder, but I think I'll be a better researcher in the end if I do my PhD in America. But depending on your degree of experience with research, how prepared you are, and what are your goals, that may not be your case.
For me, it makes sense to try a PhD in America. I only applied to US schools. If I could go back in time, I would have also applied to Canadian schools. Top Canadian schools are very equivalent to top US schools, and they should be on my list too. By the time I realized that, I was already too deep into the process of applying to US schools.
So, I applied to Marketing PhD programs in the US because that's a country with a very strong history of publishing about my research interests (something I could not find in Brazil), it is an English speaking country, its PhD style seems to be better suited to prepare me to become a researcher, and I ignored Canadian PhD when I shouldn't,
Sunday, March 19, 2017
I Should Apply to How Many Schools?
All, right! Let's go to the next question: "You applied to many schools - Is this the normal way that most applicants go about applying to schools? I was thinking of applying to 5-10 schools in US and Canada. Do you think this is a very low number?"
Well, that's the kind of question that could be discussed over, and over, and over... With no right answer.
The most successful applicant I've seen received 6 offers out of the 14 schools she applied to. But that is really an extraordinary result, not very common from what I've seen. So, I believe that if you apply to only 5 schools, getting 2 offers would be an extraordinary result, getting 1 offer would be a great result, and getting 0 offers would be a more realistic result.
And, even in that case, I see that she has some regret about not applying to more schools. One of the reasons she got so many offers is that she applied only to lower ranked schools, because she thought she was not competitive due to a low GMAT score. Since she got 6 offers from lower ranked schools, it might be very possible that she would get an offer from a higher ranked schools if she had applied to those. Now, she will probably never know for sure. But she is happy with the offers she has, so it is also not such a big deal.
I've seen many applicants regretting the decision to apply to too few schools. I've never seen an applicant regretting applying to too many schools. Remember that the acceptance rate of PhD programs in general is extremely low, and competition is very fierce. Even the strongest applicant will not be showered with offers. Ok, you may be a great applicant, but there are hundreds of great applicants out there. Overestimating your odds may be a costly mistake. As well as underestimating your odds.
So, I believe you should apply to many schools. But that doesn't mean the more, the better. Several things should be taken into consideration before applying to every school out there.
1 - How common is your research interest? If it is common, you will find a lot of schools and professors who are a great fit for you. If it's not so common, or very specific, you will find fewer schools which would be interested in you. In my case, marketing metrics have been a research priority for many years according to the American Marketing Association (AMA), so it was not so hard to find schools which seemed to be interested in that subject like me.
2 - How sure are you about the strength of your profile? If you are really sure about your competitiveness, you might be able to focus on schools at your level. For example, if you're sure your strength is suited for schools ranked Top 30, you could aply only to schools around that level. But it is extremely hard to assess your strength. So, if you believe your strength is Top 30, but you aren't so sure about that, it is probably a better strategy to apply not only to schools around Top 30, but also above that (Top 10, for example) and below that (Top 50, for example), covering your bases. In my case, people said I was an applicant for a top 25 school. But I really had doubts about it. I saw many strong points in my profile, but also a few weaknesses (like my age, my low GPA even if it was from a top school, and letters of recommendations from professors who are known in Brazil but not necessarily in the US). So, I focused my applications in the top 20-top 30 range, but also applied to schools ranked higher and lower than that.
3 - How much time do you have to prepare your application? Each school you add to your list is more work to be done. What kind of work? Read papers from the professors who are of your interest in each school (some schools may have several professors, each one with several interesting papers to read), and write a different Statement of Purpose for that school (you should not use a standard text for all schools, but I'll write more about it in the future), among other things that you shouldn't do in a hurry. I had a lot of time to prepare my applications, I applied to all of them before the deadline.
4 - How much money do you have saved for applications? Even credit card limits may be considered. Just the application fee is around $ 100 for each school. But total costs may be much higer, sending additional GMAT scores for each school, for example. I had money enough to apply to many schools, I believe it was not something I should be stingy with.
