Getting a Ph.D.?

Question

I'm a junior with a current GPA of 3.34. I haven't taken any business courses yet, yet I am majoring in Management. I have been considering going into Academia. (My GPA level is because in the first two years of my college career my parents health was an issue).

I plan on getting a GPA around 3.57 if I am correct, and taking a few independent study courses. I also work full time at Chili's. I haven't taken the GMAT or the GRE.

What does it take for someone to become a professor of business. I have read that there are openings for this area in academe, yet it seems like I would never have the opportunity.

Should I just find something else, since I attend a small liberal arts school (as opposed to an Ivy league) and my credentials are not perfect?

Answer 1

Supposing that you are right about where you end up and have good GRE scores, then you could prbably get into some PhD program -- but the fact is that it will be very difficult for you to get into a top program.

The top business PhD programs (e.g., Wharton, Harvard, Duke, Columbia, MIT, Chicago, Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, etc) are extremely difficult to get into. When I say extremely difficult -- I mean they take four our five students per year out of 300-400 applications. Most of those accepts already have some other graduate degree -- many already having a PhD in another field. This is particularly true for Finance -- but also true for marketing and management.

There are alternatives. Some management and marketing professors get a PhD in psychology -- doing a dissertation in a field related to business. Many finance professors get a PhD in Economics rather than Finance -- because it is easier to get into the top schools.

Contrary to Rich's comments -- going to a good school is a plus in getting into a good PhD program. There were six people who entered my PhD class at Berkeley's Haas school. They had the the following qualifications:

1. PhD in another field from Wisconsin
2. PhD in another field from Brown
3. Graduate degree from Duke
4. Graduate degree from Chicago
5. Graduate degree from USC
6. Graduate degree from University of Paris

Answer 2

If you fix the grades for your last two years and do well on the GMAT or GRE, you still have a shot. Your grades are low, but if you had a 700 or above on your test score, you could make the case for having fixed your earlier academic problems.

However, I wonder if you understand what a business professor does, since you have not yet even taken any courses. Basically, the Ph.D. is a research degree, and a junior faculty member is expected to spend at least half his/her time on academic research. One of the things you might want to do, once you start taking courses, is to see if you can work with a professor on a research project to see if this is really what you want to do. I know that before I made the decision to start the Ph.D., I spent two years teaching (I already had an MBA), the second year at a research university so that I could work with a faculty member on research to make sure it was what I wanted.

As for being from a small liberal arts school, this in itself won't hurt you. Not all Ph.D. candidates went to prestigious undergraduate schools. If I look at the faculty in my own department, everyone went to mid-to-top level Ph.D. programs, but not one of us graduated from an Ivy, or even a high-level public university.

Answer 3

Bud, I am getting a Masters and I plan on getting a Ph.D. Try to keep your GPA above a 3.25, I had a GPA of 3.49 in my undergrad but make sure in your major courses of business you have over a 3.5. Take the GRE or GMAT, I highly recommend to spend 60 dollars on the kaplan book and get some tutoring. I did all of this and I got a 1220 on the GRE if I did not brush up on my stuff I wouldn't even break a 1000. The main thing is to be very marketable I notice that several of my classmates who are getting a masters do not have a grad assistantships like I do because they are all brains and no balls. The main advice is that if you have a low GPA you need to do good on the GRE. Good luck