What is the Best Business Degree to Obtain?

Can one obtain a PhD degree while working in business?

• I was wondering if someone can obtain a PhD degree (at an US university) while working in business. At some universities outside the US this is possible. Can it in the US?

• Answer:

  I do not think that you could work full-time and complete a Ph.D. program from a reputable research university unless you are a truly exceptional person with amazing time management skills and an extremely flexible employer. For the first 2-3 years, you would need to be on campus several times a week during business hours for classes. Often departments require students to attend different colloquia and talks as well, and then many places expect PhD students to teach a class or two. And this doesn't even count the lab work that many of the science/tech fields require. I think you could work part-time (this is what TAing and teaching is anyway, so if you have to money to forgo the income or tuition benefits from doing this, you could do something else), but many programs have rules about a student's outside employment anyway- with any outside employment having to be approved by your advisor or the department. That said, it is not uncommon for PhD students to accept full-time jobs as professors with almost-finished dissertations and to continue to work on them while working. In general, the people I know who have done this do not recommend this path, because it is difficult to balance all the constraints on your time.