Desired Profile of PhD students

Profile of students
Department of Accounting	Candidates with the following attributes are invited to apply for admission into the Ph.D. program in accounting:
	(1) Intellectual Curiosity
	(2) GMAT score above 680.
	(3) Proficiency in spoken and written English (minimum TOEFL: 660)
	(4) Excellent presentation skills
	(5) Excellent grades in undergraduate studies
	(6) Experience in computer programming would be a plus.
Department of Strategy & Policy	Ideal BP student profile:
	1. GMAT 650 or above
	2. High on GPA 3.5 or above on 4.0 scale
	3. Mature students (who have a minimum of 2 years of work experience or 2 years of graduate work (master degree).
Department of Decision Sciences	We consider students with very strong academic records and are highly ranked within their cohorts.
	Their bachelor/masters degrees should be from technical fields such as mathematics, statistics and engineering. Good GRE, GMAT are useful indicators but not mandatory. Shortlisted candidates should have a reasonably good command of the English language as indicated by their TOFEL scores and ad-hoc interview performance.
Department of Finance	Applicants to the Ph.D. program in finance need a solid grounding in economics and quantitative methods in mathematics and statistics. Research experience would also be a strong plus. Thus, the ideal candidate would have a Masters in Economics, a strong Master’s thesis and good training in quantitative methods in economics such as optimization, econometrics and statistics. While background in finance would be additionally useful, this is not necessary. The candidate should also possess reasonable oral English skills which is tested by a phone interview.
	Candidates with only an undergraduate degree, but those that have research experience also are considered.
	The committee places a lot of weight on the written research statement of the candidate. The interview questions are in depth and attempt to understand how deeply the candidate has thought about his or her research statement, and the degree to which it reflects his or her own thinking. Next to the background as described above, the research statement is of very important, both in the screening decision for the interview, as well during the interview itself.
	GRE/GMAT scores are secondary indicators of ability, when a candidate does not possess adequate research background. Hence, there is no minimum requirement for these scores. Likewise, candidates TOEFL scores are of secondary importance.
Department of MNO	M&O department looks for students that meets the following criteria
	1) with a master or bachelor degree from top schools (e.g., NUS, NTU, SMU, top 10 business schools in China, IIT from India and so on)
	2) strong TOFEL, GMAT or GRE scores (e.g., top 10 percent)
	3) descent undergrad transcripts
	4) a solid statement of research that shows potential for serious research
	5) strong recommendation letters
	6) good command of written and spoken English
	7) international publications are a plus
Department of Marketing	In general, given the importance of good presentation skills to succeed in the job market, it would be good if the candidate has good oral communication skills (in English). Should have 90+ percentile on GMAT/GRE (95+ percentile in Quant/Analytical Reason and 85+ percentile in Verbal) and 90+ percentile in TSE (Test of Spoken English).
	An "ideal" Marketing quant candidate must have a strong math background. If the person is aspiring to be an analytical modeler, it would be good if s/he has graduate-level economics background. If the person is aspiring to specialize in empirical/econometric modelling, it would e good if s/he has a solid statistics background. If the candidate is aiming to be econometric modeler, it would be good if s/he has prior exposure to programming in C/MATLAB.
	Undergrad Background: S/he has an undergraduate in engineering / math / statistics from a very good university with good exposure to calculus, differential equation and linear algebra.
	Grad-level Background: At the graduate-level, the following background would be good.
	Profile I
	Graduate studies in Statistics/Math/Applied Math/Engineering from a very good university/institute. Concern in this case will be lack of prior exposure to Economics and Marketing. We must advise such candidates background readings in undergrad Micro-Economics and Marketing before they arrive at NUS.
	Profile II
	Graduate studies in Economics from a very good university/institute. Concern in this case will be lack of prior exposure to Marketing. We must advise such candidates background readings in Marketing before they arrive at NUS.
	Profile III
	MBA from a very good university/institute, Concern in this case will be lack of prior exposure to Economics. We must advise such candidates background readings in undergrad Micro-Economics before they arrive at NUS.
	An “ideal” Marketing Consumer Behavior candidate must have a strong grounding in cognitive and social psychology. Candidates from communications degree are also potential good sources. Undergraduate and graduate level exposure to consumer behavior and decision-making modules would be good. Statistical knowledge is essential with basic command in the popular social science statistical packages like SAS, SPSS, or STATA.