Siddartha Pilla

This blog post’s broad purpose is to help prospective students and researchers looking to apply for a Ph.D. program in business school. Although most of the blog is written in the context of a Ph.D. program in Marketing ( as I applied for the marketing program), the timelines and the process for the applications overlap across fields in the business school but may vary across schools. The following is the set of questions I plan to answer via this blog.

Now that you’re keen on applying for a Ph.D. program and are aware of the timeline, the following are key elements in most applications. This list includes the requirements for international students applying to programs in the USA and Europe.

A Valid Passport

If you are an international student, you should possess a valid passport to apply for the programs and be eligible to write tests like GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, and IELTS. I’d recommend extending the validity of the passport to at least five years or longer to save the process and the trouble of going through passport extensions from abroad.

GRE/GMAT

GMAT/GRE are standardized aptitude tests to evaluate your mathematical, verbal, and analytical skills. Although many universities do not have a mandatory requirement to submit the GRE/GMAT scores with your application, writing either test is generally safer if a university requires it. To get a sense of the score you’d want to target, go through the universities’ program pages, where they put out score statistics of the previous cohorts, like the Mean GRE score or Median GMAT score. GRE/GMAT score may not be the deciding factor for your application, but it can be considered a way to send a soft signal about your abilities.

Neither of these exams contains hardcore math or verbal questions. The syllabus is relatively standard and equivalent to a high school or bachelor’s. The primary task is the ability to focus and work on problems for 150-180 minutes straight with short breaks (not of your choosing). I am sure people who have attempted the exam or practice tests would feel they could have scored better if given more time to work on a specific section. Unfortunately, that’s not how the exam is. Time your sections better. Practice to improve focus for more extended periods. That’s the key to acing these exams.

TOEFL/IELTS

TOEFL and IELTS are another set of standardized tests to evaluate your English language ability for non-native speakers enrolling in English-speaking universities. Speaking, Writing, Listening, and Reading are the four sections of these exams. The minimum TOEFL score required to attend a degree program in an English-speaking university is around 80 – 90. It varies across universities; some programs have a section-wise cut-off as well. I’d recommend you check the program and the university guidelines before selecting a target score. 

Suggested timeline for the tests: I’d recommend you take the exams by the end of June/July. This way, you have enough time to retake the test if you don’t perform as well as you’d hoped the first time.

Resume/CV

There is no fixed format for the CV/resume for the applications unless specified in the program application. But the following are the broad sections I’d recommend you include.

1. Personal Information
2. Research Interests
3. Research Experience (If Any)
4. Professional Experience
5. Other academic projects
6. Relevant Coursework
7. Skills – Software, Programming languages, etc
8. Extra-curriculars
9. References

There are a lot of sample resume samples created by the top universities available on the internet. Do check them out for reference!

Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose(SOP) is one of the most crucial elements in your application process. Typically, SOP is a one-page or a two-page document where you outline and justify the following questions:

1. Why are you applying for a Ph.D. program?
2. Why do you think the admissions committee should consider your candidature?
3. What sparked your interest in applying to this particular university and program?

SOP is an opportunity for you to showcase your motivations and strengths as a candidate for the Ph.D. program. In addition to the pointers in your CV/resume, SOP gives you a platform to express your work, research interests, and desire to join the program in-depth.

Many schools have a specific set of questions like the ones mentioned above to be answered in the Statement of Purpose; moreover, they have a specific word limit and format for the SOP, so be mindful of that. Consider the Statement of Purpose as this structured narrative that helps you explain why this Ph.D. will connect the dots between your past experiences and choices and your future aspirations.

I structured my SOP the following way. You may have a design of your own.

• Desire to become a researcher in this specific field of study
• Broad research topics of interest or methodologies that you intend to pursue in the field
• About my past education/work that led me to this field of study
• About the projects/research I conducted, that helped me gain a little more nuanced knowledge and, thereby, interest in working in-depth.
• Talked about my interest in this specific program owing to its course structure or recent research orientation of the university or the research group
• Talked about specific researchers/research groups’ research that is aligned with yours 

While the whole format and the narrative are important, being honest about your intentions and not exaggerating the facts you mentioned are even more critical. The story has to be accurate, unique, and, most importantly yours. 

