Academics

Smeal College of Business doctorate program reports 100 percent placement rate

The doctorate program in the Penn State Smeal College of Business reported a 100 percent placement rate for its class of 2013. Credit: Mahima MAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The doctorate program in the Penn State Smeal College of Business reported a 100 percent placement rate for its class of 2013 graduates, according to program director Brent Ambrose.

Students who earned their doctoral degrees this academic year have accepted positions at top institutions such as the Ohio State University, Purdue University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M University, the National University of Singapore and the Erasmus School of Economics.

Smeal’s doctorate programs provide students with a high level of faculty access, and that is one quality that helps students stand out on the job market.

“Ph.D. students are basically in training to become professors, so they want to come to a program with world-class faculty who are doing research,” Ambrose said. “We keep our program relatively small so we can provide one-on-one interaction to all of our students.”

This personal interaction gives doctorate students the opportunity to work closely with faculty performing high-level research, resulting in publications and conference presentations.

“We don’t want to just place all of our Ph.D. students,” said Ambrose, “we want to place them at top schools. And that happens by getting them thinking about doing research early in the Ph.D. process.”

Smeal faculty are well-known for their research productivity. The University of Texas at Dallas Top 100 Business School Research Rankings place Smeal at 18th overall and eighth among public institutions for research productivity. Management faculty, specifically, are ranked fifth by the Texas A&M University and the University of Florida Management Research Productivity Rankings.

About the Smeal College of Business doctorate ProgramThe Smeal College of Business doctorate program, aimed at students who want to pursue a career in academic research, offers emphases in accounting, finance, management and organization, marketing, real estate, and supply chain and information systems. For more information, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/phd/ or email phd-ms@smeal.psu.edu.

Last Updated September 10, 2013

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