Immaterial

So, I'm currently starting an accounting PhD at a pretty decent program and math camp with the econ PhDs has started for us. I am getting incredibly stressed out. Camp is for several weeks and for several hours a day, every day. After even the first day of camp, we had covered all of the math that I learned (which is basically up to calc 2, matrix algebra, business stats) and then some. I don't know if it's just me, but I've never been very good at following along in math courses where I have not previously seen the material before, and currently I have not seen much of this material. We're covering entire courses in the span of about an hour, and I'm just not able to keep up. Unfortunately, if this is the way math camp is going, I can't really imagine myself surviving the actual coursework. I have never been that great with math. Although I have gotten As in all my prior math courses, they were not really at this level of abstraction, and you could easily pull an A simply by working hard to memorize a bunch of steps and crunching numbers. Currently, I can barely even follow along. I think(?) most people would at least be able to follow along even if they have not seen the material before, but I'm just not one of those people who are very good at that. Our math camp is pass/fail, and I have major concerns whether I am even capable of passing. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has gone through this? I am guessing that this is completely abnormal at this stage, and I am seriously already reconsidering my decision to pursue a PhD. I guess I am hoping that someone will either comfort me by saying that this is somewhat normal or just tell me straight up that I'm simply not cut out for this...

To prepare for empirical archival research, what topics in linear algebra should be reviewed? Is the entire course generally important or are there specific topics within linear algebra that ought to be focused on? On the same note, what areas are less important / unimportant, if any? Also, will it make a huge difference whether it is proof vs application based?

Hi, a friend of mine was wondering if you guys could give some feedback on his profile and school selection (just whether his profile is competitive, not on whether they are a good research fit...): 31 at matriculation (white, American [CPA and CTP]) GMAT: 730 Ungrad: normal state school, B.S. in Finance and minor in Mandarin Chinese, 3.12 A lot of study abroad experience (proficient in Chinese) Grad school: Masters in Accounting Science, 3.9. PAR ranked the program in the top 20s I took calc I, II, III, Linear Algebra, Stats, intermediate micro/macro as a grad student Work Experience: 3 years at one of the big4 accounting firms after grad school 2 years as a Graduate Assistant (grading/research) Will have great LOR Research interest: I want to use archival data and behavioral Science. I want to research IFRS practices and implementations when compared to GAAP in foreign countries, international finance/accounting, financial statement analysis, and M&A Target schools: (1 being my first choice) 1. UIUC 2. University of Michigan 3. Cornell 4. Ohio State University 5. University of Rochester 6. University of Iowa 7. Kellogg Absolute wish Wharton/HBS/Booth

Sorry, by UW, I meant Washington

I was just wondering, since I was told by a school (UW) that I was on their short list, and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. But it seems like it's still an uphill battle by the sounds of it..

I am sure this varies but when a school tells you that you are on their "short" list, generally how many applicants is that? Would that be 10 applicants or more like 25, or 50?

I guess it depends on the professors writing the recs. I had 15 originally and they all told me to apply to more, so I ended up doing 20.

There are some schools that don't have the application status online. In this case, check their PhD website for a contact email. They usually prefer you try to email with your inquiries first as it's more efficient for them. If you don't get an email response after a few days then give them a call.

It is possible that the Texas A&M one is real, since I know someone who has already been accepted there (not in Finance though). I don't know about the Pittsburg one.

Yes, I did exactly that. I ended up following his advice and emailed the PhD Director. In the email I noted that I was referred to by the PhD Coordinator.

While, I wouldn't be so blunt as to say "just give up", I have to agree with JOF when he says that you face a real uphill battle. Your overall profile (age, GRE, GPA, etc) is most likely not going to be sufficient for the top programs. Further, your great interest in teaching is unsuited for the top programs, whose primary (sole?) purpose is to turn out top researchers. Is there a reason why you feel you must apply to mainly the top programs, as lower ranked programs are probably more suited for your profile as well as goals? Did you apply to any other programs other than the ones you listed (i.e. Berkeley, NYU, Harvard, Rice, UCLA)? If all of the programs you applied to are of this caliber, you might find yourself disappointed in 3 months time. But who knows. Maybe you have some things in your application that we don't know about or that a particular program may find attractive.

Interesting post. Although when you post your formula, are you saying that UGPA and GMAT are equal to the school's minimum cut-offs or are you saying that those are just the applicants stats to be used to compute something to compared against some arbitrarily assigned cut-off figure (e.g. 1350)? If it is the latter, I would see limited usefulness in the formula, since you wouldn't know what each school's limited cut-off was? Seems to me that it would be easier to simply go off of the minimum GPA/GMAT scores recommended by the schools, as well as the averages.

I'm pretty sure it was not a faculty member. I went to their website just to make sure because I wasn't sure at first. Especially when I was on the phone, I was trying to determine whether I was talking to just an admin person or a faculty member. I was really confused. But yeah, I don't think they're a faculty member because there's no PhD after their name, they are not listed on the faculty pages, etc.

Hi phdhope, Thank you for your insightful post as usual. I would prefer not to name the specific schools just yet, and would prefer to wait for others to start posting information or for me to receive acceptances, as opposed to interviews, if that's okay. I will say that the schools that have responded are mainly financial archival shops and top 30.

Okay, well I guess I'll say that the whole reason I brought up this topic was because I had a really bizarre (or at least I thought so) conversation today. I had called one of the schools that I had applied to to update something in my application. I just called in to tell them that in my application status my official GMAT score was showing up as not received even though I had sent it in October. They asked for my name and looked up my file, and they were going through it as I was talking to them. After they answered my question, out of nowhere they started asking me for what other schools I applied to, and I was a bit taken aback because why the heck would an admin (their title was PhD Coordinator) care? I saw them more as just people who put the applications together, picked up phones, answered simple questions, etc (am I wrong?). Anyway, they start asking me what programs I was applying to and assumed they were simply making small talk with me, and I just named a few of them thinking that would satisfy them. However, they kept asking me to name more. After I named a few more, they continued to ask me to keep naming them, and pretty soon I couldn't think of any more off the top of my head. Then they started asking me whether I had heard anything from any of them yet, and I told them no initially because I just wanted to hang up so I could get back to whatever I was doing before the call. But they kept bringing it up, so finally I just told them that I had interviews at several schools and which ones. They told me I should email the PhD Director directly and tell them about my GMAT issues, as well as the fact that I had some interviews already. I was a little confused because I was afraid that doing something like that would just piss the PhD Director off. I assume that they are busy people and I was speaking to the admin right there, so why shouldn't they just take care of it (after all it was more of an administrative issue)? I told him my concern, and they said that it was fine, and to contact the PhD Director directly. I should note that the schools I have interviews with were probably more in top 30 range, while this one was probably more top 10, so it is a much stronger school, so I didn't think it was as if it really mattered. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that story, since its what made me ask the question in the original post. Is that a little strange or is it just me and my inexperience with the process and roles of the administrative people? And he had told me I should tell schools regarding my acceptances (which went against my thinking too), but since they were just an admin person (not to put down the admin folks or anything) I didn't know how much weight to put on what they were telling me. But I guess after reading the posts here, it does make sense to not bother telling the schools unless you are at least wait listed.