Suggested timeline: Do try to finish the first draft of the SOP by July/August so that you have enough time to make corrections after you send it to your friends/mentors for revisions and modifications. As I mentioned, there is no right or wrong answer, so it is okay if different people suggest different things. I’d recommend you send it to people who have worked in research, as they might add more nuanced insights to the content than checking for grammatical errors.

Letters of Recommendation

Letter of Recommendation (LOR) plays a significant role in your application, providing insight into your ability to conduct research and potential for success in a Ph.D. program. Typically, you need 3 LORs from the people you worked or did some coursework under, preferably academicians, to talk about your ability. While the recommenders can be your managers from your professional experience or a senior external client you worked with, their recommendation may not carry a lot of weight as those from academicians in the application as their ability to aptly gauge your potential in an academic research setting can be undermined; it is ideal to get these recommendations from academicians who have done some good deal of research themselves and are willing to vouch for your success. Be empathetic to the recommenders, as writing a recommendation is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort. At the same time, they vouch for your sincerity and talents putting their reputation at stake.

The most common way applicants get their recommendations is by working with a professor in some form of professional context, as a research assistant or an academic associate(teaching associate), or just by assisting him in a project. This benefits you and gives the professor/academician a chance to write a stellar letter of recommendation. Most strong letters of recommendation do not have flowery and generic comments about how smart you are, but they focus on how well you handled a specific research-oriented task during a project or research. Specific comments about your work, work ethic, and thought process will carry more weight than a paragraph filled with embellishments. So, reach out to people who can write a crisp and informative recommendation.

The subsequent task in this process involves you gently and humbly requesting a solid recommendation from a professor. This process is smooth if you have already been working with a professor and the professor is aware of your long-term goal of pursuing a Ph.D. Even in that case, you should explicitly ask for one way before the application deadline, i.e., at least a few months before making it easier for the recommender. In addition to just asking for a recommendation and hoping that the recommenders would write an exceptional recommendation, I’d advise you to send a documented briefing about the work/research you have done with them, subtly highlighting your contributions, along with the universities that you plan to apply and their deadlines. This document will help the recommenders to frame the recommendation with a wealth of information at their disposal. After your recommender fulfills their commitment, please express your gratitude by composing a ‘Thank you’ note, acknowledging their time and effort in advocating for you.

Which program is right for me? How do I select a school/program to apply to?

This is the most challenging part of the process because the essential factors you’d want to consider while making a choice are very subjective, and moreover, the weightage to each of these factors varies drastically from person to person. I believe this is where applicants should collect as much information as possible from professors, current Ph.D. students, and even program graduates.

By numbers:

In my humble opinion, one of the most superficial ways of looking at the programs and the universities is just sorting out the universities by ranking and adding a few metrics like location, closer to home. These specific preferences are correct, but from a Ph.D. and research context, there might be better metrics to consider. Talking about rankings, many people use the MBA rankings as a proxy for the quality and the quantity of research done at the institute. In some cases, they might be equivalent, but only sometimes. So, I’d recommend you check out the UTD research rankings. They have a comprehensive metric for evaluating the research in quantity and quality. In these rankings, you can also sort out the universities by the number of publications in various journals (A*, A, B journals) and the recency factor (in the last five years or ten years). But then again, the rankings give you an overview of the research but cannot consider all the factors you’d consider for an application.

By research interest and pedagogy:

Assuming that you are well aware of the broad research interest you want to pursue your Ph.D. in, one good way to find out about universities is to chase the research publications you like, or that got your interest, i.e., find professors or researchers and their respective research groups. This way, your interest, be it a topic or a methodology, will be seemingly close. A pitfall while using this method is that business journals have a longer TAT to publish, i.e., the research that is recently published must have been worked on and sent for publication at least a year or two before. So, visit the program and the professors’ websites and pages and see their most recent work, not just the published work but also unpublished and ongoing work, if any. This will help you get a better understanding of the research fit. You should check other professors in the institute that align with your research interests as well because there is a possibility that the professor you are interested in may not be taking more students that year to guide.

Another way to get more information is to reach out to the current students of the program or even your guide/professor to understand the kind of research that happens at a specific institute; they might have more detailed information about the program or research that may not be available on the internet.

