读商学院PhD到底有多tough?

beautifulmind

最近找导师问问了：她的意见是不要把自己的生活弄的太苦了，让我慎重考虑。

其间提到了几个问题：

1。她希望我更多的了解一手信息：最好从在读的phd学生那里或者过来人那里。因为她看到过很多学生被很好的学校录了，但是最后没有能够读下来。

2。现在商学院越来越强调数量和模型。我们原本学商科的学生在这方面是弱项，没有优势。不仅录取难，而且读的也很费劲。

3。我现在的工作还不错，充分利用好现在的资源也许会有更好的发展，不见得一定要出国去读。

所以我很想听听大家的意见：

1。商学院Phd读的过程到底有多tough?我是学marketing的。每天有多少时间要用于学习？主要的压力具体来源于什么？有多少学生能够顺利完成学业？

2。quanti方面的东西真的很吃力吗？我不打算找那种纯数量的方向，即使这样，比如说Marketing里面偏behavior的方向也是这样吗？

3。international business 和marketing中关于strategy、brand这一块是很难做出成果吗？研究的人比较少吗？international business是商学院里比较冷门比较小的专业吗？

4。在国外做研究一定要有资源或者能提供一些对做研究有帮助的东西导师才会感兴趣吗，比如能找到database的来源？是不是因为quanti研究比quali研究更容易出成果吗？

我自己也会去查，在这里问问大家，谢谢。

sm1

On average, 13-14 hours for working each day including Sat and Sun. Of course, the hours depends on the aim and background of students.

The main stress is that universities like to kick out students. Less than 50% students can graduate.

Behavioral research direction does not need strong quantitative background, just regression, ANOVA, structural equaltion modeling and so on. Creative research questions are the most difficult issue for Chinese students. But some core courses may include economics, statistics which requires higher mathematical background.

"International" is just a small part of the whole marketing research. Not many professors like to focus on "international" because this concept is too board. All marketing activities related to cross-national boundary can be categorized to be "international".

Most professors like to have smart students to help them to do research. Database is not a must. US research tend to quantitative research.

bi_son

PHD=PERMANENT HEALTH DAMAGE PROGRAM

freelance

Permanent Head Damage

beautifulmind

thanks so much for these details.

ProfCPA

If you are REALLY interested and willing to work on research, you can still go. The tough life in other people's eyes is nothing for you. You will enjoy it.

beautifulmind

I agree.And it's a good oppotunity for me to pursue a research degree.Because 3 years' W/E provides me with a solid foundation.

Still, I am not sure whether I can get through the tough quanti-related research, for I am a business major and not so good at quanti-courses.

I found I/B was much more related to my W/E after browsing the website.But I am  interested in  marketing which is relatively on the micro side.As it is stated above, international mkting is not so popular among faculties. 

buckeyeTD

Read through something in IB journals, and write up a letter to Mike Peng at UT Dallas. See whether he is interested in you.

sm1

Mike Peng is doing research in strategic management and he has an economics degree. His background may not be suitable.

On the other hand, international business focuses much on quantitative skills. If your mathematics is not strong, I suggest you focus on marketing, especially behavioral track. Behavioral marketing, I believe, is one of the lowest requirement of statistics and mathematics in business faculty. 

Macro, such as strategy, needs higher level of quantitative. Research interest is important but we need to understand our ability too.

buckeyeTD

I think that every Chinese guy has such an ability in math to handle quantitative issue on empirical level. The most important is whether you have enough research potential in multiple aspects, like quantitative skills, writing, creativity and endurance. For language and cultural reasons, the behavioral track for Chinese is usually tougher than the macro track. Of course, there is always some exceptions.