The Endless Wait...

Congrats, once again.

Hi Somakh,

I'm applying to UConn too. My main obstacle is the GMAT score, which is 580 (74% on quant., 38% on verbal, 5.5 or 87% on AWA). I contacted the Ph.D. admission office the other day, and they told me that my GMAT score is not competitive, although there are other factors to consider. I have also made an appointment to visit UConn this early February, but they refused it with a reason that decisions are being made. Can anyone tell me about the odds of getting admitted to UConn? Thanks a lot.

Thanks mhm, pretty pleased with USC, USC and duke were my top picks(no news from duke yet). Particularly happy to have overcome the age hurdle(will be 40 when I start the program)

congrats and all the best for your PhD journey....

Many congrats Somakha dn Banjaran - awesome results. Hope everyone is surviving the tedious wait.

Mick

More or less.....

found out from gradcafe that Kellogg has sent out rejections by postal mail. Jeez. it will be ages till I get it. why not send an email?

Yesterday had interview with Simon (Rochester) and he said that I am in.



This was one of my dream schools ..... Still waiting for some other schools ...

By the way, can anybody say which one will be better in Information Systems, UConnecticut or Rochester ? usnews shows Connecticut has a better rank than Rochester in Information systems. But I think they have mainly thought abt the MBA program. For PhD in info systems which one will be better

Waiting for suggestions

I want to say Rochester, but this is way much more than picking a school.

You have to feel very comfortable with the person you will be (eventually)
working with. That name is going to stick with you for the rest of your life.
More than the school, your advisor is the one who makes all the difference between a good dissertation and a great dissertation. Look for a advisor with common interests. Due Diligence remains important. You dont want to end up in a place where very few people have time for you.

Praetorian

I think for a Ph.D. program, it's hard to state the rank. A Ph.D. program in a specific specialization is said to be excellent (or good) if the research area is diverse, the faculty in that particular program has been publishing in top-tier academic journals related to the field (in the I.S. field, these journals would be, for example, MIS Quarterly, ISR, Communications of the ACM, Decision Sciences.), and (not necessary) there are some big names (faculty) in the field of your interest. The ability to produce research published at a top-tier academic journal shows a faculty's significant contribution in that particular field, although there are some "politics" that allow someone to publish in top-tier academic journals (usually faculty at top schools produce research at top-tier academic journals. I know an I.S. faculty at MIT who is a frequent "author" of MIS Quarterly. Her publications are always listed as reference by other I.S. researchers. But this is not an absolute phenomenon.).

For example, as you said, UConn has a better rank in I.S. than Rochester has. These two universities are a top-tier and a tier-2 universities. On the other hand, this is based on USNews.com, Georgia State University ranks a lot higher in I.S. program than the other two, while its Robinson College of Business is not even listed as a top business school (and GSU overall is even listed as a tier-4 university). This is because at GSU, there are several big names in the I.S. faculty (I can mention you some, but I don't think it's appropriate to mention their names here) who have a great contribution in the field of I.S.

I suggest that if you want to choose, you will have to choose based on the faculty's research interests that match with yours the most (and also the scholarship ) It is safe to choose a school that the faculty in the I.S. program has a diverse research area. Some of the schools that I know, whose faculty has a diverse research area, are the Univ. of Maryland - College Park and NYU (GSU does not have a research area in economics of I.S. The faculty who used to do research in that area has moved to work in Europe). In my statement of purpose, I specifically mention my research interests would be I.S. development, e-commerce, management of software engineering, and economics of I.S. and I also implicitly mention my dissertation topic (and then, based on interviews with several schools, the faculty seemed impressed, but they mentioned that it is still far, too premature to state a dissertation topic).

I mentioned earlier that I also apply to UConn, but I looked at the faculty's profiles and research interests, and none of them has research interests in software engineering/development, but they put Computer Science's Advanced Software Engineering as a research method course (which to me, is sort of odd). I didn't really look at Rochester as I don't apply there. But couple of months ago when I was choosing which schools I wanted to apply to, I visited Rochester's website to see the I.S. faculty's research interests and dissertations produced by graduated Ph.D. students, and I can conclude that their research interests are more on the organizational and behavioral tracks, or specifically, digital market and e-commerce. In my humble opinion, the research area in the I.S. program at Rochester is not diverse. I personally look for a school that has a combination of technological, organizational, and behavioral tracks. Well, the decision is up to you though, and you know my answer would be that if I were you, I would choose UConn (this is a subjective suggestion because I'm also applying there ). The I.S. research area in UConn is more diverse than that in Rochester (please look at the faculty's profiles of both schools and compare them. Try to look at their research interests and the academic journals to which they published their research). Thanks.

congrats, somakh.

thanks for the advice, praetorian.... I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks a lot Praetorian and attar1297 for your in-depth reply.

I will surely keep in mind those points. I think, rank matters to some extent but the faculty profile and the matching of your research interest with him/her matters more. But one thing I want to mention that currently we can't say who will be our advisor; I believe the normal practice is after you go to the school, spend some time, then only you can choose your advisor; right ?

Anyways, thanks!!

