PhD in Accounting Questions - Help is appreciated!

[EUU]

Hello friends

I'm really interested in financial accounting research and have been trying to find schools/programs of interest. Would anyone mind shedding more light on this? Any schools/programs that focus on archival (or empirical) research & any professors? Tons of thanks!

Ps: I'm not too sure if I'd be competitive, so I'm probably going to look at decent but not too intimidating programs (no T20 I guess...). If anyone have any recommendations that'd be great!

[YaSvoboden]

Almost all PhD programs have financial accounting researchers. It is the largest academic field in accounting by a decent margin.

This is a good list to start with: Finan_Archi Accounting Phd Program Research Rank by BYU
Read through this site if you haven't: http://www.byuaccounting.net/mediawi...itle=Main_Page

Feel free to give more detail about your profile and why you want to do a PhD and we can give more specific advice.

[EUU]

YaSvoboden, thank you for the super prompt reply (lifesaving mode)!

Profile-wise...I'm so scared that I might not even be qualifying but anyway (thank you in advance!!) here's some basics:

Test scores: recently took Gmat, 730+, balanced V/Q breakout
GPA: Undergrad GPA 3.95+ in an Ivy-level non-Ivy university (econ/accounting major); no masters...
Experience: 1+ years at a big four, about to be a licensed CPA
Research experience: pretty much zero except for course projects...
LORs: already asked professors; they're not accounting people (other fields) but they all know me personally to be able to write fairly good letters
Teaching experience: used to tutor fellow students (calc and econ) at school academic units for a little while; none other than this...

I can already see some potential weaknesses: not strong quant background (took accounting and econ and stats/econometrics, but math wasn't too much of an emphasis in my program); too young (?? <25) and no MAcc; LORs not accounting-based...but please feel free to help me sort out things even better O_O

And the why PhD question? I think I'm pretty nerdy and could already see that the corporate arena is not my forte, and I think research & teaching sounds like the right profession for me in the future...but I know people generally pursue a PhD with more work experience

Thank you again!

[YaSvoboden]

Your background to this point is excellent. The econ degree is actually really useful. I would try to get at least one letter from an accounting professor, but econ and finance are useful letters as well. Lacking a macc does't matter if you have a CPA. You could consider taking some additional quant classes. Getting through calc 3 and linear algebra is really helpful.

The biggest thing coming through right now is to make sure you really understand what a PhD is, the lifestyle of professors at a research school, and get basic handle on financial accounting research. I'm confident you could put an application together and get into top 20 schools this cycle if you wanted.

There are only a few schools that are ivy level that have accounting degrees and they all have very good phd programs. Contact the phd coordinator at your school and get some advice.

[EUU]

YaSvoboden, thanks for your kind words! I had previously thought I wouldn't even be in the ballpark...(being a nerd generally gives me low self-esteem haha )

I'll definitely familiarize myself more with the lifestyle/application process and etc...thank you!