paperpaper Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Hi, everyone! I plan to apply for Accounting PhD program in US this fall. Below is my basic information. I am eager to hear from you guys about how to improve myself in the coming months. GMAT 750, TOEFL110 Undergraduate: Top3 in China, GPA3.5/4, including a brief exchange program to UK with no research experience Research master: same school in China, GPA95/100, I am taking most of the first year PhD-level courses, including financial accounting seminar, managerial accounting seminar，advanced microeconomics，advanced econometrics. Research experience: RA for one professor at my university, the project failed due to data availability. Currently working at my own project, I will try my best to have a decent working paper this fall. (ps: does working paper really matter? I have heard that professors won’t expect you to have any paper by the time you apply.) Recommendation: I think I can find 3 professors in my own school with US PhD degree to write my recommendation letters. But I do not know how can I land a recommendation letter from US professors. We do have seminars with foreign professors coming to present their working paper occasionally. I am wondering whether I can get a recommendation letter from presenters. Internship: Big4 accounting firm, and the finance department of a US firm, both in China My research interests mainly lie in managerial accounting, but I am also open to financial accounting. I don’t have any psychology background, would it possible for me to apply for the behavioral track? I haven’t made up my mind about which schools to apply. Do you guys think it is possible for me to aim at top 30 by BYU managerial accounting ranking? Thank you for your advice in advance : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaSvoboden Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Having a decent working paper isn't expected by any means, but it is great if you can actually have one. Most applications have a spot to attach something like that and you should briefly mention it in your SoP and how working on something has informed your research interests. I don't know how you would get letters from US professors either. I don't know that they are necessary. If you have letters from research active faculty that have published in the top journals from your own school then I think you would be fine. I would talk to the US professors that visit about their schools and the programs there. Get a sense of whether you would like to apply to those schools and email the professors if you have more questions or when you do apply to let them know the application is in. You seem very well prepared to do archival accounting research. If behavioral stuff interests you, then I would recommend applying to schools that have behavioral researchers in addition to the archival people. You generally don't officially apply to a "track" when applying to a program. You usually send in all of your information and your statement of purpose should talk about research interests. If you mention professors at the same school that do different types of research, make sure it is clear that you know they are doing different types of research. I have heard professors mention that sometimes they read SoPs and it seems like someone just decided to list all of the faculty from the web site. I think that you would get into higher ranked schools based on a desire to do archival-type research. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't mention other interests, but it is something to consider. I think you are fine applying to top 30 schools. There is a lot of noise in the process, but you seem well prepared. Just make sure to apply to enough schools that you would be happy to go to and I think that you will do well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperpaper Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 YaSvoboden, thank you very much for your advice! Would you mind be more specific about "research active faculty"? Do you think a professor who publishes a paper in Top3 accounting journal every two years research active? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaSvoboden Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 YaSvoboden, thank you very much for your advice! Would you mind be more specific about "research active faculty"? Do you think a professor who publishes a paper in Top3 accounting journal every two years research active? Yes. That is definitely active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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