Hi Somakh,

Are you talking about advisor on the dissertation phase? If that's the case, then you're correct. But if you're talking about academic advisor, once you are admitted, a faculty will be appointed as your academic advisor. Frankly speaking, I'm already admitted to VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) and I've already got my academic advisor. But I'm not really satisfied with the scholarship (I "only" got $9,000 for one year and of course, a tuition-fee waiver. But they said the amount will increase during my second year. BTW, VCU's school of business is currently developing a new building and will be located in the same area as the school of engineering as its strength is the I.S. field). So that's why I'm looking forward to other schools such as UPitt and UConn (but my GMAT score is a great disadvantage to me despite the fact of my other strengths I don't why I can never brush up the critical reasoning section). Have you got an academic advisor at RPI or UConn? If you haven't, then my mistake, probably not every school has the same procedure.

Well, rank also matters, but it is hard to state a rank on Ph.D. programs. That's why, it is difficult to find an article on top Ph.D. programs in Business Administration or even other fields (there's only one well-known source for this, which is Financial Times. But as you can see there, most top Ph.D. programs are at U.S. business schools. This is acceptable since U.S. is currently the center of the world contemporary civilization for this era.). As I said earlier, usually faculty at top schools produce publications on top-tier academic journals and they are well respected on their field of research. That's why, considering rank is partially correct. But this is not always the case. "Lower" rank schools may have one or two well respected faculty, and it is a golden opportunity for you if you get to work with them during the program (with a consideration that they have time for you and they won't be retiring or moving out of the program while you're there.). It will surely strengthen your portfolio as a future faculty or researcher as you'll get the opportunity to be his or her co-author on top-tier academic journals and to present your research on prestigious academic conferences (such as Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences or Americas Conference on Information Systems). This is very important if you seek for a tenure track position at a top business school, because in the end, as a faculty with a Ph.D. degree, what matters the most is your publications (research) and certifiable teaching experience, not from where you got your Ph.D. degree. So during your study as a Ph.D. student, try hard to publish (or be a co-author) on top-tier academic journals or at least try to present your publications on presitigious academic conferences. And also try to balance research and teaching as well. This will make your portfolio as a future faculty very competitive. It is not unusual to see a faculty from unknown school get to teach at Harvard University (the overall programs, not limited to its Harvard Business School). I've seen some, and if you read their profiles, you'll understand my point. This is why a Ph.D. degree is very different from other graduate degrees (masters degree). Thank you.

Hello Somakh

At most schools, you PICK who you want to work with. Not the other way around.

Agree with attar. Those are some great contributions attar.

thanks for that.

Praetorian

Somakh,

attar makes several good points. While I agree with him about research interest match, I think it's probably best to think in terms of broad interests (e.g., technical vs. behavioral) at this point because there's a good chance your interests will evolve.

If you're interested in rankings, consider this. There was a paper published by the Association for Information Systems last year showing research productivity in IS (Huang, H. and Hsu, J.S., "An Evaluation of Publication Productivity in Information Systems: 1999 TO 2003", Communications of the AIS, 15, April, 2005.). The following list is extracted from that article. The numbers in parentheses are the adjusted number of publications in the top 12 MIS journals by faculty of the institution for the period 1999 to 2003:

Georgia State U (38.25)
U of Maryland (28.83 )
U of Pennsylvania (26.08)
U of Arizona (25.88)
City U of Hong Kong (22.00)
Indiana U (21.78)
U of Texas, Austin (19.46)
Hong Kong U of Sci. and Tech. (18.33)
U of Minnesota (17.73)
Arizona State U (17.62)
U of Connecticut (17.08)
National U of Singapore (16.83)
Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. and Tech. (16.73)
Carnegie Mellon U (16.48)
U of Southern California (15.77)
U of Central Florida (15.50)
U of Michigan (15.15 )
Stanford U (14.92)
U of North Carolina (14.45)
U of Kentucky (14.25)
U of Hong Kong (14.02
U of California, Irvine (13.83)
MIT (13.58)
U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (13.38)
Syracuse U (12.42)
U of Georgia (12.17)
U of South Carolina (11.83)
U of Texas, Dallas (11.00)
U of British Columbia (10.87)
Drexel U (10.83)
U of Pittsburgh (10.17)

This list is as good a ranking for (M)IS Ph.D programs as any--better if you're not interested in school "brand." Remember, while brand can certainly be important, the idea is to learn how to publish well.

In most schools, there will be a while before you choose whom you want to work with, and before that person takes you on (I guess). But if you have already chosen a niche field, as I have - business-to-business mktg - then you have very limited options on whom you can work under. Thats the case with me - and am very fortunate for having interacted with those Profs beforehand.

What a day - got dings from Wharton, MIT.
I'd called Kellogg some time back and got an email telling me that a letter had been posted on 20th feb. So thats another ding - they have interviewed the rest.

Thank heavens for PennState!

I also asked liujulia in PMs the same question.

Did anyone hear anything from any Operations Management schools? I applied to the same area as yours at Kellogg, Simon, UNC and Duke. Haven't heard anything from them so far


Deeps