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Throughout the past few years, I've used this forum a lot for advice on what I needed to do to get into a top accounting PhD program. As the application season is coming to a close, I thought I would share some of my insights going through this process. A lot of the information on this forum is very useful and informative, but a lot of the content (as far as I saw) may not reflect what the process is like today, as the forum was more active before. If you want detailed statistics from my profile, you can probably find them on one of my older posts. I am from a school in Canada (for the sake of anonymity, I won't say which one, but it's one that is considered one of the better schools in Canada). I was accepted into 2 schools that are typically considered to be in the T-10, 3 additional ones that fall within T-20 and 2 safety schools. Overall, I felt that I did quite well this application season, all things considered. Here are some takeaways that I had from the application process, and things that I might have changed: I ended up getting reference letters from people who knew me really well, and who I had worked with. If I had known earlier just how important references were, I would have tried to get to know senior faculty at my school better. I knew that references were important, but I didn't know that these would be so important. Some of the interviews that I landed were largely because some references knew people in the faculty at those schools. I would have worked at an accounting firm for a few years before I applied. I know that a lot of schools tell you this doesn't matter, but throughout my experience this cycle and talking with other applicants, it seems that there does seem to be some preference for prior work experience. It may not matter as much as other things like research experience, grades, references, etc., but I was asked very often about why I chose not to work before going into a PhD program. I would not have worried as much about math courses or rigorous econ training. A lot of programs don't have this as a requirement. To an extent, it seemed like they cared more that I was passionate about the field than they did about the specifics of my training. I was really worried that my quant preparation would be too weak, and I spent a lot of time trying to correct this issue. I think some of that time may have been better spent gaining work experience or getting to know faculty a bit better. My biggest piece of advice for people who are in undergrad/master's programs that are looking to do an accounting phd is to go out and meet faculty. Not only because they can write you references, but also because they're usually the best sources of information for the application process. I can't understate how important and useful faculty members have been in helping me with the whole process. If you have any more specific questions, I'm happy to answer them through inbox!

Hi, I am going to be applying to strategy programs and I would like to get some advice on which of the following two professors would be a more helpful reference: 1. A political science professor with whom I took 2 courses and got good grades; he is also the chair of the department from which I received a merit scholarship in grad school; the country he focuses on relates to my research interest 2. An economist with whom I took one econ course that focuses on the macro econ of a specific country; I got a good grade in his course as well Neither of them would really remember me It seems that the first one would likely have more "data points" to base his recommendation on, but econ seems more relevant than political science (although political science is a discipline that is relevant to strategy). I didn't do any research specifically for either professor unfortunately. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I am an older candidate (10+ years of work experience) and planning to apply to mgmt PhD programs this year. I would like to get some advice on who to get my recommendation letters from. I am planning to apply to a wide range of schools, ranging from top 10 to top 50. I have a hard time thinking about how to get just even one of the three recommendations required from a professor. I have done quite some work in consulting (big three + a well-recognized boutique firm). I have a Master's degree, but it was on policy and it did not require a thesis. My graduate classes involved research papers, but they were qualitative policy research papers and none of the classes were intense research focused. It was also 5+ years ago that I did my MA. The people whom I have worked with could speak a lot about my skills in research and analysis, but such industry/company/customer research and analyses are recognized as different from what is done in PhD programs. None of my bosses had a PhD either. Any thoughts and suggestions? Thanks a lot!