<p>My aim : DBA, corporate strategy. HBS is a dream but probably not reality. I am open to suggestions for any other DBA corporate strategy programs elsewhere</p>
<p>My profile, as of now is poor.And I want to find out ways to improve it.
-Undergraduate : Computer Engineering.Grades poor. I did poorly in math courses.</p>
<p>-Work Experience : 5 years as a business intelligence consultant with TATA group.</p>
<p>-Earned six sigma green belt and Project Management Professional certification</p>
<p>-Passed a distance learning MBA course with straight 'A's. I got an A+ in quant subject but it didn't contain calculus. Just a bit on functions.Stats and alebra were there though. But my major was in finance. So used calculus here. Took courses Managerial economics,corporate finance,financial markets, risk management etc.</p>
<p>-old GRE quant score 780. Will be trying for an 800 shortly.</p>
<p>Some profs told me to strengthen my economics background because of the heavy concentration of economics in a DBA corporate strategy. I have to strengthen my maths profile as well. Some others said MBA wasn't the way to go.</p>
<p>I want to take up a full time masters course before applying for a DBA program. I feel, a well done full time masters will improve my chances at a DBA program that is highly ranked.</p>
<p>What do you suggest? MBA,MA economics, MA stats or MA Maths or MSc finance or something else maybe?</p>
<p>HSE,TKK,Aalto university, Finland offers a MSc strategy. How is that program?</p>
<p>If strategy is a concern, either apply for applied maths programs or find an economics degree that either has a concentration on strategy or has a microeconomic theory concentration (experimental / game theory would be perfect).</p>
<p>If you want to attend the HBS DBA strategy program, or an equivalent doctoral-level strategy program, then, far and away, the most important admissions criteria is your potential to publish in A-level academic strategy journals, such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, or any of the top-level economics, finance, sociology, or psychology journals (as business schools have grown a strong fetish for disciplinary-focused social science work). Everything else - whether it be a master’s program, GRE score, or additional coursework is purely secondary, although they may help you to prepare to publish in those journals. </p>
<p>If you are planning to attend a master’s program with the aims of entering a strategy doctoral program, then you should choose one that provides opportunities to write publishable research. You should look for schools in which faculty are actively publishing in those journals - meaning not that they published many years ago and have stopped (as is the wont of many a tenured professor), but have published recently, as in the last few years, or - better yet - have papers forthcoming/under-review, which indicates that they are still trying to publish today. You should then investigate whether faculty are actively working with students. </p>
<p>As an aside, I hope you have already asked yourself honestly why you want a doctorate in strategy in the first place, and I hope the answer is that you want an academic career. Frankly, that is the only reason to embark upon such an endeavor, and if that’s not your true goal, you will find the experience to be tedious and painful and you run the significant risk of not even finishing the program at all. Furthermore, the HBS DBA strategy program is not a particularly well-established program, having been founded less than a decade ago, and with many graduates unable to place well on the academic market. The HBS business economics PhD program has a more reputable track record, as do, say, the PhD program within the Behavioral & Policy Sciences group at Wharton and the Economic Analysis program at Stanford GSB.</p>