The applicant to the Ph.D. program must have earned a bachelor's and/or master's degree from an accredited institution whose requirements for the particular degree are equivalent to those of Iowa State University. The completion of a Master's degree is not a requirement for entrance to the program or for granting of the Ph.D. However, students with a Master’s degree (particularly in business) may complete the program earlier than students entering with only a Bachelor's degree.

All doctoral students must have an appropriate business background for their particular area of study. Students are also expected to have a base knowledge in applied business statistics (3 Cr). Additionally, students without an MBA degree (even if they hold an undergraduate degree in business) will be required to complete the following graduate foundation courses:

• Financial and managerial accounting (min. 2 Cr)

• Corporate finance (min. 2 Cr)

• Strategic management (min. 2 Cr)

• Management information systems (min. 2 Cr)

• Marketing (min. 2 Cr)

• Supply chain management (min. 2 Cr)

• Economics – micro and macro (min. 6 Cr)

To complete all graduate foundation courses at Iowa State, students will typically require two semesters. It is desirable to take these courses during the spring and summer sessions or summer and fall sessions because of the two-term system at the University.

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Spotlight

“I'm looking forward to working closely with PhD students and acknowledge that the relationship with them will be different than it is with other students. We look at the PhD students as peers who are just a few years down the line. It’s very different than with the MBA program, which is still mostly about imparting knowledge. We’re actually preparing PhD students to carry on the education process.”

Sekar Raju
Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business

Sridhar Ramaswami, Ph.D.
(515) 294-5341
sramaswa@iastate.edu
3216 Gerdin Business Building
Ames, IA 50011