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College of Business
Windows Doctoral Programs


Ph.D. in Business Administration

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Doctoral Program Objectives

The Ph.D. program offered by the College of Business provides its graduates with preparation for careers as college and university professors and as research and staff personnel in industry and government. The doctoral program provides for intellectual growth as students work closely with faculty in seminars, research projects, and other assignments which develop their teaching and research skills. The curriculum offers breadth of understanding of the integral components of business administration as well as depth of field specialization sufficient to permit the student to make a meaningful contribution to their discipline. The program is sufficiently flexible to allow each student to build upon his or her strengths and to accommodate students with various levels of preparation in a wide variety of fields. The program offers majors in the following fields:
Accounting
Economics
Finance
Information Systems
Management
Marketing

Support areas of study are offered in these fields.

 

Admission Requirements

The Ph.D. in Business Administration is a full time program. Admission decisions for the Ph.D. program are made by Departmental and College committees on a competitive basis. Those seeking admission to the Ph.D. program should have demonstrated high levels of success in their previous academic work and a high score on the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT). GMAT scores over five years old are not acceptable. Students may apply after conferral of their Bachelor's degree, although a Master's degree is preferred.

All application materials (click to download) must be received by the College by January 2. Decisions on admission and assistantships are usually made by the beginning of February. All students are accepted to begin their program in the Fall Semester. In addition, all students must meet the entrance requirements of and be accepted by:

1. The Graduate School of the University of South Florida

2. The graduate program of the College of Business

3. The department housing the applicant's major and support fields.

Courses offered in the Ph.D. program are designed with the assumption that the student is proficient in statistics (through multiple regression), college algebra, matrix algebra, differential calculus, and a computer language (such as BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, Assembler). Proficiency must be demonstrated by showing evidence of completion of appropriate courses with grades of "B" or better.

 

Doctoral Level Coursework

A minimum of 90 semester hours beyond the bachelor's degree is required. This includes 21 hours of dissertation. A minimum of 45 hours of coursework must be completed at the University of South Florida.

 

Foundation Courses

Foundation requirements are designed to develop an appreciation of the institution of business and to help students see how their areas of specialization fit into this general picture. With the approval of the students program committee, a student may satisfy these requirements in any of the following ways:
1. By completing an undergraduate degree in business at an AACSB accredited institution, with an average of "B" or better in the last 60 hours, no more than five years prior to admission to the Ph.D. program.

2. By completing an MBA degree at an AACSB accredited institution, no more than five years prior to admission to the Ph.D. program.

3. By completing one graduate course (2 credit hours or more), with a grade of "B" or better, in each of the functional areas: Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Management and Marketing. (Economics requirements are described under core requirements.) All graduate level courses at the 6000 level or above, with the exception of specific "tool" courses (e.g., statistics), will count toward this requirement.

4. By successfully petitioning the Doctoral Program Committee to accept previous academic work (e.g., specialized Master's programs in business, degrees granted more than 5 years ago, etc.) in fulfillment of all or part of this requirement.

 

Core Courses

The core courses are designed to provide a strong background in Economics and to develop the students quantitative and statistical research skills. These courses are required of all students in the program. The College will waive a course only if the student has passed the same or equivalent course with a grade of "B" or better within the preceding five years.

The Economics requirement can be met by completing two graduate level courses, one in microeconomics and one in macroeconomics, with a grade of "B" or better. The courses which satisfy this requirement are:

ECP 6702

Managerial Economics (2)

ECO 6204

Global Economic Environment of Business (2)

ECO 6115

Microeconomics I (3) *

ECO 6206

Aggregate Economics (3) *

At least one course must be taken from among those with an asterisk (*).

The quantitative and statistical coursework is to be determined by the students advisory committee in consultation with the student. A three course series is required. An appropriate sequence should be chosen from the following:

ECO 6424

Econometrics I

ECO 6425

Econometrics II

QMB 6375

Applied Linear Statistical Models

QMB 7565

Introduction to Research Methods

QMB 7566

Research Methods II

Any substitution for other appropriate mathematics, statistical and quantitative courses must be approved by the Doctoral Program Committee, preferably at the time of acceptance into the program, or definitely before taking a substitute course.

In addition, students are required to take an additional research elective approved by their advisory committee.

 

Major Field

All students will take at least five courses at the 6000 or 7000 level in an area designated as the students major. Students are encouraged to identify courses in the major field that will provide experience in applying current research techniques to problems in that field. To accomplish this, the student may propose a combination of formal classroom courses and independent directed research courses. This combination may include a year-long research seminar in which the groundwork is laid for the student's dissertation. The specific agenda of courses will be determined by the student's advisory committee. The following fields are offered as majors: Accounting, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Management, and Marketing. Courses taken as part of the Foundation or Core sections may not be counted as part of the hours required for a major field.

 

Support Field

The support field will consist of a minimum of three courses from one of the fields listed under the major field. The support field and the major field cannot be taken in the same department. Courses within the support field can be selected to complement the major field, and, in special cases, may include courses outside the College of Business. The nature and number of the support field courses will be determined by the student's Advisory Committee in consultation with the Ph.D. coordinator of the support field department. Courses taken as part of the Foundation or Core courses may not be counted as part of the 9 hours required for support fields.

 

Financial Aid Information

Graduate Assistantships

A limited number of graduate assistant ships are available for doctoral students. The assistant ships pay approximately $17,000 a year. These are 12 month appointments requiring 20 hours per week.

Partial waivers of both in-state and out-of-state tuition fees will be given to Ph.D. students who are appointed as Graduate Teaching/Research Assistants or Associates. Assistantships are granted by nomination from program directors. Interested students should contact their program directors for further information.

Other financial aid programs include the following: Dr. L. Rene "Bud" Gaiennie Grants - Support for Ph.D. Research, University Graduate Fellowship, the McKnight Foundation Fellowship, and the Graduate Educational Opportunity Grant.

 

For more Information concerning specific majors:

Accounting

Dr. Jacqueline Reck

813-974-6721

jreck@coba.usf.edu

Economics

Dr. Michael Loewy

813-974-4252

econgrad@coba.usf.edu

Finance

Dr. Ninon Sutton

813-974-6335

nsutton@coba.usf.edu

IS/DS

Dr. Balaji Padmanabhan

813-974-6760

bpadmana@coba.usf.edu

Marketing

Dr. James Stock

813-974-4201

jstock@coba.usf.edu

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