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Thank you all... for these comments really help! Two conflicting impressions that I got from Students at very soon to be my institution is that: 1. Some have said they absolutely had no idea and regard for stats and coding but learned it with no problem 2. Especially with coding (during the interview process early this year), students have asked if I am comfortable with coding (To which I answered that I was able to carry out stats assignments on STATA and R). So, I guess it does depend on person... Per SAS usage at my institution, I was approached by one of the professors at, again, very soon to be my institution to participate in replication project using SAS prior to entering the program. Per this offer, I declined because I was never going to get enough speed connecting to institution's VPN to use RemoteDesktop to run SAS, pulling data from data set located NOT in institution's VPN. Above is why I figured I probably need to get familiar with SAS... Anyways... Thanks for all your inputs!!!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to get some idea on how much of a coding knowledge an average first year PhD student has. I have about three weeks before my program officially starts, and Although I understand that there won't be a lot of coding work in the first semester, I wanted to get a start on learning SAS. In short, 1. do majority of the entering PhD students (business) have coding knowledge? 2. How long does it usually take to get comfortable with a language? (I understand this question is rather abstract, but I wanted to get an idea so that I can plan my schedule for tackling SAS as quickly as possible) Thank you very much in advance!

Taking away from this thread, I did send thank you emails with no frills and received positive responses back from faculty members. Thanks all!

Hi, I was just wondering if thank you email to the program after interview would be okay (and hopefully don't make an applicant look too needy). Also, if it is okay, would I email every single faculty members that I had interviews with? or just the program director. This may sound like a stupid question, but just wanted to get things right. Thank you in advance!

So, I am in a bit of pickle regarding recommendations. For couple schools that I've applied to, their deadlines are approaching in two days. A day a ago, I sent a reminder to one of the recommenders, and the recommender commented that he is not comfortable with using third party application system that most schools use. Also, he wanted whatever info they had about him erased. I assumed that he thought that I had provided such info to the third party by direct communication. So, I sent message explaining the whole process and what schools wanted from me regarding recommenders' info. And I provided him with alternative methods. This morning, I emailed a friendly reminder about deadlines and got an answer back pretty much saying that the recommender was busy and did not understand how such a short time was given for writing it. Also, he mentioned that he had gotten emails from school only couple days ago, which is not true since he did receive the reminder email (the actual request messages were sent by schools end of Nov). The problem here was that the recommender was actually reminded of the deadlines about 2 weeks ago, and, also, deadlines were sent in organized format. So, I thought that he had forgotten about it. Then, I emailed the recommender saying that I was not aware of the email glitch and that I was frustrated about the fact that all that work was tossed up by a minor email glitch. And I told him that if his time does not allow that I will just move on and it will ok. and I thanked him. Then, I got an answer back... and this one really surprised me. The recommender said it's going to get done and said not to email him for a couple of days. Now, I do not quite understand what happened with all this and at what point I might have pissed the recommender off. Any..comments for remedies?

Wow.. Thank you for all the infos... This really helps. So, I actually attended a papar presentation by Prof. Jennifer Blouin today, and certainly tax research is the one that I would like to do and today just made it even more clearer. Also, I have been talking to professors at my institution and have recommended/mentioned that Prof Thornock is great person both smart and friendly. I've met one PhD student at my institution and has helped me with general questions that I had. On GRE and GMAT: yes, I found that some schools don't take GMAT; however, I've gotten guidance from faculty and I might just try and explain my situation to different institutions. One last question, Why would Columbia not a good place for tax? is it because faculties at Columbia are not yet able to mentor Doctoral students?

Thank you for the encouragement!!, My gmat equivalent, according to ETS conversion tool, lists the following In total gre equates to 730 gmat Verbal range: 32-44 Quant range: 44-55 [i don't think quant goes above 51, if I am remembering correctly] So far universities I am thinking of are all based on the tax-business incentive, tax avoidance, and inversion papers that I have read. UPenn Texas Illinois MIT UNC PennState - I would love to but they do not accept gre scores Columbia - Thinking I could have advantage because of the admissions into its stat program Michigan State USC Wisconsin Washington(Seattle) I do realize that competition for above schools are fierce, and I just wanted some guidance on what strategy, in terms of school tiers, I should follow. Another thing is that I do lack knowledge on good programs that are lower ranked than the above programs. Thank you again!

Hi, I'm currently filling out applications for PhD in accounting for 2015 Fall. If you could evaluate the profile and comment, it will be of great help! Also, I had question in terms of where I should apply (specifically, in what ranking range [i.e. 1-10, 11-20, 21-30]). Undergrad: Top 3 accounting public university GPA: 3.94/4.00 Graduate: Same school but in tax concentrated courses GRE: V162 Q167 [i did take the GMAT, but the computer froze in the middle of testing so I had no choice] Work: Did 3 internships, 2 at Big 4 and 1 in a completely different industry Research: None Extracurriculars: Not that impressive, couple school organization leadership positions University Employment: Teaching Assistantship for a semester Relevant Math background: Took Mathematical statistics I & II, Applied Statistics, Linear Algebra, Calc I, II, & III Also, received admissions from Columbia University - City of New york and Cornell University for Statistics Masters. Columbia gave me deferral for Fall 2015 [backup plan] I have read research papers on tax accounting and looked up all the faculty members who carry out the research that I am interested in; however, these are all highly competitive Universities. So with that, I wanted some help on choosing ranking range and, if there are any, chances of making it to any program. Thank you in advance!!!