Profile Evaluation: Phd in Accounting

**luciferk** · 12-17-2010, 07:44 AM

Hello everyone, I've been reading the forum for a while and found very interesting and helpful ideas. So I thought it might be the time that I can ask for your opinions regarding my profile:

GMAT: 690. Q:47, V:38.
Undergraduate: Finance, GPA: 3.92, graduate summa cum laude and with honors. U of AZ

Master's degree: I'm current doing a Macc and expect to finish it in this Spring. Current GPA: 4.0. U of Az

Not a math major but was exposed to advanced calculus and econometrics since university entrance exam in Asia requires calculus. I took econometrics while being a students in Asia.

Have no research experience but I did read several research papers on tax like how Bush Tax cut reduced cost of capital market and presented in the class

Have no full time work experience but I did an internship for an local investment firm and was assigned with stock administration, trading, researching market. I also succeeded with managing real money for the foundation of the University of AZ. I also work as an accounting assistant, preparing reports on grants and budget for professors of an department within UA. I report directly to the business manager. They actually pay for my master's degree.

Passed CFA exam level 1, sat for level 2 but failed. But I enjoyed learning about regression analysis
No CPA, but I don't think passing CPA is a big problem.

Research interest: archival, financial statement analysis and fundamental analysis

LORs: 1 from well known Associate Prof. in Tax (Oliver Li), 1 from a full professor in financial statement analysis (Mark Trombley), 1 one from vice dean (soon to be dean) of Eller College of Management (Leslie Eldenburg).

I already sent in application for UT Austin. I'm planning on doing for UA, ASU, U of Kansas, and USC . I would really appreciate it if you can let me know I am shooting too high with my profile. If yes, which school I should I apply for safety net? Thank you so much!

**phdhope** · 12-17-2010, 08:33 AM

I think you need to spend more time thinking about the schools you should be applying to. You are not competitive at UT or USC. Kansas virtually has no people doing financial or archival research.

I think your profile is ok, but I would note that there is little evidence that you thought about a phd in accounting for a long time. (Why get an undergrad in finance, work at an investment firm, or sit for the CFA otherwise?)

In short, I would probably shoot for schools around U of A and ASU or lower.

**luciferk** · 12-17-2010, 02:04 PM

Thank you, phdhope! You're correct! I indeed didn't think about a phd in accounting until the beginning of this semester. But then I read quite a few accounting research papers on tax and financial statement analysis, and found they were really interesting. I thought there is an overlap between finance and accounting in the area that I am interested in, so maybe my background in finance could help a little bit? That was my initial thought before I decided to apply for phd programs

**taxPhD** · 12-17-2010, 10:49 PM

You are cutting it close on deadlines....have you talked with Oliver or Mark much about doing a PhD? Both of them can provide a lot of guidance, and Mark is also an editor for the Accounting Review, so he is a good recommender and can also tell you a lot about research and the publishing process and such.

In terms of GMAT score, 690 is not a deal breaker, you can find your way into a respectable program with that score.

I'm not sure when most schools deadlines are now (when I applied they were around 1/1 or 1/15), but I worry about your ability to put together a strong application by the time deadlines role around. With professors traveling and such for the Holidays it is hard to know if they will be able to get your LORs in time. Plus you will need to get transcripts and all that jazz into the Universities and most schools are closed completely for at least a portion of the student's break. Then of course putting together a good statement of purpose and such.

I think Arizona is a potential target school for you, you already have a working relationship with several of the faculty and I can tell you for sure that two of their current PhD students did their masters degrees at Arizona (one MBA and one Masters of Finance). Some others that you might want to look at (some of these are reaches) are Utah, Missouri, Texas A&M, Georgia, Michigan State, Ohio State, University of Texas-Dallas, Colorado, Syracuse, and Oklahoma. I'm sure others on here can add some schools.

I also want to note, that it may be beneficial to try to hold off until next admissions cycle. That will give you more time to plan everything out, narrow down a nice list of schools, and make sure you are really sure this is what you want to do. Plus you can get a year of full-time work experience under your belt and the CPA exam out of the way. I think you would be a stronger candidate then.

Another recommendation is to talk to the coordinator of Arizona's accounting research workshop and see about attending it on a regular basis. Basically it is about an hour and a half each week in which a guest from another university or someone internal will present one of their research papers and take questions and such. This is a good opportunity to get a bit more exposure to research.

**luciferk** · 12-19-2010, 06:07 PM

Thank you so much, taxphd! I have a feeling that you're in Eller, too. You may have proctored exams for Oliver? If so, I might have seen you but did not know you're taxphd

. Please pardon me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, I've been talking with Mark and Oliver throughout the semester about this matter. I in fact had Mark edit my SOP. He's incredibly knowledgeable man, and I like him a lot. Oliver is great, too! The guy is fun to work with. I've collected all the transcripts, but now just have a hard time to decide which school I'll have a chance of getting it. So your advice is really really helpful!

I think you're right about working experience, too. If this phd thing won't work out, I'll try to get a full time job with the UofA after I'm done with the Macc program, and finish the CPA during that time. Even though this job experience won't be much relevant to my research area. But Prof. Eldenburg did say that not having working experience may hurt the placement after graduation, so I think it's an important factor as well.

Thank you again!

**phdhope** · 12-19-2010, 08:07 PM

I like taxphd's list. Texas A&M, Georgia, Michigan State would be reaches though. I think I will echo tax's comments on U of A being a good fit and also possibly holding off one application cycle. If you are interested more in finance or tax that will change the type of schools you should be looking at.

**quanttastic** · 12-19-2010, 10:07 PM

a 3rd post for waiting a year to increase the strength of your application. I may be wrong, but it doesn't sound like you have really talked it over with your professors... as taxphd has already said, they should provide great insight for you. Also, the application process is quite time consuming and it will be hard to get your part done before deadlines, and harder still to get all of the LORs in on time.

Finally, a Phd in accounting is no joke. You need to make sure you know exactly what you are getting into. Narrowing down a line of research wouldn't hurt either, as it can dramatically impact which schools you will target.