Invitation to Apply for Pitt Katz PhD (Fall 2016)

Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh is inviting business PhD student applications for Fall 2016 for all areas---Accounting, Business Analytics and Operations, Finance, Information Systems and Technology Management, Marketing, Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management, and Strategic Management.  Information brochures for all areas are available here.

I plan to visit Karachi in August 2015 and would be looking to recruit PhD students for the Pitt Katz PhD program (starting Fall 2016).  The Pitt Katz GSB PhD program provides excellent preparation for an academic career as evident from the very good academic placement record.

In addition to the traditional business areas, Pitt Katz has a well-regarded Information Systems and Technology Management (ISTM) PhD program.  The program brochure for ISTM is available here. The PhD program director, Prof Dennis Galletta, is fully on-board with the effort to recruit exceptional candidates from Pakistan.  In fact, Prof Galleta has asked me to seek candidates for all areas rather than just ISTM.  

For our Fall 2016 cohort, we are seeking exceptional students who are very certain about pursuing an academic career and are well aware that a business school PhD (even in ISTM) is a social science research degree and they will have to additionally train at the graduate-level in a social science reference discipline (either economics, OB/psychology, or sociology etc.).

The program provides generous financial aid for four years: full tuition scholarship as well as stipend (US$26,000 per year) and health coverage.  

The (generally) desired PhD student profile for all areas is:

• Clear signals of raw talent (good academic record, high GMAT scores)
• Advanced mathematical training (advanced calculus, linear algebra, probability and statistics, ...) at the level of good Engineering programs
• Articulate---both spoken / written
• Work experience although internships can count; also, work experience requirement can be relaxed for exceptional candidates
• Fit with the research interest of the faculty at the Pitt Katz PhD program  

Specifically for Information Systems and Technology Management (ISTM), students with engineering and computer science backgrounds have tended to do well.  However, an engineering or CS degree is not necessary and anyone with interest in high technology, training in advanced quantitative and analytical methods (at the level of good engineering degrees), and ability to communicate well has the potential to be successful.