Online PhD in Business: where? Worth it?

Business schools frequently offer PhDs in a subset of the following areas…

- economics

- marketing

- finance

- statistics / econometrics

- organizational behavior

Not to be harsh but…

1. I don’t think most reputable places would let you do it all online, nor would that be a good idea.

2. I also think your understanding of the degree is wrong if you are thinking about it as “low hanging fruit.” These degrees generally take 5-6 years to complete full time and are designed to train researchers to produce research articles in the areas above. It is a full time job (or more) anywhere.

3. Neither your MBA or your business experience are likely to be that relevant.

There are some purely online schools which have sort of “pay to play” phd programs. You pay tuition and they pretend to teach you something. Probably the first result that pops up when you Google “online business phd program” will be a good example. I don’t think those are likely to be a good investment of your dollars, nor are they taken seriously in the research community.

If you are in NYC, why not reach out to faculty at local business schools like NYU Stern, Columbia, etc. PhD is more about your research interests matching with that of a faculty member than anything else. So, review the current research direction and publications of the faculty member, reach out to him/her about the research and explore potentially doing PhD research under their guidance.

> ... a PhD in Business seems to be the low-hanging fruit.

This seems to be a red flag, it may come across that you just like to have "PhD" after your name than any real interest in business research and education.

I do not know about the U.S. system, but in Canada, the Ph.D. program in Business is part of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Thus, the fees for any Ph.D. program in business, in many Canadian universities, are the same as for any other graduate program in the university. Besides this, once you are admitted (which is very hard, for example, they accept generally 2 in the Ph.D. program in Finance, from a pool of thousands of applications), you get generally a full scholarship. So, the Ph.D. program is "free". Now, in my experience, it is better if you invest your time getting a certification, like CFA, CPA, CAIA or anything like that, and working in the industry. This will be a lot more fun and much less stressful and risky. To get good networking, I would add a SMALL program in business at an Ivy League university, which is very expensive, but generally is not hard to be admitted to. Additionally, if you want to land a really good job, I also would tell you to get a master's in computer science or IT certifications. Now, if you think that getting a Ph.D. in Business is really for you, I would strongly advise you to know the faculty of the university of your choice. Generally, the faculty associated with a Ph.D. program in Business is a very small group of people. So, I would strongly advise you to get a lot of information about them from previous students, and mainly from previous dropouts of the corresponding program, and if possible contact them. In my own experience, I can say that, unless you are extremely lucky, getting a Ph.D. in Business is not worth the time.

A PhD in business is research focused training to become an academic scholar where you test theories, write papers, teach etc...

The only really significant PhD in business is the one issued by the marketplace.

Prove your bona fides by starting your own company and becoming mega-rich. Paper credentials are no substitute and the ultimate proof is the fact that most business PhDs are not mega-rich.