5 - How many schools are you really interested in? Please, only apply to a school if you'd be happy to go there for your PhD. It's annoying to see an applicant receive an offer, and then sound disappointed, planning to give up and try again next year. It's not just annoying, but a waste of time for the applicant, the school, and even other applicants which may be waitlisted because of that. I didn't get accepted by a "dream school" like Harvard, but I'd be more than satisfied to have offers from any schools I applied to. I will also write more later about school selection.
Even with all this, I think 5 is a really small number. I've seen a person who applied to only 1 school. But, then, it was an applicant who had great contacts with professors from that school and knew the chances were very good. I applied to 20 schools, but I was really risk averse, and that number is too much for most applicants. I calculated the average number of applications from a sample of 10 other business PhD applicants, and the average was 12 applications, with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 18.
Well, that's the kind of question that could be discussed over, and over, and over... With no right answer.
And, even in that case, I see that she has some regret about not applying to more schools. One of the reasons she got so many offers is that she applied only to lower ranked schools, because she thought she was not competitive due to a low GMAT score. Since she got 6 offers from lower ranked schools, it might be very possible that she would get an offer from a higher ranked schools if she had applied to those. Now, she will probably never know for sure. But she is happy with the offers she has, so it is also not such a big deal.
I've seen many applicants regretting the decision to apply to too few schools. I've never seen an applicant regretting applying to too many schools. Remember that the acceptance rate of PhD programs in general is extremely low, and competition is very fierce. Even the strongest applicant will not be showered with offers. Ok, you may be a great applicant, but there are hundreds of great applicants out there. Overestimating your odds may be a costly mistake. As well as underestimating your odds.
So, I believe you should apply to many schools. But that doesn't mean the more, the better. Several things should be taken into consideration before applying to every school out there.
1 - How common is your research interest? If it is common, you will find a lot of schools and professors who are a great fit for you. If it's not so common, or very specific, you will find fewer schools which would be interested in you. In my case, marketing metrics have been a research priority for many years according to the American Marketing Association (AMA), so it was not so hard to find schools which seemed to be interested in that subject like me.
2 - How sure are you about the strength of your profile? If you are really sure about your competitiveness, you might be able to focus on schools at your level. For example, if you're sure your strength is suited for schools ranked Top 30, you could aply only to schools around that level. But it is extremely hard to assess your strength. So, if you believe your strength is Top 30, but you aren't so sure about that, it is probably a better strategy to apply not only to schools around Top 30, but also above that (Top 10, for example) and below that (Top 50, for example), covering your bases. In my case, people said I was an applicant for a top 25 school. But I really had doubts about it. I saw many strong points in my profile, but also a few weaknesses (like my age, my low GPA even if it was from a top school, and letters of recommendations from professors who are known in Brazil but not necessarily in the US). So, I focused my applications in the top 20-top 30 range, but also applied to schools ranked higher and lower than that.
3 - How much time do you have to prepare your application? Each school you add to your list is more work to be done. What kind of work? Read papers from the professors who are of your interest in each school (some schools may have several professors, each one with several interesting papers to read), and write a different Statement of Purpose for that school (you should not use a standard text for all schools, but I'll write more about it in the future), among other things that you shouldn't do in a hurry. I had a lot of time to prepare my applications, I applied to all of them before the deadline.
4 - How much money do you have saved for applications? Even credit card limits may be considered. Just the application fee is around $ 100 for each school. But total costs may be much higer, sending additional GMAT scores for each school, for example. I had money enough to apply to many schools, I believe it was not something I should be stingy with.
5 - How many schools are you really interested in? Please, only apply to a school if you'd be happy to go there for your PhD. It's annoying to see an applicant receive an offer, and then sound disappointed, planning to give up and try again next year. It's not just annoying, but a waste of time for the applicant, the school, and even other applicants which may be waitlisted because of that. I didn't get accepted by a "dream school" like Harvard, but I'd be more than satisfied to have offers from any schools I applied to. I will also write more later about school selection.
Even with all this, I think 5 is a really small number. I've seen a person who applied to only 1 school. But, then, it was an applicant who had great contacts with professors from that school and knew the chances were very good. I applied to 20 schools, but I was really risk averse, and that number is too much for most applicants. I calculated the average number of applications from a sample of 10 other business PhD applicants, and the average was 12 applications, with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 18.
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