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joephd
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Profile evaluation please 25 Apr 2008, 21:43
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Age: 30
Indian IT professional with a Masters degree in engineering
Why PHD: Having worked for about 6 years in IT/Supply chain management, I want to research on micro/macro effects of IT strategies, management and operational models. Great acumen for research, have a strong motivation for consulting to help build successful business and develop successful people. I believe these three goals are inherently integrated and they re-inforce each other.

GMAT: 740

Minus: Graduate GPA 3.2,

Plus: subject matter expert, go-to person at work, consulting experience, excellent references, successful projects, extracurricular activities.

Schools applying for:
UT Austin
MIT
Wharton
Dartmouth
Stanford
UC Berkeley

Please let me know what I can do to maximise my chances, what I can avoid to minimise my chances, suggestions on school selection, long shots? Your responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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tkkoh
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Profile evaluation please 26 Apr 2008, 09:17
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Comment on your pluses:
- go-to-person at work: doesn't matter significantly in PhD application
- consulting experience: doesn't matter significantly in PhD application
- excellent references: both content and source of recommendations are important. Idea source of LOR: research professors. If you get this right, you will up your chances.
- successful projects: good signals of your fit if you can pitch them properly in your SOP.
- extracurricular activities: doesn't matter significantly in PhD application

"a strong motivation for consulting to help build successful business and develop successful people" - doesn't really matter in PhD application. If fact, depending on who is doing the reading and filtering, these goals may work against you. Ideal and play-safe goals (especially for those schools that you are thinking of) should be eat research, sleep research, live research.

Speaking of schools, almost all that you have listed are a long-shot for almost every applicants.

Based on the current draft of your profile, I would say you are more competitive as an MBA applicant than a PhD applicant. I suggest that you try to get involved in some academic research (e.g. research assistant) before you apply. This serves 3 purposes:
1. it boosts your research experience,
2. it may get you a good LOR, and, more importantly for you,
3. it gives you a chance to see if doing PhD/research matches your perception of what it is about, and whether this path suits you.
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joephd
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Profile evaluation please 26 Apr 2008, 10:01
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tkkoh,
For the most part I agree with you and help me validates key ideas. Thanks for taking time to respond. Greatly appreciate it.
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bauble
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Profile evaluation please 26 Apr 2008, 16:05
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You may want to broaden your school list a bit. As tkkoh mentioned, all are longshots except possibly UT Austin and Dartmouth (what program are you thinking of for the latter? Tuck has no Ph.D.'s as far as I know). Superb academic (not industry) LOR from well-known people, high GPA from a top school, and research experience are the types of things that will make you highly competitive at the places you listed. tkkoh is also correct on your industry experience. Other than lead-ins to interesting research discourse in the SOP, industry experience is not that helpful to your application. Industry accolades might not be that great of a predictor for Ph.D. success. I speak somewhat anecdotally, but I've done an MBA as well, and I worked closely with several people with stellar industry profiles, but they many of them would struggle in a Ph.D. (I know a few well and they would admit to this themselves). On the other hand, I know an engineer from my MBA days who had decent career progression but paled in comparison to others, and OK academic record but not amazing (chalk it up to partying in his youth and perhaps a lack of political savvy? who knows). But he was intellectually curious and very sharp, in the quant MBA classes he was definitely one of the best, and I would recommend him to any top Ph.D. program with few reservations.
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hobbit
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Profile evaluation please 27 Apr 2008, 17:23
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I concur with everything already said.
my addition would be: don't think schools. think professors. yes... it gets personal.
since you probably don't know the research scene well... start with the school you mentioned and go over all relevant faculty members. read their websites with emphasis on their research interests. those who seem to be a close match - read their 1-2 recent papers, possibly more. this will also help you get the picture of what research life is like....
you should probably apply to schools in which you find 2-3 professors with matching interests after you've read some of their papers. your SOP should reflect this knowledge - this would probably be the most important way you could boost your chances.
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