Re: Am I good enough for a top PhD program?
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17 Jan 2011, 10:35
From what I can see of your profile, I think it *might* be good enough to get you into one of the top 20 (top 50 might be more realistic), but I definitely wouldn't bet on it.
As supereco87 mentioned, your discipline will make a big difference in admissions. Since you are interning at Goldman Sachs, I'm going to guess that you're going to be going for Finance, which as supereco87 mentioned is the toughest discipline to gain admission to. Getting into the top 20 with even an excellent profile is a crapshoot. Your profile is good overall, but if you're looking at the top 20 finance programs, it may be considered an average or below average profile (my opinion might be different if your discipline is not finance).
The top 20 programs (especially top 10) will typically have GMATs in excess of 750. To get into those programs is not like getting into an MBA. I would say that the stats necessary to get into a top 50 finance PhD program, would be the same to get into the top 10 MBA programs (although for MBA programs work experience plays a more important role while not as important for admission to a PhD). Also note that this is not like an MBA where even if your stats aren't perfect you might get in because you have an "interesting" profile, since they have a couple hundred spots to fill. For the PhD, they may be trying to fill 2 or 3 spots out of a hundred applications. All it takes is 5 people with equivalent profiles and you'll be fighting with them for those spots (and based on what I can see from what you've posted, your profile does raise questions due to the degrees, work experience, GMAT score, etc).
You also did not mention your motivation for pursuing a business PhD. It is going to be critical that you know exactly why you want to do a PhD, have a general idea of what research you're interested in, etc. You will have to communicate this very well in your SOP because looking at what you have here so far, people will question why you want to do a PhD in business. After all, you are doing your undergraduate degree in biochemistry, which is completely unrelated, and you are doing an MBA (why?). An MBA is more of a practitioner degree, and it looks like if you're going for the PhD already, you won't be practicing very much, other than some internships. Although not an application killer, schools generally prefer applicants with a few years of work experience (I know that you are interning at Goldman, but I don't know if an internship is going to be considered real work experience).. Especially when you're considering the top 20 programs, your application needs to be nearly flawless to get in.
Another thing that you didn't mention was what type of quantitative coursework you have taken. For business PhD's in general, the more the better, but I believe this is especially true for the finance PhD. The good thing is that you're a junior and you can still address any deficiencies (if you have any) by taking additional math courses.
In summary, I think your strengths are your GPA and that you have some research experience (which is something I don't think that many applicants have), although the value of your research experience may be slightly devalued due to the fact that it's in a different field. I am guessing that you will be able to obtain strong letters of recommendation from your research supervisor and other professors.
Your weaknesses are your GMAT score and lack of work experience. Also, it would be considered a major weakness if you can't explain exactly why you want to go for the PhD, but I'm guessing you might be able to spin your SOP a little to address this.
As supereco87 mentioned, your discipline will make a big difference in admissions. Since you are interning at Goldman Sachs, I'm going to guess that you're going to be going for Finance, which as supereco87 mentioned is the toughest discipline to gain admission to. Getting into the top 20 even with an excellent profile is a crapshoot. Your profile is good overall, but if you're looking at the top 20 finance programs, it may be considered an average or possibly even weak profile.
Of course the above is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. Your profile is not bad, just maybe not top 20 material.. If you're serious about the PhD, you might want to have half your apps be for the top 20, and the other half in the top 50. Probably throw in a handful of safer programs outside of the top 50 as well.