Programs

Information about faculty and research can be found on the PhD in Business Administration website.

AdmissionsLink to section

Applying to Doctoral ProgramsLink to section

Simon’s doctoral program accepts full-time students only. Admissions decisions are made in early spring.

Our approach is to develop each student’s unique potential, so all of an applicant's abilities are considered in admittance decisions. Each applicant is evaluated individually based on their full application. The GMAT and/or GRE is a requirement of the Simon School PhD application that cannot be waived. We do not have minimum requirements for test scores or GPA. Admitted students typically have GMAT scores around 700 or higher and GRE scores around 317 or higher.

We look for students with the best chance of success after reviewing all applicants for any given year.

We can offer the following suggestions to applicants:

• Prospective students should demonstrate a set of clearly defined career objectives.
• A strong quantitative background is essential.
• Your ability to communicate in English is heavily factored into admissions decisions.
• Recommendations that provide a good assessment of your abilities are helpful to the faculty admissions committee when evaluating your application.
• Any additional materials (optional) that you submit with your application should reflect your fit for the program.

AcademicsLink to section

RequirementsLink to section

The PhD program at the Simon Business School is designed to equip students with the necessary analytical skills to carry out high-quality teaching and research in various fields of management. The Simon School confers a PhD in Business Administration. Our major fields of study include: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Information Systems, and Operations Management. Students build a firm foundation in economics, statistics, and their specific fields of study. Deeper specialization in coursework occurs in the second year when the students concentrate on their major fields of study. The PhD program is full-time only and consists of a minimum of 90 credit hours to include both coursework and research.

Doctoral Degrees and RequirementsLink to section

PhD program requirements vary by field of study, except for the thesis proposal and thesis defense.

Accounting (16 Required Courses)

The Accounting Preliminary Exam is given in June at the end of the first year and consists of two parts. The exam is based on questions from the following courses:

• FIN 505: Theory of Finance
• ACC 510: Accounting Research I
• ACC 511: Accounting Research II
• ACC 512: Adv. Topics in Acct. Research

First-Year Paper: Each student must complete and successfully pass a research-oriented first-year paper. The paper is due by September 15 of the second year for accounting students. The paper will then be presented in AEC 510 or in an accounting workshop by the end of the fall term of the student’s second year.

Qualifying Exam and Second-Year Paper: Students must pass an examination on the second-year paper by the end of the fall term of the third year. The paper is due by September 15 of the third year for accounting students. This paper should be an original contribution to the literature in the specific major area. Students are scheduled to present their paper to a selected faculty committee in AEC 510 that fall.

Finance (13 Required Courses)

The Finance Preliminary Exam is given in June at the end of the first year and consists of two parts.

The exam is based on questions from the following courses:

• FIN 505: Theory of Finance
• Plus one of the series below based on what courses are offered the first year:
  • FIN 511: Continuous Time Theory and FIN 512: Empirical Asset Pricing
  • FIN 513: Agency Theory and FIN 514: Empirical Corporate 

The exam is written and evaluated by a faculty committee. The committee will assign a combined grade to the exam for all parts.

First-Year Paper: Each student must complete and successfully pass a research-oriented first-year paper. The paper is due by October 15 of the second year for finance students. The paper will then be presented in AEC 510 by the end of the fall term of the student’s second year.

Qualifying Exam and Second-Year Paper: The Finance Qualifying Exam consists of passing an examination on the second-year paper by the end of the fall term of the third year. The paper is due by September 15 of the third year for finance students. This paper should be an original contribution to the literature in the specific major area. Students are scheduled to present their paper to a selected faculty committee in AEC 510 that fall.

Marketing (11 Required Courses)

Preliminary Requirement: First-year marketing PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in the topics covered in a specific set of required classes. These courses fall into two categories, econometrics and marketing.

Econometrics core courses as listed below. This sequence is taken through the University of Rochester Department of Economics:

• ECO 484: Introduction to Math Statistics/Intro to Econometrics
• ECO 485: Introduction to Econometrics

For these courses, students need to obtain a 3.3 (B+) GPA average. Failure to meet this average GPA indicates not meeting the milestones of the program and can result in being asked to leave the program, retake the courses, or demonstrate sufficient knowledge through other courses or means.

The marketing core sequence comprises three required classes:

• MKT 511: 1st Year Core Research Topics in Quantitative Marketing
• MKT 511: 2nd Year Core Research Topics in Quantitative Marketing
• AEC 523 or AEC 524: Microeconometrics Static (or Dynamic) Approaches

At least one of these courses must be taken to demonstrate depth of skills in microeconometrics.

First-Year Paper: Each student must complete and successfully pass a research-oriented first-year paper. The paper is due by October 15 of the second year for marketing students. The paper will then be presented in a Marketing Seminar by the end of the fall term of the student’s second year.

Qualifying Exam and Second-Year Paper: The Marketing Qualifying Exam consists of passing an examination on the second-year paper by the end of the fall term of the third year. The paper is due by September 15 of the third year for marketing students. This paper should be an original contribution to the literature in the specific major area. Students are scheduled to present their paper to a selected faculty committee in a Marketing Seminar that fall.

