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"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Tag: PhD

First PhD telephone interview

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On Tuesday, January 28, 2014

In Education

Day 890 of 1000

Christian has his first interview with a prospective professor in a few minutes.  Those kinds of things can be pretty nerve-wracking the first time you do them.  He has this and one more telephone interview scheduled in addition to his trip to Arizona State.  The sense we have about his situation right now is that there is a category of Electrical Engineering research professors who need graduate students with deeper math skills than the normal Electrical Engineering undergraduate student has time to take.  So, for those professors, Christian’s background is particularly attractive.  Our sense is that this category of professors make up  a small, but not insignificant minority in most of the universities to which Christian has applied.

Another thing we have learned is that it is not so common that he would get contacted so early in the process.  Most of the phone interviewing appears to starts in February and goes on through early March.  It also seems that early to mid-March is when the first round of accept/reject letters go out with April 15 as the date when students have to decide to accept/reject any acceptances they receive. So, there is another round starting in April where schools whose students did not accept their offers can be backfilled with previous rejections.

It is all pretty nerve-wracking.

Betty Blonde #55 –10/01/2008
Betty Blonde #55
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Management PhD’s require experience

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On Thursday, January 16, 2014

In Education

Day 877 of 1000

In all this applying for PhD’s we have found that if one wants to do a Management PhD, it almost always requires 5-10 years of business experience and often it requires a Masters degree.  Kelly wants to get a PhD in Marketing in parallel with a Masters degree in Statistics.  It is a little bit of an iffy deal.  She is pretty uniquely prepared to perform the kind of research required for a Managment PhD because of her Statistics degree and her Statistical internship, but we are not sure if it is sufficient to overcome her need for experience. We have spoken to a couple of schools where she has applied and believe she has a fairly good chance of getting accepted at one of them in particular.

When I say pretty good, I would put the odds at only about 55/45 right now.  It is very painful waiting for the accept/reject letters and we are at peace with the fact that Kelly might have to go to work for a couple of years.  Her experience at her Johns Hopkins internship has shown her she really likes that.  Still, it would be great to break the mold a little and start into a Management PhD program right out of her Bachelors degree.  We have checked at her favorite school and they generally send out the first round in mid-March with the earliest notifications going out in late February, so we have another couple months of opportunity to work on our patience.

Betty Blonde #43 – 09/15/2008
Betty Blonde #43
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Tenure track positions vs. real jobs

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On Thursday, January 9, 2014

In Education

Day 871 of 1000
Betty Blonde #37 – 09/05/2008
Betty Blonde #37
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Here is an article on how hard it is for a new PhD to get a tenure track position.  I noticed on Wikipedia, the author of the article got her undergraduate degree in English Literature.  There are too many people who have their PhD’s in the humanities.  If they do not hit the lottery and get a tenure track position, the likelihood is very high they will end up in the fast food industry.  I loved the comment left by someone with the moniker Belisarius85 that express my thoughts very well on the subject:

People with PhDs in useful fields are doing fine. They can largely get jobs in the private sector that pay well.

People with PhDs in the liberal arts or humanities are suffering, but there are way too many of them for the job market anyways. Theoretically, these are bright people. They should have known that they weren’t likely to get a job in academia from the get-go.

A Masters Degree in Statistics in parallel with a PhD in something else

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On Friday, December 6, 2013

In Education

Day 837 of 1000
Betty Blonde #19 – 08/12/2008
Betty Blonde #19
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Kelly and I have been talking about what she should do next.  She loves Statistics.  We are all, she included, are amazed at her passion for her degree.  She knows she wants to use Statistics in her work.  She also knows there is a very important distinction between the use of Statistics and the study and research of Statistics.  She wants to do the former, not the latter.  Still she believes she would like to increase her Statistics toolset.  She also believes she would like to get some specific domain knowledge in a field where Statistics is highly valued.  Marketing appears to really fit the bill.  It is very interesting and Statistical tools are critical in Marketing.

The problem is that these seem to be competing goals.  Does she want to improve her toolset with a Masters Degree in Statistics or go straight to the domain knowledge with a PhD in Marketing.  It turns out that it is possible to do both at the same time without staying in college any longer.  We found the following little gem at the bottom of this page on the UC Irvine website:

Students who are currently enrolled in a doctoral program at UCI and wish to pursue a Master of Science degree in Statistics at the same time should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies in Statistics to register their interest with the Department, to develop a program of study, and to establish a relationship with a faculty advisor in Statistics.

We were ecstatic.  This is exactly what Kelly wants.  It is pretty hard to get into a good PhD Marketing program without 5-10 years experience, exceptional GRE scores and a Masters Degree, but they let a few, very qualified students with only a Bachelors Degree into some programs.  She is resigned to the idea that she might have to go to work for a few years, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for this year.

That was such a cool thing, we decided we should check into the same thing for Christian.  If we find something, we will post it her.

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