How difficult is it to get into a doctoral program without a Master's degree?

Question

I have a bachelor's degree in accounting and am a licensed CPA with a few years of experience in the field. I'd like to pursue a PhD in business (at a top school) and don't want to get a Master's if it's not really necessary. If an admissions officer came across my application and everything was strong, but I had no Master's, what would be my chances of getting into the program?

If you work for a university please include the name, thanks!

Answer 1

You can get your Phd with out the masters in most subjects, all you would need is your undergraduate transcript and GRE scores. The issue here is that you want a Phd in business. Getting the MBA is the norm as opposed to other fields of study.

I work at Rutgers and there is a Phd business program here. You do NOT need to have a masters. The average Phd student here for business has a GMAT (not GRE) score of 675 and graduate in the top 5% of their undergraduate class. Rutgers also emphasizes mathamatical ability, so advanced math courses would help.

Bottom line, if your test scores and grades are good enough, you can find a good program to do your Phd, witout getting a masters first. Hope this helped.

Answer 2

In some schools they prefer that you have a Masters before you start the PhD, and in other schools the Masters/PhD is combined. It depends on the school. You will have to check individually at the schools you are interested in, to see which school prefers which situation.

Of course, in the schools where they do not require a Masters, you will have to take at least one full year longer, if not two, to complete the PhD because you will have to make up for all the courses the Masters people took that you didnt take, so you arent going to gain anything timewise.

Answer 3

haha! good luck with that one!!! i work in Admissions and we would just skate past your application like Michele Quan on ice. you might want to take a stop on Master's lane and give it a shot!