After getting a fair understanding of the factors and weightages you’d want to consider, next comes the question, how many universities do I apply for? Before deciding on that, I want you to think of finances. Each application costs around 80 – 100 USD, so if you plan to apply to about ten universities, that’ll be about 1000 USD. I have known people who have applied for ~20 programs, some less than 7, so it depends on how confident you are about getting into a program and how much risk you’re willing to take. Most B-schools admit, on average, ~2 candidates per program or even less, so the odds are slim. So, plan accordingly. Instead of mindlessly applying to the top 5 or 10 programs, bucket the universities into three categories based on the average profiles admitted in the previous years: Achievable, Par, and Ambitious; I call it APA. This categorization is more of a rough estimate than anything else; in my experience, I have been rejected by many of my achievable schools and secured admits from ambitious schools. This classification may not be tight, but it will help you not to put all your eggs in one basket.  

I suggest an additional step for you to consider. It’s worthwhile to reach out to professors you’re interested in working with, preferably before the application period opens. This initial contact serves not only to initiate the conversation about the application process but also to gain insights and discuss the program and potential research opportunities.

While it’s true that many professors receive a high volume of emails from enthusiastic students, it’s still worth making an effort. When I followed this approach, I received responses from several professors who wished me luck with my application process, and some were even willing to dedicate some of their time to speaking with me. So, you never know what opportunities might arise, and it doesn’t hurt to try. However, it’s crucial to strike a balance in your approach. Avoid bombarding them with lengthy emails filled with flowery language about their research or extensive introductions about yourself. Instead, keep your communication concise, well-structured, and to the point. Many professors appreciate this approach. I’ve attached a sample email for your reference; I hope it proves helpful.

I’ve been shortlisted for interviews. How should I prepare for them?

After putting your best effort into the application, you begin to receive emails from universities expressing interest in having a conversation with you regarding your application. Congratulations! You are among the few applicants the university selected and in the consideration set for admission. Now, the real battle begins. Although some universities/programs or even departments do not have the interview as part of the process, this section may not be helpful for them.

You must be wondering, what is this interview even for? I have filled out the application and given every detail possible regarding my candidature for the university; what is the marginal information gain that the university gets from this set of short thirty-minute interviews? Interviews serve a multi-fold purpose in the context of the admissions process. They aim to ensure that the information you’ve provided in your application aligns with your actual knowledge and understanding of your submitted materials. They also serve as a medium to have a face-to-face conversation with you(virtual or in-person) to get a sense of the kind of person you are. Simply, they want to know you. Suppose you get admitted into any of these schools. In that case, you will spend considerable time with the faculty, and the university will invest significant money in you and your output. So, interviews are pivotal in the decision process.

How is the interview process? What kind of questions should I be expecting in an interview?

Interview processes vary across universities and candidates as well. But most generally, the interview panel has a couple of professors or more (In one of my interviews, I had a panel of five professors), and it lasts less than thirty minutes each round. Most schools generally stick to one or two rounds that take place in roughly two to three weeks. This is when I checked my emails more than I ever did in my entire life. So, yeah, it can be quite taxing time, so brace yourself for it. Most interviews are focused on personal questions, and some parts of it will go into the application materials you submitted, but nothing out of that. They don’t expect you to have your Ph.D. thesis topic or the next project you want to do ready before the interviews (It’s good if you have one, but that’s not mandatory). The following are the standard set of questions I was asked during the process (around ten schools have interviewed me, most of them in the Top 30, but from my understanding, the format is pretty much the same):

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why are you interested in a Ph.D. in X? What’s your motivation for picking our school and program?
3. What are your topics of interest in this specific field?
4. Talk to me about a research project that you have done (sometimes, they pick a specific project from your CV or SOP and ask you questions on that)
5. How do your past experiences in work or academics prepare you for this Ph.D. program?

Some atypical questions I was asked during the interview process:

1. From the transcript, you have done well in specific courses and not so great in some. Can you explain why?
2.  Field-specific questions, like, How good are you in programming and statistics? (these were relevant to the research in my field)
3. Talk to me about a research paper that you love. Explain what impressed you the most in that work.
4. Imagine if you had all the data and resources you need to work on a project. What would you work on? What’s the motivation for that project? How would you go about structuring the project? (Main Idea, Methodology, Analysis)

I am attaching an excel where I briefly write about my interview experiences in each of the universities, which includes details like the number of rounds of interviews, the questions asked in each of the rounds, the number of people in the panel. I hope that will be helpful.

