The PhD degree in Marketing is a research degree that prepares students for academic positions at top research universities. Students can specialize in either the behavioral (psychology-based) or quantitative (economics, statistics and machine learning-based) approaches to marketing. Students interested in the psychological aspects of consumer behavior--how consumers make decisions, how they react to marketing stimuli--choose the consumer behavior track. Students with a quantitative background, who are interested in theoretical or empirical analysis of applied marketing problems choose the quantitative marketing track.
The marketing faculty at Yale is an ideal blend of junior and senior faculty whose research interests span both the quantitative and behavioral areas. They are all productive researchers who are highly regarded in the academic marketing community. Professor K. Sudhir is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Marketing Science. All of the senior faculty-- Ravi Dhar Shane Frederick, Nathan Novemsky, Jiwoong Shin, and Gal Zauberman are in leadership positions as Associate Editors or members of the editorial boards of the leading marketing journals. Each of the faculty members—both junior and senior-- works actively with doctoral students.
Apart from the faculty in the marketing area, a doctoral student can draw on the expertise of other faculty members at Yale. There are several faculty members both in the School of Management as well as in the Economics/Statistics/Computer Science and Psychology departments at Yale who are interested in marketing-related issues. Several of these faculty members have worked with marketing faculty and doctoral students either at Yale or at other universities. A selective list of such faculty members is provided on the faculty page.
The Yale Center for Customer Insights and the China India Insights program provide unparalleled access to companies within the United States and across emerging markets both as sources of data and sites for field experimentation. This has augmented the research opportunities for both quantitative and behavioral doctoral students.
The Ph.D. program is highly selective. We admit 1-2 of the most promising students annually in each of the behavioral and quantitative tracks from an impressive pool of applicants. The average percentile score on the GMAT for admitted students over the last five years is in the high nineties. We look for a combination of an excellent academic record and good oral and written communication skills in our students. The academic backgrounds of admitted students typically are in the behavioral sciences, business, economics, statistics, computer science, mathematics, engineering, or the liberal arts. We do not require graduate degrees for admission to the doctoral program.
While we are extremely selective at the time of admission, we are very supportive of our admitted students in order to maximize their potential to become successful researchers. Every admitted student is guaranteed full financial aid (subject to satisfactory performance in the program) for five years. By deliberately keeping the size of the program small, we are able to assure every student in the program ample opportunities to interact with multiple faculty members during their doctoral studies. The track record of our young doctoral program is short, but impressive. For more details, see Program Design and Recent Graduates and Students.
If you have further questions regarding the Ph.D. program in Marketing, please contact Professor Subrata Sen at subrata.sen@yale.edu.