ADMISSION APPLICATION FOR PHD IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 1
RE: Application for PhD in Business Administration.
Dear Sir/Madam,
It is with great pleasure that I am writing this application for admission to the Ph.D. program in
Business Administration. I am currently completing my Master’s degree in Business
Administration with a concentration in management at Strayer University, California. I also
earned the Bachelor’s degree at the same university.
I would wish to pursue this particular program because I have always desired a career in the
research and teaching of management. In particular, I am interested in factors that affect the
competitive performance of a business concern, and the manner in which changes in technology
affect an organization's structure, long-term business strategy, product development,
manufacturing, supply chains, distribution network, information needs and standard systems. In
order to gain an appreciation of these and related issues, it is essential for me to have a strong
grounding in Economics, Change Management, Supply Chain Management, and issues
connected with Information Technology, as well as gain a General Management perspective.
Having worked at various management positions in a couple of organizations, I believe that I am
well equipped to face the PhD courses in management and effectively handle it. I believe that the
Ph.D. program in Business Administration (with concentration in Management) would be
invaluable in helping me achieve these objectives. It would enable me to channel my quantitative
and conceptual skills in analyzing business issues and would open up new avenues in research.
ADMISSION APPLICATION FOR PHD IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
2
I believe that Trident University International would be a wonderful opportunity for me to be
better positioned to realize my ambitions. I would wish to thank the management for this perfect
opportunity to submit my application for your deliberation. I have attached my CV together with
this letter. Please contact me if there are any other extra requirements. I look forward to hearing
from you.
Sincerely,
Your Name.
References
Letter, H., & Golovushkina, E. (2017). How to Write a Succesful PhD Motivation Letter PhDPortal.com. Phdportal.com. Retrieved 17 August 2017, from
http://www.phdportal.com/articles/717/how-to-write-a-succesful-phd-motivation-letter.html
Literature, P. (2017). Personal Statement Example: Student Applying for a Ph.D. in Literature PhDPortal.com. Phdportal.com. Retrieved 17 August 2017, from
http://www.phdportal.com/articles/2095/personal-statement-example-student-applying-for-aphd-in-literature.html
1
EDUCATION:
_______________________________________
PhD candidate, Business Administration – Management emphasis.
Trident University International, Cypress, California
Strayer University, Greensboro, NC Campus
MBA (CGPA: 4.00/4.00) – Concentration in Management
Prospected: Fall 2017
Expected: Summer 2017
Strayer University, Greensboro, NC Campus
Bachelor of Business Administration - Concentration in Management
(GPA: 3.78/4.00) College Honors (Magna Cum Laude)
Dean’s List
2016
Institut Superieur de Gestion Appliquée (ISGA)(Higher Institute of Applied Management.
1996
Country: Cote D’Ivoire/Ivory Coast
Brevet de Technicien Superieur en Informatique de Gestion(BTS) (Management Information Systems)
GPA: 3.03
RESEARCH INTERESTS:___________________________________________________
Organizational behavior, diversity management, change management and strategic leadership.
Research themes include innovation, entrepreneurship, organizational learning, and networks.
WORK EXPERIENCE:_________________ ____________________________________
Mcimax & Co., Inc
2015 – Present
President and CEO: Products manufacturer & Export Management Services.
• Coordinating with prominent personalities, Ex-Im Bank, Export Gov and Chief executives of numerous
Multinationals.
• Participated in various internationalization initiatives (CIB investments and Acquisitions) in Africa.
Worked closely with GKB Import SARL/Cote D’Ivoire, Marketing, and Production teams for technical
development, production and global sales of three new products.
Mcimax Group SARL- Cote D’Ivoire
Advisor: Mcimax Group SARL- Cote D’Ivoire
•
Jan 2015 - Present
Developed and implemented an inventory system for Mcimax Group that improved
inventory turnover and decreased cost of adjunct operations.
Mabi Enterprises, LLC - Greensboro, NC & NYC- NY
December 2007 – August 2015
2
Chief Executive Officer (CEO):
• Responsible for leading the development and execution of the Company’s long term strategy with a
view to creating shareholder value.
• Responsible for all day-to-day management decisions and for implementing the firm’s long and
short term plans.
Galaxy Productions, LLC – Greensboro, NC
October 2004 – November 2006
Manager: Acted as an internal consultant with management and responsible for tracking production
waste levels and coordinating improvements to operations.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING:_______________________________________________
•
•
Project Management (PMP) Training by Loko School of Business in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, Jan 2015
International Brand Management Training by Philips (Middle East and Africa) at Singapore, May 2008
SKILLS & OTHERS:_______________________________________________________
•
•
•
Languages: Fluent in English and French
Computer: Proficient in MS Office Suite, Excel, Wordpress, Adobe Photoshop and C++ Programming
Other:
Basic knowledge of Stata, SAS and SPSS
Commentator for business and education on community talk shows
2000 – 2005
HONORS & AWARDS:________________________________________________________
• Outstanding Graduate Student, Strayer University, Greensboro, NC
2016 2017
Summa Cum Laude
2017
• Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Strayer University, Greensboro, NC
2013 - June 2016
Dean’s List Strayer University, Greensboro NC
2013 2016
College Honors (Magna Cum Laude), Strayer University, Greensboro, NC
2016
MEMBERSHIPS:___________________________________________________________
•
•
•
Golden Key International Honor Society
Alpha Chi National College Honor Society
National Society of Collegiate Scholars
2017
2017
2016
I have an excellent job with tremendous advancement opportunities. At my
well-paid job at a prestigious investment bank on Wall Street, my computer
science and analytical skills are recognized and lauded. Moreover, I enjoy
intellectual interactions with my Ph.D. colleagues, have many friends, and am
appreciated by my managers. Still, I feel a void in my life. While my friends and
colleagues do not understand my decision to leave my rewarding career, I
know that I have no choice if I am to pursue my long-term goal and my
childhood dream: to teach and publish research. While my friends think I am
sacrificing certain career advancement for unnecessary training, I do not act
impulsively, and I am certain that I have made the correct decision. What they
do not understand is that I will derive even greater satisfaction by pursuing a
doctoral degree than by earning a higher salary and advancing in my present
career. By pursuing a doctorate, I will have the priceless opportunity to realize
my dream.
