Ph.D. Program Description

The Marketing Ph.D. is a degree designed to prepare students for an intellectually challenging career in academia. This degree equips students to become outstanding teachers, with state-of-the-art skills to convey knowledge to others, perform original research, and provide effective service to educational stakeholders.

Marketing Ph.D. students at MSU critically evaluate the latest marketing theory, become proficient in advanced statistical techniques of analysis, and gain experience developing new research topics. Students participate in research conferences with nationally known marketing scholars and interact one-on-one with faculty who share similar research interests. Students graduate with a thorough grounding in the major disciplines underlying the study of marketing.

Talented Faculty

The Marketing Ph.D. program at MSU is small and selective, offering close interaction with talented and up-to-date faculty who are making a significant contribution to the discipline. For instance, over the past several years, our faculty have averaged 3.5 journal article acceptances each year in high quality refereed journals, a rate that ranks favorably among the best national programs. Our faculty frequently are recognized for superior scholarship through "best paper" awards at national conferences and editorships of journals.

Not only are the marketing faculty good researchers, but outstanding teachers as well. The marketing faculty lead the college in teaching evaluation scores, and have won teaching awards at the college, university and national levels.

Personal Attention

Because of our small size, we can provide personal attention to our doctoral students. Our faculty work hard at involving students in their research projects, so that when the student graduates, he or she already has a compelling vita with multiple journal articles and conference proceedings co-authored with faculty. Unlike some programs who "use" doctoral students to do all the grunt work without credit, we use research as a teaching opportunity and value the work of doctoral students as a full contributor. Because of strong vita and the excellent preparation we provide, our graduates are well-positioned to earn placements at their "first choice" schools upon graduation.

Other Advantages

There are other advantages here. Mississippi State ranks 57th in terms of funded research, and this means plenty of opportunities for research collaboration. Our assistantships include tuition waiver and are four-year, not three-year like many others, so you don't have to scramble for funding while you're doing your dissertation in your fourth year. In addition, there are teaching opportunities in the summer and many funded research opportunities to earn extra income, if you need it.

We believe the Marketing Ph.D. at Mississippi State is a great choice to prepare for your academic career. Should you want to make a campus visit to learn more, please contact Dr. Nicole Ponder, Marketing Doctoral Coordinator, at nponder@cobilan.msstate.edu or (662) 325-1998.