natsume

Thanks so much for your comment! Currently I'm more interested in corporate disclosure and financial reporting. Yeah, I also think the choice is actually between BC and Minnesota. BC has close relationships with MIT/HBS/BU especially MIT, and their students usually attend seminars at other universities. BC also has very strong faculty with which my current research interest is quite aligned. But my main concern is that BC does not have the history of placement as you mentioned. So it is a tough choice for me now. Again, many thanks!

BC has strong empirical faculty but its accounting PhD program is relatively new. Minnesota has strong faculty in analytical and its empirical strength has improved a lot. How to choose between these three programs? Any comments will be much appreciated!

I'm still applying for PhD programs so I just share my personal immature thoughts on the difference between balanced schools and teaching schools. Pros at balanced schools: More competitive compensation. Lower teaching load like 2/2 or 2/3. More time to do research. Potential chance to move to a research school.

Thanks a lot for your advice!

Thanks so much for your advice! I will try to buy a lottery from some higher tier programs, as well as prepare more for my courses. As to the number of programs I'm going to apply for, I asked some Chinese students and they all applied for 25 programs or so. Considering COVID situation, I think this number may be a good choice. I won't apply for two programs simultaneously at one school since it's kind of a bad signal that I am not serious about my true research interest. What I would like to try is to apply for some finance PhD programs rather than accounting PhD programs in some schools whose accounting PhD programs generally only admit applicants with CPA and full time working experience (such as Indiana, PSU, etc.). But I'm not sure whether this strategy will work.

Hello, everyone! I’m applying for PhD in Accounting programs of 2021 intake. I would appreciate it very much if you could give some advice or comments. Test Scores: GMAT 740 (97% percentile) verbal 39, math 51; TOEFL 111 (Speaking 25) Undergraduate: top 4 universities in China (PKU, THU, SJTU, FDU), BBA in Accounting & BS in Psychology (dual degree), GPA 3.68/4.00 (top 10%) Graduate: top 4 universities in China (PKU, THU, SJTU, FDU), MSc in Finance, GPA 3.77/4.00 Relevant Courses: Economics, Finance & Accounting: Theory of Corporate Finance (PhD level, A); Advanced Microeconomics, Advanced Macroeconomics, two accounting PhD summer school courses, etc. Math: Advanced Econometrics, Advanced Microeconometrics, Business Forecasting Analytics, Quantitative Analysis & Modeling, etc. Psychology: undergraduate level courses. Research Interests: Archival Financial Accounting, Earnings Quality, Debt Contracting, Corporate Governance Research Experience: Three research experience for three accounting professors, including empirical analysis, literature review, data cleaning, financial analysis, etc. Working Papers: two, including my master thesis (debt contracting) and another working paper (earnings quality) Teaching Experience: Organization and Management (undergraduate level), Extended Learning and Student Activities Course (master level) Work Experience: no full-time working experience, have internship experiences in private equity investment, strategic investment, consulting and financial management. Letters of Recommendation: four referees in total, including three accounting professors who have got tenured at US top 10-30 universities and come back to China or Singapore recently; three accounting professors for whom I have acted as a research assistant, one accounting professor of whom I attended two courses and got A. Number of programs planned to apply to: 20-30 Dream Schools: I will mainly apply for top 20-50 programs, and my dreams schools are top 20-30 programs like UCLA, Minnesota, Florida, etc. Question: Do you have any advice on my target school list? Should I also apply for several lower tier programs? I have obvious weaknesses including not having referees who are still in the US, not taking PhD level economics courses. Currently what I can do to make up them to some extent? I have no full time working experience, but quite a few accounting PhD programs prefer applicants with full time working experience in accounting firms. So should I apply for several finance PhD programs, given I am also interested in corporate finance? But all my referees are accounting professors, so is it okay for me to apply for finance programs or should I just focus on accounting programs? Thank you so much!