As I mentioned before, the interview aim is to understand you and ensure you know about the content you said you knew in the application. Therefore, never exaggerate too much in the SOP or CV because they can quickly figure that out. Be well prepared about the work you have done and mentioned in your CV and SOP. Prepare well for the questions I have mentioned above, and you should be fine. I suggest applicants not fake knowledge about what they do not know; these guys are experts in their respective fields, so it would be easy to catch a bluff. You are just trying to get into a Ph.D. program to learn and explore; they don’t expect you to be an expert already; be humble about your knowledge, but at the same time, speak with confidence about the stuff you know. It is good to know about the panel of professors who will interview you. You need not know about their research work in-depth, but at least understand what they do. This will help in easing the conversation during the interview. In my opinion, these interviews are more of a conversation and less of a technical discussion, so relax and talk confidently. As I said, these professors are looking for an applicant who they’d be happy to spend the next five to six years professionally. Keep that in mind.

If you clear the rounds of interviews, you may be asked to come to the campus for a personal interaction session; most universities will pay for your trip expenses. You are almost there if you have the invite, but the deal isn’t closed yet. This means you are one of the very few applicants who made the cut, so pat yourself on the back and be well prepared. Unfortunately, I could not attend an in-person fly-out due to VISA constraints, but I have had an extra round of interactions with the faculty.

The Waiting Game

Having completed all the necessary steps, including the application process and interactions with faculty, you’ve done everything within your control. Now, the next step is to await the decision from the university patiently. At this point, you’ve fulfilled your part, and it’s time to allow the university’s admissions process to unfold. You will start receiving emails from the university regarding the status of your application; it is either an accept, reject, or waitlist.

Let’s discuss the waitlist process. In Ph.D. admissions, offers are typically extended on a rolling basis. This means universities initially send offers to their first-choice candidates and await their responses. Based on these responses and the number of available positions, they may either extend offers to additional candidates or close the admission process. Since Ph.D. program cohorts are often small and universities generally do not revoke offers once extended, they exercise caution in offering admission.

Think of this process as similar to booking a flight ticket. Instead of overbooking a flight and hoping that a few of the reservations drop off, universities carefully extend offers based on the responses they receive from their top choices.

If you find yourself on a waitlist, it means you are a potential candidate for admission, but some applicants may have been preferred over you. It’s important to note that “preferred” doesn’t always equate to being a better candidate. Often, it’s about finding the right fit for the program rather than just potential. This hope works both ways, universities hope that their first choice accepts, and you hope they don’t. So I recommend you wait till April 15th if you are incredibly passionate about the waitlist university before accepting another university that you may not prefer.

Things to consider while making the decision

If you have one admit, the choice is straightforward, either you take it or leave it. Now, let us talk about the case of holding multiple offers. “How do I pick which one is right for me?” Congratulations! You are in a great place, and this is an excellent dilemma to be in. As I mentioned before, in the university selection process, a better rank doesn’t always mean it is the best fit for you and your research goals.

Choosing the right program from multiple offers involves considering several factors; I will try to list a few that are important according to me, but then again, this consideration set may vary based on your unique circumstances:

• Research Fit: Assess how the program, course structure, and the research group’s working style align with yours. The one that resonates better with your style can be considered a better fit.
• Location: Evaluate if you can adjust to the place and how it suits you and your lifestyle. After all, you will spend at least five years in this place.
• Financial Aid: Look at individual components of the financial aid offered to you and the timeline of the support. Evaluate the possibility of future scholarships and funding for projects when you think of financial aid.
• Flexibility in research opportunities: You may need to figure out which sub-field you will be interested in with time. Figure out if there is a flexibility option in doing that.
• Future prospects: Look into the career services and networking opportunities provided by each university, and even their most recent placement history, be it academic or industry, based on your personal goals. A robust career support system can help you achieve your post-graduate goals.

Ultimately, the right choice is subjective and considers your unique set of goals, circumstances, and constraints. Make a list of them if you have to, and prioritize them. There is no one shoe fits all approach for this, so figure this out. You should go for a campus visit if you can and see it yourself, the university, facilities and the kind of atmosphere you find in. On top of that, I recommend you speak with as many people as possible in the research industry, be it the Ph.D. students, program pass-outs, and professors across the universities, to gather more information. This will help you make an informed choice.

I hope this repository of information regarding the process will be helpful for you in going through the journey. I want to reiterate and highlight that these opinions are mine and mine alone, and the information about the application process may be subject to change, but the broad outline is the same.

I will see you on the other side! 🙂

P.S.: Attaching an Excel format to track the applications and possible information to be collected about universities/professors.