u/Particular_Most_1883

I completed my MBA from IIM (India) in 2026 — it's a reasonably well-regarded school, CGPA 6.99/10. I want to pursue a fully funded PhD in the UK or Europe (targeting Strategic Management, Marketing, or Healthcare Management).

The problem I keep running into: most funded PhD positions or calls for papers seem to want either an MSc in a specific field (economics, finance, etc.) or existing publications. I have neither. What I do have is a decent amount of applied research experience — field projects with AIIMS and a hospital, an independent research paper submitted at a competition, some analytics projects — but nothing peer-reviewed.

Has anyone done this? Gone from MBA → fully funded PhD at a decent UK/EU school without a prior MSc or publications? What made the difference in your application? Did you need GMAT/GRE?

Any honest experience welcome — especially if it didn't go smoothly the first time.

Looking for honest takes, not just encouragement.

My profile:

• MBA from IIM (India), CGPA 6.99/10
• B.Com, 68.6%
• No MSc, no GMAT/GRE, no peer-reviewed publications
• Applied research experience: field projects at two hospitals, independent research paper on female entrepreneurship (competition-level, not journal), ML credit risk project
• Interests: Strategic Management, Marketing, Healthcare Management
• Targeting: UK business schools (Strathclyde, Durham, Southampton, QMUL), Netherlands (RSM, Tilburg, Maastricht)

Questions:

1. Is an IIM MBA recognised the same way as a UK/EU Master's for PhD admission purposes, or does it get treated differently?
2. Without GMAT/GRE, how much does that hurt at schools that list it as "recommended not required"?
3. Is a CGPA of 6.99/10 competitive enough, or does it look weak on paper internationally?
4. Should I be targeting specific supervisor-first schools, program-first schools, or both simultaneously?

I know this is possible in theory — I want to know what the actual sticking points tend to be for Indian MBA applicants specifically.

I've been reaching out to professors on LinkedIn about PhD opportunities and I'm getting mixed results — some ignore me, one replied saying she doesn't have capacity but to watch her LinkedIn, one redirected me to a colleague who turned out to be a much better fit (which was actually great), and one said I'm not the right fit for his specialty.

I'm an MBA grad targeting business schools in UK/Europe. My question is for people who've been on either side of this:

• How specific do you actually need to be about their research? I've been naming specific papers/projects — is that overkill or expected?
• Is LinkedIn the right channel, or should I be emailing directly?
• How long should the message be? I've been keeping it short (5–7 lines) for LinkedIn and longer for email
• How many is too many to contact at once?
• What's the single thing that most often gets a reply vs gets ignored?

Genuinely curious about what professors actually notice vs what they skim past.

I completed my MBA from IIM (India) in 2026 — it's a reasonably well-regarded school, CGPA 6.99/10. I want to pursue a fully funded PhD in the UK or Europe (targeting Strategic Management, Marketing, or Healthcare Management).

The problem I keep running into: most funded PhD positions or calls for papers seem to want either an MSc in a specific field (economics, finance, etc.) or existing publications. I have neither. What I do have is a decent amount of applied research experience — field projects with AIIMS and a hospital, an independent research paper submitted at a competition, some analytics projects — but nothing peer-reviewed.

Has anyone done this? Gone from MBA → fully funded PhD at a decent UK/EU school without a prior MSc or publications? What made the difference in your application? Did you need GMAT/GRE?

Any honest experience welcome — especially if it didn't go smoothly the first time.