Peer-reviewed publications and MBA admissions (GRE, PhD, skills, degree)
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That is something that often seems to be overlooked (with or without reason, I don't know at this stage) and that I can't find anything in the MBA literature that pertains to how do having publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals affect MBA admissions. Do they help or are they worth little?
The only thing I know at this point about how professional school admissions treat publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals is that having publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals is worth little to law schools, but can make or break a med school application (just like GPA, MCAT, medical volunteering, letters of recommendation and, of course, interview).
I'm just asking about this because I feel it's responsible to plan ahead.
For the record, I have one accepted publication (to Physical Review D) and another submitted paper (to the Journal of Mathematical Physics) on file.
Total curiosity on my part, but why would MBA applications care about peer reviewed publications in scientific journals? MBA isn't science anyway. I know that biz school profs do publish "research" but HBR is hardly on the same level of peer review as Phys Rev. On a scale from Popular Science to Phys Rev, HBR is somewhere between Nat Geo and Smithsonian in terms of "technical" quality vs human interest.
AN MBA is a professional degree; not an academic degree. They won't care about your published work for admission. They will care about your professional experience, however.
Total curiosity on my part, but why would MBA applications care about peer reviewed publications in scientific journals? MBA isn't science anyway.
I expected MBA admissions to be more holistic than law school admissions. While the most important criteria are well-documented, I suspect that the more obscure criteria could have included publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals; after all, a diverse B-school class is not defined only in terms of ethnicity or professional backgrounds.
Work experience is undoubtedly important, and so are GPA, essays, letters of recommendation (albeit to a lesser extent than for PhD) and GMAT.
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I know that biz school profs do publish "research" but HBR is hardly on the same level of peer review as Phys Rev. On a scale from Popular Science to Phys Rev, HBR is somewhere between Nat Geo and Smithsonian in terms of "technical" quality vs human interest.
An equivalent to HBR with Phys Rev-level of peer review would likely be an economics journal anyway. An economics journal with a high impact factor, applied even, but economics still.
It would be more relevant to a PhD in business program, but it can't hurt.
I think it is WAY more important what kind of workplace accomplishments you have. You are right that top B schools like diversity in the industries they pull candidates from, and coming from a STEM field does help. But, they do want people that look like they can become business executives in those fields, so they are still going to want to see that you lead a successful project or hold patents or started a company, something along those lines...
something related to leadership or entrepreneurship skills.
The other advantage B schools see with accepting science or engineering type candidates is they can handle the math required for the finance classes. So publishing a scientific paper does nothing to advance that cause.
That said it can speak to your ability to systematically analyze problems, so if you can display all the main qualities they are looking for this will certainly be a cherry on top.
If you have published papers put them on your CV and stop worrying. If you have high grades and test scores, you probably won't have trouble getting into a good regional program. If you are trying to get into a top-10 MBA program (and you have high grades and test scores), it might be seen to have high marginal benefits by the admission's board.
That is something that often seems to be overlooked (with or without reason, I don't know at this stage) and that I can't find anything in the MBA literature that pertains to how do having publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals affect MBA admissions. Do they help or are they worth little?
The only thing I know at this point about how professional school admissions treat publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals is that having publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals is worth little to law schools, but can make or break a med school application (just like GPA, MCAT, medical volunteering, letters of recommendation and, of course, interview).
I'm just asking about this because I feel it's responsible to plan ahead.
For the record, I have one accepted publication (to Physical Review D) and another submitted paper (to the Journal of Mathematical Physics) on file.
It can't hurt. I expect it doesn't help much. Are you applying directly out as an undergraduate? Why an MBA? If you're working in mathematical physics even the most rigorous MBA program is going to feel non-mathematical. If you're applying to an ORFE program those two papers would help a lot more.
Also, if it does come down to the CV, don't put the journal you've submitted a manuscript if it hasn't been accepted.
I expected MBA admissions to be more holistic than law school admissions. While the most important criteria are well-documented, I suspect that the more obscure criteria could have included publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals; after all, a diverse B-school class is not defined only in terms of ethnicity or professional backgrounds.
Work experience is undoubtedly important, and so are GPA, essays, letters of recommendation (albeit to a lesser extent than for PhD) and GMAT.
An equivalent to HBR with Phys Rev-level of peer review would likely be an economics journal anyway. An economics journal with a high impact factor, applied even, but economics still.
Or a leading I/O psychology journal.
Nah, I/O journals and economics journals are actual research. HBR is typically an aggregate of research written like a magazine article. I could see how a publication in an I/O journal (P Psych, or Journal Of Applied Psychology) or Academy of Management Annals or Review, AMJ, Leadership Quarterly, etc. would be useful, but I'm not sure why a publication in a physics journal would carry much weight. But in all honesty I don't know.
There are some business schools that are much more academic than others. Chicago Booth, for example. (disclosure: I'm an alum, so I have first-hand knowledge, and I'm also a bit biased). I had the good fortune to take business school classes from Merton Miller and George Stigler -- both of whom won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and also from Eugene Fama who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013. While I didn't take classes from the, Chicago Booth also had on their faculty Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, Robert Fogel and Myron Scholes -- all of whom also won the Nobel Prize.
I'll be the first to admit that Chicago Booth is not your typical B-School -- but I can assure you academic peer-reviewed journal publications absolutely matter there. YMMV.
Last edited by SportyandMisty; 07-25-2015 at 10:20 AM..
It can't hurt. I expect it doesn't help much. Are you applying directly out as an undergraduate? Why an MBA? If you're working in mathematical physics even the most rigorous MBA program is going to feel non-mathematical. If you're applying to an ORFE program those two papers would help a lot more.
Also, if it does come down to the CV, don't put the journal you've submitted a manuscript if it hasn't been accepted.
I'm not planning on applying just yet. Applying to MBA programs would be an irresponsible move for me at this point.
Thank you for the information though. Since I'm actually a particle cosmologist and, as you said, even MIT Sloan (which is highly mathematical by MBA standards) will feel non-mathematical to a theoretical physicist, what that means is that I would then have to emphasize a desire to acquire qualitative business skills in MBA applications, thanks to my highly quantitative background.
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Originally Posted by SportyandMisty
There are some business schools that are much more academic than others. Chicago Booth, for example. (disclosure: I'm an alum, so I have first-hand knowledge, and I'm also a bit biased). I had the good fortune to take business school classes from Merton Miller and George Stigler -- both of whom won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and also from Eugene Fama who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013. While I didn't take classes from the, Chicago Booth also had on their faculty Ronald Coase, Gary Becker, Robert Fogel and Myron Scholes -- all of whom also won the Nobel Prize.
I'll be the first to admit that Chicago Booth is not your typical B-School -- but I can assure you academic peer-reviewed journal publications absolutely matter there. YMMV.
Thank you. I will consider UChicago Booth if I ever get to the point where a MBA would actually make sense (e.g. to get a promotion at work)...
If the average UChicago Booth student has a ~3.6, I'm just fine grades-wise (~3.7 undergrad, 3.8 masters) and I feel confident that, with a month or two of study, I would be able to score something equivalent or similar to this (V162, Q167, AW4.0) on the GMAT or GRE respectively, so I have one and a half base covered, if the "half-base" means the PRD paper.
I understand however that many (I don't know whether it's many or most however) UChicago Booth students won't have an academic peer-reviewed journal publication though.
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