MBA after PhD

[VTM]

Hello Sir,

I am an indian male 32 years old. I am planning to apply for an MBA in Health Care Management ( Wharton, Kellog and Furqa). Please evaluate my profile.

Education

PhD in Biophysics from a university in Singapore
M.Sc in Physics ( 7.22/10 GPA) and B.Sc in Physics (83 %) from Indian Universities.

Work Experience

Currently working as a Post-doctoral Researcher in an American University campus in the middle east (UAE) in the field of drug delivery (7 months)
Graduate Research in Biophysics/ Structural Biology in the determination of DNA Structures ( 5 years, Singapore)
Junior Research Fellow (two years, India)
Physics Lecturer (two years, some professional trainining center in India )

Hope to score a 700+ in GMAT soon.

Other Experiences

No Volunteering Experiences so far. Planning to volunteer in health care soon in UAE. No leadership experiences outside the University. But I could make a good story with my experiences in the new Lab in the middle east. Simlar to working in a start up, I am involved every aspect of establishing and running a new Lab.

Planning to work in Government or non profit organizations related to health care after MBA.

As you might have noticed, all my experiences are within educational institutes. do I have enough work experiences to be considered for the above mentioned MBA programs ?. Wharton says graduate education is not counted as work experience. is PhD Research considered as graduate education ?

Thanks in advance for your reply

VTM

[mbaMissionJenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. Your academic background is solid and your research experience is extensive and likely has provided you with in depth analytical skills, and your lecturer experience likely provided you with communication and presentation skills which are valued in business school.

Probably the largest question you would come up against is why.... why do you want the MBA? How clear are you on your post-MBA goals and how this degree will get you there? HAVE you had enough professional work experience to contribute to the class?

Generally graduate school work/degree time is not considered professional work experience, no. Working AT a university as your job can be categorized slightly differently, and certainly that IS a career or job or professional work experience for some which can count; really depends on the nature of the positions and work and whether you are doing that towards a degree or not etc. If you are in doubt I suggest reaching out directly to the admissions officers at schools you are interested in and just ask them. That would be my first step recommendation so you can get a feel for that answer. If you or they feel your work experience is on the lower side, but you are set on the MBA, you could look at some still reputable but less competitive program options and possibly have a shot.

Finally keep in mind that your GMAT would play a large role too so be sure to prepare thoroughly for that. Good luck and keep us posted!

[VTM]

Hi Jennifer,

My sincere apologies for my late reply. Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I contacted the admission office at Wharton regarding the work experience requirement. I got a reply saying that there is no minimum work experience. So I will focus on GMAT preparation and will decide after seeing the score. I will update you after that.

Regards
VTM

[mbaMissionJenK]

Hi there,

Good luck on the GMAT prep and applications. Just to keep things realistic, keep in mind that while there is no minimum work experience requirement, you can look at the class profile online to see the average and range of # of years of experience within the class.... so without any outside-of-academics work experience, it could be more challenging to gain acceptance. Not impossible, but not easy. Just have to keep it realistic! But with a very strong application showcasing all you would bring to a school and a clear case for why you need the MBA, combined with strong GMAT, anything is possible.