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Ph.D. with a Specialization in Marketing
The goal of the Ph.D. in Business with a Specialization in Marketing at the University of Nebraska is to encourage the intellectual growth of serious scholars who will contribute to knowledge in the field of marketing. To this end, we keep the number of Ph.D. students small, and expend a great deal of individual care on each student.
The purpose of the Ph.D. program is to provide a strong basis for the scholarly activities of research and teaching at a major institution of higher learning. The Ph.D. program is very demanding in terms of time and effort, but has a record of producing fine scholars. We are proud of our program, and proud of our graduates and the work they have done in their careers. We endeavor to provide a warm and supportive environment for the development of fine scholars and scholarly work.
We admit only a handful of new students each year, and normally have about 8 to 10 Ph.D. students in residence at any one time. Typically, students admitted to our program have a Masters degree in business or some related field from an accredited university, excellent grades and recommendation letters, and high GMAT scores.
Our Ph.D. program is tailored to meet each person's needs, objectives, and prior course work. The program normally requires 4 years: 2 to 2½ years of course work, and the remainder in dissertation research and writing. Individual programs vary, but students usually complete 7 to 10 courses from the Marketing Department. These consist of course seminars and courses in:
In addition to the Marketing Department courses, several research methods courses (usually statistics, research design, causal modeling, field research, and so forth) are required. Plus, each student chooses an outside area relevant to his or her interests (such as psychology, economics, statistics, sociology, etc.), and completes at least four courses in that field. Finally, if the student's Masters level background in business and marketing is not strong, some additional courses in these areas may be necessary. The total semester hours required for the Ph.D. is 99 beyond the Bachelors degree, of which 20-36 usually come from the Masters degree. Nine of the hours are methods courses, usually about 20 are dissertation hours, and the remainder are courses taken in the Ph.D. program. All students are required to work closely with faculty members to develop a first year paper and a second year paper for submission to scholarly journals. In addition, they have to review an area in marketing that has not been covered by a seminar. Upon successful completion of the coursework, the papers, and the marketing review, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. and can begin work on the dissertation.
We assign each student a first-year advisor - a faculty member to advise him or her on course work and academic life when he or she first arrives. Towards the end of the first year, each student normally chooses a program committee to advise on course work. After being admitted to the Ph.D. candidacy, each student assembles a dissertation committee to advise on the dissertation research and writing. The marketing department faculty members take a great deal of personal interest in each student, and give a high priority to their advisory role. We treat the Ph.D. students as junior colleagues in every way we can.
Our faculty members are highly accomplished. All have active research programs and have published in nationally and internationally prominent journals. Many have been officers of national professional societies and have chaired symposia, conferences, and conference sessions.
The Marketing Department endeavors to provide a half-time paid Graduate Assistantship to each student who is not otherwise supported, for up to four years. This assistantship involves teaching one three-hour course or three one-hour recitation sections of the introductory marketing course, and helping a faculty member with his or her work. Currently, the Graduate Assistantship pays a stipend of about $15,000 per 10-month school year, and includes full tuition remission for all courses taken during the year (including summer). Since non-resident tuition is approximately $570 per credit hour, and most of our students take more than 24 hours of classes per year, the total compensation package is about $28,600 per year. Depending on budget, we also try to provide teaching or research opportunities in the summer for additional money.
We also offer a limited number of fellowships in partnership with the university, and we encourage our students to apply for them. Whether or not a student obtains a fellowship or some other source of support, however, the department insists on all students acting as assistants to faculty members. We consider this apprenticeship an integral part of a Ph.D. education.
All graduate assistants with appointments that qualify for full tuition remission receive as an additional benefit, basic coverage under the university's student health insurance plan. Dependent plans are also available on an optional basis.
The Marketing Department works hard to provide the resources useful to a graduate education to our Ph.D. students. Each Ph.D. student, at present, has at his or her desk a personal computer with office software and access to the university mainframe, offering all major statistical packages, library access, and e-mail. Departmental staff type and photocopy materials related to student teaching and research assistant assignments. Students are encouraged to submit articles to journals and to academic conferences; some of the costs of travel to conferences where students present papers are defrayed by the department.
An equally important part of the support the Marketing Department provides is a scholarly environment. Several times in each semester, we have what we call "brown bags" - lunch time discussions of interesting articles in our field. Also, several times each semester, faculty and students present their research at Friday afternoon research seminars. In the Spring semester of each year, the department sponsors the Nebraska Doctoral Symposium, attracting doctoral candidates and faculty from research universities west of the Mississippi River. Finally, there are informal gatherings and parties throughout the year which provide opportunities to interact outside of the office environment.
Our department starts reviewing files for Fall semester admissions in early February. We do not admit Ph.D. candidates to start course work at mid- academic year (January). Since the university's Office of Graduate Studies has to verify and approve all transcripts and other application material before forwarding it to us, it is important to apply as early as possible. Our recommended date for receiving all application materials is January 1. We take a great deal of care in the application review process to identify students that are a good match for our program and who we believe have the potential to make meaningful contributions to knowledge. If our department has your completed file by early February, it gives us the best chance to review it with our customary care.
When your file is complete in all respects, it will be circulated to the Marketing Department faculty for their decisions. Applicants that the faculty shows substantial interest in are invited to spend a day with us on campus if possible. Final decisions on admission are normally made in mid-April.
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If you would like to speak to a professor in Marketing, contact:
