Ph.D. Program

Welcome!

I hope that through these pages and through your own further research you discover just how unique the Doctoral Program of the Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester is. From its centrality in the School’s mission to the quality of our research and academic placements, our program is unlike any other among business schools, worldwide.

First and foremost, the intellectual core of the Simon School is its research. This research, performed by our faculty and our doctoral students, figures prominently in the education of all of the Simon School’s students. The Simon School treasures this contribution and considers the doctoral program to be central in its educational mission. It has devoted considerable resources to recruiting the best students, to developing and offering courses on state-of-the research techniques even to small numbers of students in the program, to providing generous support, scholarships and tuition waivers, and most of all, to fostering a research atmosphere in which a budding management scientist can really develop and thrive.

The quality of the placements of our graduates in academic positions on graduation speaks of the quality of the program and of the training we provide. We are proud of the Doctoral Program, which, in important dimensions such as placement and success after placement, ranks as one of the very best business school doctoral programs in the U.S. Graduate placement is highly skewed towards highly ranked business schools. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2006 rankings, half of our graduates accepted tenure track positions at a top-50 ranked business schools. A full quarter joined a top-15 school and 20 percent were initially placed at a top-10 business school. These numbers may change slightly depending on the ranking used, but the message is clear: Simon School Doctoral Program graduates are highly sought after by the best business schools.

Another measure of our success and the quality of our research is the frequent citation by other researchers and practitioners of work done by those at Simon. In a study titled "Citation Patterns in the Finance Literature", 21 of the top-40 cited authors listed are Simon Ph.D. Program graduates, faculty or former faculty. That is an amazing accomplishment for a young school such as ours.

Two factors contribute to the high quality of research and training of our students: one is a strong foundation in basic topics such as economics, mathematics and statistics; the other, a focus on the rigorous analysis of relevant business problems, as opposed to relying on mechanical applications of the latest techniques in modeling or econometrics to the existing literature. Our emphasis on real problems, practical yet rigorous analysis, and commonsense, has played a large role in our having the best record over the last 20 years in the placement of our graduates who receive tenure at top-20 business schools in the U.S.

The Simon School offers a research atmosphere that is known for fostering innovation. Three prestigious journals are edited at the Simon School. The Journal of Financial Economics (J.F.E.) is widely acknowledged as the highest quality finance journal. Various studies of citation patterns find the J.F.E. ranks close to the top among all economic journals for the rate at which other papers reference the articles it publishes. The Journal of Accounting & Economics ranks highest among accounting journals for citation impact. The Journal of Monetary Economics ranks very high among macroeconomic journals, and is near the top among all economic journals for citation impact. These publications give our faculty access to leading research throughout the world as it is being produced, which is an important factor in training doctoral students.

While our program is demanding, fellowship support is generous and available year-round. Students making satisfactory progress are supported throughout their years in residence, with the average entering fellowship/assistantship award at about $21,000 (plus tuition scholarship).

We hope the above information, and the web site, will aid you in making a decision to apply.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Rajiv M. Dewan,
Chair, Ph.D. Committee