Our Origin
Successful researchers face daily challenges: managing and leading teams and budgets, communicating with business-oriented colleagues, and surmounting the hurdles associated with the commercialization of research. But doctoral students are seldom exposed to these situations before entering academia or other industries. To address this gap, The Graduate School has partnered with the Kellogg School of Management to offer a certificate program taught by Kellogg faculty that will equip promising post-candidacy doctoral students with the necessary business and leadership skills.
Our Mission
This intensive eight-week summer certificate program is designed to introduce doctoral students to basic business and leadership skills and includes content from the Kellogg MBA curriculum. Current Northwestern TGS doctoral students who have completed their coursework and qualifying exams are eligible to apply.
The program will provide the necessary skills to prepare students for a variety of career fields including academia, industry, and non-profit and for-profit sectors. These skills include:
- Applying learned skills immediately in their research
- Building connections with students outside of their disciplines
- Raising awareness of the business skills needed in the commercialization of research
I was really excited about the opportunity to come and try something that was a new way to add on to my education as a scientist that I could use to really drive my job search and to improve the opportunities that were available for me right out of graduate school.”
Course Information
The Management for PhDs (formerly MSE) program is open to current doctoral students who are post-candidacy at the time of application. We will not accept applications from students attending other universities.
Classes will be held on Tuesdays during eight weeks in the summer quarter. Attendance at all 8 sessions is required. Students will be introduced to business concepts and specific frameworks for effective management relevant to both for-profit and nonprofit sectors. They will also gain a basic understanding of strategy, finance, risk and uncertainty, marketing, accounting, and leadership.
The academic program changes annually based on feedback from the previous class. This schedule and faculty listing is subject to change for 2025.
2025 Program Calendar
The 2025 Management for PhDs (formerly MSE) certificate program will be held on Tuesdays from June 17 – August 5 from 8:30 AM – 5:45 PM. Location forthcoming.
Please see below for the 2024 Program Calendar for reference.
| 06/11 | 06/18 | 06/25 | 07/02 | 07/09 | 07/16 | 07/23 | 07/30 | |
| 8:30 AM | Marketing (Hennessy) | Economics & Strategy (Brown) |
Team Building (King) | Effective Feedback | Accounting for Decision Making (Finn) | Finance (Frydman) | TBD | Finance (Frydman) |
| 10:15 AM | Marketing (Hennessy) | Economics & Strategy (Brown) |
Team Building (King) | Effective Feedback | Accounting for Decision Making (Finn) | Finance (Frydman) | Risk & Uncertainty (Al-Najar) | Finance (Frydman) |
| 11:45 AM | Independent Lunch | Independent Lunch | Independent Lunch |
Networking Lunch |
Independent Lunch | Independent Lunch |
Networking Lunch |
Independent Lunch |
| 12:45 PM | Marketing (Hennessy) | Economics & Strategy (Brown) |
Networking | Operations Management (Bassamboo) | Accounting for Decision Making (Finn) | Negotiations (Finkel) | Risk & Uncertainty (Al-Najar) | Intellectual Property (Conley) |
| 2:30 PM | Economics & Strategy (Brown) |
Entrepreneurship & Innovation (Shonthal) | Selling Yourself (Wortman) | Operations Management (Bassamboo) | Accounting for Decision Making (Finn) | Negotiations (Finkel) | Risk & Uncertainty (Al-Najar) | Intellectual Property (Conley) |
| 4:15 PM |
Economics & Strategy EVALUATION |
Entrepreneurship & Innovation (Shonthal) EVALUATION |
Selling Yourself (Wortman) Evaluation |
Operations Management (Bassamboo) Evaluation |
Accounting for Decision Making (Finn) Evaluation |
Negotiations (Finkel) |
Alumni Networking Evaluation |
Program Wrap-Up (Conley) |
Apply
The 2025 Management for PhDs (formerly MSE) certificate program will be held on Tuesdays from June 17-August 5, 2025. Interested in learning more? Attend a Management for PhDs Information Session on Thursday, February 13th at 4pm via Zoom. Register here
Applications for the 2025 cohort will open in February following the information session.