The PhD Project

Last week I attended the PhD Project conference in Chicago. It is a conference hosted by the KPMG Foundation that provides prospective PhD students from minority backgrounds to learn more about business doctoral programs. Since 1994, they have taken the number from only 200 business professors to over 1,000. I was happy to be invited with 300 prospective students.

We had several sessions that covered what the application process is like, the life a doctoral student, and the career path of business academia. They also had breakout sessions for each discipline. I attended both the Management/OB and Marketing panels.

This was a great opportunity to network with current Professors, Doctoral students, and prospective students. They also hosted a university fair and we got to meet with different doctoral program admins and professors.

Interestingly, there was another conference going on at the same time at the same hotel. The Mid-West Fur Fest. There were like 100 guys dressed up in full body animal costumes. Loved it!

I'm considering working for a few years and then going back to school. There were many people in that scenario and it was good to hear their stories.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about PhD programs and meet others with similar interests. The best part was all the free food!