Learning gives me a world of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. The
more I learn, the more fulfilled I feel. I do not learn solely to apply my
knowledge in a practical setting; instead, it is the quest for knowledge and the
challenge of learning that motivates me. Originally, I took my current job since I
saw it as an invaluable opportunity to further my learning experience. Over the
past two years, I have accumulated a good knowledge of Finance. I was
introduced to Bayesian Statistics, GARCH processes, and other topics of time
series analysis. I also learned how to price volatility swaps and categorize
different optimization tasks.
While I never intended to focus solely on the practical side of finance, nearly all
of my work revolves around it. For example, I have done research that
forecasted assets’ expected returns as well as research on a better way to
execute a trade. These research opportunities were all results-oriented. I
rarely have had the opportunity to look at the theoretical aspect of finance, like
deriving closed-form solutions to evaluate financial instruments, which I
sometimes find interesting. Although I try hard to broaden my knowledge of
theoretical finance by reading finance and econometrics books on my leisure
time, I am not able to test those theories empirically. I long for an environment
where I can conduct research merely for the sake of curiosity. A doctoral
program will definitely provide me with such an environment and allow me to
continue my quest for knowledge unconfined by the boundaries of practicality.
My desire to attend the Ph.D. program also stems from a realization that my
undergraduate education was only a starting point in learning the necessary
finance skills. While my Computer Science and Finance degrees supplied the
foundation of knowledge for each field and my employment background has
allowed me to understand and utilize technical aspects of finance, I have not
yet learned the critical skills to improvise when applying finance theories.
Specialization through the Ph.D. program is crucial, as I have noticed how my
colleagues apply their specific area of knowledge to the understanding of
disciplines. For example, one of my colleagues has used his mathematical
knowledge to solve a portfolio optimization problem while others have done the
contrary, using their finance expertise to help them understand mathematical
problems. I seek this level of knowledge in finance, so that I can handle many
different problems that might defy the application of standard rules
Perhaps most importantly, a Wall Street career is not in line with my long-term
career objective of teaching, conducting research, and producing research
publications that would add value and contribute to my field of specialization. I
am driven by more than money and the prestige of an excellent career. I also
hope to contribute to society; as a professor, I would have the ability to do this.
An inspired teacher can bring out talents, encourage innovation and nurture a
new generation of scientists and philosophers. I always want to inspire others
in the teaching process in addition to conveying a knowledge of the curriculum.
At Sloan, I intend to concentrate in Finance. Finance is the explanation of
rational human behavior reflected in the financial markets. The idea of
maximizing expected return and minimizing risk is simple but breathtakingly
powerful in explaining how assets are valued. I enjoy learning about the
interaction of economic variables like inflation or interest rates, how the
economy works, and how changes of factors like currency return or oil price
affects market movement. One of the aspects of finance that I find most
interesting is its application of knowledge from other areas of discipline. For
example, Brownian motion is used to model and evaluate options while
eigenvalues and eigenvectors are used to decompose and analyze covariance
matrices. These examples show that finance researchers are able to take
advantage of the established knowledge of other fields like Mathematics and
Statistics and apply them to assist in their research. I also believe that my
excellent quantitative background makes me well suited to handle finance’s
demanding level of mathematical rigor.
MIT could contribute tremendously to my achieving my long-term objective.
Needless to say, it has an impressive faculty and a strong academic reputation.
But I am most impressed with its quantitative approach to finance. MIT
combines its strength in engineering and economics to develop an expertise in
finance that focuses on the quantitative aspect. In particular, I am interested in
the work of Dr. Andrew Lo, who is a prominent figure in the area of neural
networks and derivative pricing. I am also attracted to MIT’s small class sizes
since it would enable me to work closely, share experiences, and exchange
ideas with my professors and peers.
One line of research I hope to pursue is of the financial market development of
emerging market countries. I have always wondered whether established
finance theory applies to the behavior of developing countries or whether there
are alternative models to explain such market behavior. What should be the
appropriate strategy to ensure stable development in these countries’ financial
markets? Can the lack of pension funds to support the market be the reason
for the huge volatility and low liquidity of the financial markets in the developing
countries? Are there any common factors driving their market variations?
Through the Ph.D. program, I hope to find answers to the above questions and
to conduct extensive research on similar financial market topics.
I believe there is still much to be explored and studied in finance academia,
and I believe the Sloan doctoral program would provide me with the knowledge
necessary to understand and apply finance theories, which I could in turn bring
to my teaching and research career. I am committed and determined to
succeeding at the Ph.D. program, and I am confident I will be able to contribute
to the MIT community in my area of interest.
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