fastboy3883 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): GMAT 700 Undegrad GPA: 3.7 - State School Graduate GPA: 3.7 - Same State School Research Experience: None Teaching Experience: GA for two semesters and would fill in for professors, if that counts? Work Experience: Worked part - time for a local CPA firm for 3 years in college. Upon applying I will have worked for approx. 1.5 years as an audit associate at a large regional firm - Approx. 1,000 employees in 12 offices in the southeast. I am a CPA. Concentration Applying to: Behavioral What made you want to pursue a PhD? As a GA I was exposed to the doctoral staff on faculty and truly enjoyed the way they went about there jobs and how much they cared for the students. I was able to fill in a few times when professors had to miss class and really enjoyed the teaching aspect. I was also the accounting tutor in college for all undergraduate students. I understand the research is the main goal of a PhD, and I am also excited about this, as I have never really been challenged in school and would love to push myself to the extreme. However, the true reason for wanting to become a Accounting Professor is having the ability to truly help others and build great relationships with staff and students. I know Letters of Rec. are important and I have always confirmed I can get up to 3 letters from Accounting professors (weirdly they all graduated from the same PHD program). One of the three was just appointed to the State Board by the Governor if this is given any extra weight. I am not interested in going to a top tier school, it is probably not even possible, rather my main focus is staying in the Southeast due to family,etc. I have researched many different schools (Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia State, Louisiana Tech, etc) and would just like my opinion on my chances. I am very close with one of the professors mentioned above and have had multiple discussions with him about the process and he seems confident I have a really good shot of obtaining admission. Any help or advice would be awesome. Thank you all! Questions or concerns you have about your profile? Any additional specific questions you may have: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrazilianPhD Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Your GMAT score of 700 seems excellent, since you're not aiming at a top school. You didn't include your Quant score, and I think Quant is more important than the Verbal score for Accounting. So, if your 700 total score includes a great Quant score, even better. Your teaching experience should count. It's better than nothing and better than many applicants have. But, as you said, research is the main purpose, not teaching. It seems you can get strong letters of recommendation. They can make a difference. My main concern is that there isn't really much research in your profile. No research experience, not even research interests. Since you're very close to a professor, maybe you could get some help there. With that fixed, I think your chances are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaSvoboden Posted April 15, 2017 Share Posted April 15, 2017 You seem to be in decent shape given your goals. I would add Emory (though it is a stretch), Georgia tech, USC, UCF. The focus really is research in a phd of any tier, so expand your knowledge on research amd focus on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastboy3883 Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 Thank you both for the replies. Truly appreciated! I have a meeting set up with my professor to just go over everything about the phd process and I hope to dive deeper into the research side of things with him. Hopefully, I can come back to the forum with this information and it will help narrow my list of schools down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastboy3883 Posted June 7, 2017 Author Share Posted June 7, 2017 Hi guys - So I officially took the GMAT and paid a 680. I really want to be admitted to Alabama and as such I am debating which professors to use as my reference letters. I am able to get 3 letters from professors who earned their PHD from Alabama one of which just was appointed to the State Board by the governor of Alabama. Do you think this would be wise? Or should I try for a more diverse group of rec letters. Thank you all for your advice. Also with the lower end GMAT score would it still be wise to apply to LSU, Florida State, Ole Miss, etc. Thank you!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrazilianPhD Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 I think admissions are much more worried about the strength of your letters of recommendation than diversity. If those 3 are the ones who can provide the strongest recommendations, they are the ones you should get. But if you can get stronger letters from other people choose other people. I think you should apply even with the lower score. But 680 looks worse than 700 and it is probably very close to the minimum score some schools accept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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