Management PhD/DBA Admission Help

BentleyGrad
Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:32:45 +0000

Thanks for the feedback, folks. It’s surprising how little good data there is about these programs relative to admissions. My undergrad math included two statistics classes, two calculus, discrete probability, and microeconomics. Grad school also included statistics, microeconomics, econometrics, economic and financial forecasting, and data mining and modeling.

Would that be considered insufficient?

Frankly, I’m not necessarily surprised, but am scratching my head when it comes to some of these requirements, and how little professional experience can be respected by these programs. In terms of mathematics, it takes a lot more intellectual horsepower to apply advanced concepts in economterics, statistics, and mathematics to real world business situations than it does to do theoretical calculations in an undergrad environment with perfect data sets. This is why many Phds in economics appear to be theoretical, foolish, and academic in real business strategy situations. They know all the models, math, and proper ways of doing everything, but don’t necessarily have the analytic agility to quickly synthesize, quantify, and assess… and, of course, there are those who do these things well too, and those are the stand outs.

But beyond crunching numbers in a theoretical environment, business, like medicine and law, requires experience, inferential capabilties, and intellect among other things. It’s not chemistry, where having a phd means that you’ll be a good chemistry teacher. Who the heck wants lean from or go to a doctor who has all the education and never practiced, or a lawyer that’s never praticed? Likewise, the concept that someone with 10 years of big time business experience and the intellectual capability would be a less qualified person to attend a management phd/dba program, and ultimately teach business, than some smart, hard working kid who went straight from undergrad to the doctorate, and started teaching business at the age of 27 or 28 with no experience, is ridiculous! Yet, it seems as though that kind of background is considered more favorable, especially if there is evidence of research.

Logically, it makes little sense, but I’ll get off my soap box :). Anyway, thanks again for the feedback.

In the meantime, I contacted BU and they provided the name of a student to speak with. I will also be attending a Harvard information session in a couple of weeks. So, we shall see…