I'm planning on applying in about 8 months for my PHD in Marketing. However, I was very concerned because there are only around 40 to 50 schools that have this program, and my profile doesn't standout. To be honest, I graduated 6-8 months ago from a mid 50's ranked school, and I couldn't find a job that I thought had great future prospects. F the economy. So, I decided that I would try for my PHD, and ultimately teach. My profile:
27 years old
650-690 GMAT. (Got a 650, but I'm going to study hard as heck)
Low GPA (3.1)(have a big ADHD disability and didn't elect to take tests with longer time. I should have"
Done lots of tutoring, no real research
2 years of Marketing/Real Estate work experience

1. What should I do from know till I apply? (take a class and get an A?, Do some research?, anything else)
2. Are there any schools I should target? What would be the profiles?
thanks

Stats/Math are my strength. I will probably get 48+ on the math part. Honestly, my longterm interest is to teach brand marketing, sports business, etc. My research "interests" can be anything. I just want to gear it towards the specific school.

I'm planning on applying in about 8 months for my PHD in Marketing. However, I was very concerned because there are only around 40 to 50 schools that have this program, and my profile doesn't standout. To be honest, I graduated 6-8 months ago from a mid 50's ranked school, and I couldn't find a job that I thought had great future prospects. F the economy. So, I decided that I would try for my PHD, and ultimately teach. My profile:
27 years old
650-690 GMAT. (Got a 650, but I'm going to study hard as heck)
Low GPA (3.1)(have a big ADHD disability and didn't elect to take tests with longer time. I should have"
Done lots of tutoring, no real research
2 years of Marketing/Real Estate work experience

1. What should I do from know till I apply? (take a class and get an A?, Do some research?, anything else)
2. Are there any schools I should target? What would be the profiles?
thanks


Here is my 2 cents on the query posed by you. Just mentioning things that worked for me and helped me get into the PhD program in marketing.
- Age - 27 years is definitely not an issue
- Gmat score of anything that resembles 700+ can help you to get noticed. If you want to aim for top brands like kellogg's, Hravard etc than 740+ can help you to get you into consideration set
- Low GPA - can be worked around if you have great grades in school, high GMAT score ( 730+) and ofcourse showcase a genuine reason of low GPA in your SOP. Experiance of tutoring can be of limited advantage as most school look for research experience. You must have done few 2 month research projects as part of the course requirements during your MBA. Should see how you can explore that
- 2 years of experience: Although work ex is not mandatory to get into PhD but having some doesn't hurt.

What you can do is following
- Do a self assessment to find which part of the MBA course work and your present job you like most. Are there any area's you would love to explore further. Can help you to have a broad idea of what research area you should focus on while applying. If you feel you are not well prepared in your area then should explore the area either by getting in touch with your professors to see if you can do some part time research and try and publish a paper in next 6 months or raise you hand in the work for a project in the area. Although I still feel working with a professor helps immensely to make the app stronger

- In PhD's there is not much to be read in rankings. What you need to do is visit schools websites and look at profiles of marketing prof's. Will help you to see the where the prof's are doing more research in your target area of interest. Also will help you to find information on other factors such as collaboration of professors and students, placement record of PHD's from the college, frequency of publications in major marketing journals etc which are very important criteria's before deciding on the school.

Hope this helps you in your quest of knowledge