The Department of Marketing (MKT) has successfully placed Ph.D. graduates to academic programs nationally and internationally such as the University of Denver, San Jose State University, Cal State Fullerton, and Texas A&M - Central Texas. Many of our graduates have also taken the academic leadership role as Chairs and Deans in their academic programs and they regard their experience in our program fulfilling and life-altering.
To succeed in the program, Ph.D. students in marketing concentration must be able to plan their coursework and research engagement proactively. To start, each student must first familiarize themselves with the general guidelines and requirements by Shidler’s Ph.D. program in general following the Ph.D. student handbook link and Ph.D. program link.
MKT Requirements for Ph.D. Students
In addition to meeting the University and College requirements for the Ph.D. in Business Administration, each Ph.D. student in marketing concentration must 1) complete and pass the required courses (please see a recommended course schedule toward the bottom of this page); 2) complete and pass a first year qualifying paper; 3) pass a second year comprehensive exam; 4) Pass the dissertation proposal defense; 5) complete the dissertation and pass the dissertation defense.
Each admitted Ph.D. student usually qualify for financial support for four years in the form of a Graduate Assistantship (GA). Students receiving GA are typically working with one or two faculty members as a teaching assistant (TA) or research assistant (RA). In addition, Ph.D. students are expected to serve as a course instructor after passing the comprehensive exam to gain teaching experience. Students are also encouraged to engage in research early on and to actively participate and contribute to the academic community in general by attending and presenting in marketing conferences.
In terms of course work, students will focus on requirement marketing PhD seminars in the first two years and at the same time take courses in methods depending on the desired skill set, such as multivariate, experimental design, survey research, SEM, qualitative, and econometrics. Students should consider obtaining an Education Psychology Quant Certificate. They should meet with their main advising faculty when they first arrive and then on a regular basis to discuss courses that are appropriate given their interests and course availability. In addition, students need to decide on the area of marketing (consumer behavior/psychology; strategy; or quant) they plan to focus on as each area will demand different set of elective course work. For example, those interested in consumer behavior/psychology should try to take cognitive and social psych whereas strategy interest may fit better with a management, and/or organization psychology PhD seminar, and quant interest will demand more econometrics as well as applied math courses.
Specifically, for marketing PhD seminars, all students must take MKT 701 Marketing Theory Seminar, MKT 702 Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior Seminar and MKT 703 Marketing Strategy Seminar. Students whose past undergraduate and graduate degrees are not in marketing are recommended to take MBA or MSMM level marketing core classes. Finally, regular participation in research seminar, job talks and workshops is expected of our Ph.D. Students.