Information Systems (11 Required Courses)

Preliminary Requirement: First-year information system (IS) PhD students are required to demonstrate proficiency in the topics covered in these required classes:

• CIS 511: Research Topics and Methods in Information Systems
• MSM 522: Optimization
• ECON 471: Modern Value Theory

For these courses, students need to obtain a 3.3 (B+) GPA average.

First-Year Paper: Each student must complete and pass a first-year paper requirement, due by the end of the summer term (August 31) of their first year. The student must identify two topics of interest in the area of research (business analytics, information systems, or operations). The topic must have the scope for original research. The student is expected to research the literature to find the state of the art in these areas and to properly place the problem in the context. Problem identification and some effort at originality is sufficient for the first-year paper. The work for the paper is to be done independently by the student, but the student may seek guidance and feedback from faculty. The student will present his/her work to a committee of IS faculty, to be selected by the PhD Faculty Committee, that will grade the first-year paper using the PhD Standard Evaluation Grading.

Second-Year Paper: The information systems second-year paper consists of students working on an individual research topic in conjunction with the faculty to write a research paper. This paper is due by May 31 of the end of the second year. The student will present his/her work to a committee of IS faculty, to be selected by the PhD Faculty Committee, that will evaluate the papers using the PhD Standard Evaluation Grading.

Candidacy Qualifying Exam: The Information Systems Qualifying Exam is due by November 30 of the third year. This paper should be an original contribution to the literature in the specific major area and is usually a more in-depth version of the paper used for the second-year paper. The paper should be presented to the committee (formed before the second-year paper) by January 15 that will evaluate the paper and presentation.

Operations Management (11 Required Courses)

Preliminary Requirement: A committee of operations management (OM) faculty reviews students after the first year in early June. The expectation is that students would receive B+ or higher in all of their courses. In addition, the expectation is that students would receive A- or higher in the following courses:

• MSM 506: Stochastic Processes: Theory and Application
• MSM 522: Optimization
• ECON 471: Modern Value Theory

First-Year Paper: By the end of spring term of their first year (May 31), students should pick two research questions. By the end of summer term (August 31) of their first year, students should deliver initial drafts of the papers based on the two research questions that would include: a problem statement, initial problem formulation, and a literature review. The student will present his/her work to a committee of OM faculty, to be selected by the PhD Faculty Committee, that will grade the first-year paper using the PhD Standard Evaluation Grading. Successful completion of the initial drafts and presentation constitutes passing the preliminary requirement and first-year paper.

Second-Year Papers: The operations management second-year papers consist of the student’s work on two individual research topics to write two research papers. These two papers are due by May 31 of the end of the second year. The student will present his/her work to a committee of OM faculty, to be selected by the PhD Faculty Committee, that will evaluate the papers and the presentation using the PhD Standard Evaluation Grading.

Candidacy Qualifying Exam: The Operations Management Qualifying Exam is due by November 30 of the third year. This paper should be an original contribution to the literature in the specific major area and is usually a more in-depth version of one of the two papers used for the second-year papers. The paper should be presented to the committee (formed before the second-year paper) by January 15 and will be evaluated using the PhD Standard Evaluation Grading.

PhD in Business Administration Dissertation

Dissertation Proposal: Students are expected to submit a thesis proposal paper to their faculty advisor and committee. The exact form and timing of this proposal is defined by area requirements.

Dissertation Defense Seminar: The University of Rochester Graduate Student Office oversees all the thesis defense submissions. They have strict deadlines and policies that must be followed. See the University Graduate Studies Booklet Regulations Concerning Graduate Study for a detailed description of the final oral examination.

Graduate Course TitlesLink to section

• ACC 501: Accounting Seminar
• ACC 510: Accounting Research I
• ACC 511: Accounting Research II
• ACC 512: Advanced Topics in Accounting Research
• ACC 513: Contemporary Topics in Accounting Research
• AEC 506: Probability Theory
• AEC 510: PhD Workshop in Applied Economics
• AEC 513: Industrial Organization Theory
• AEC 515: Microeconomic Theory
• AEC 520: Causal Inference
• AEC 523: Micro-Econometric Modeling: Static
• AEC 524: Micro-Econometric Modeling: Dynamic Approaches
• CIS 511: Research Topics and Methods in Information Systems
• CIS 512: Advanced Topics in Information Systems
• FIN 505: Theory of Finance
• FIN 511: Continuous Time Theory in Finance
• FIN 512: Empirical Asset Pricing
• FIN 513: Agency Theory
• FIN 514: Empirical Corporate
• FIN 522: Advanced Empirical Asset Pricing
• FIN 523: Advanced Agency Theory
• FIN 525: Macro-Finance
• MGC 501: PhD Communication Workshop
• MKT 505: Marketing Workshop
• MKT 511: Core Research Topics in Quantitative Marketing
• MKT 512: Advanced Topics/Quantitative Marketing Research
• MSM 502: Linear Algebra MSM 503: Optimization
• MSM 504: Theory of Probability and Stochastic Processes I
• MSM 505: Theory of Probability and Stochastic Processes II