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Accounting phd profile evaluation


Dak601

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Hello all! I'm in the midst of assessing whether to proceed with applying for an accounting phd program for fall of 2017 or pushing it back a year based on my qualifications/ potential prospects. Any insight you could provide regarding the level of universities that I may be successful in gaining admission based on my current profile would be greatly appreciated!

Test Scores (GMAT): 720 (94%), q: 47 (65%), v:42 (96%)

Undegraduate GPA: 3.7

Graduate GPA: 3.6

Research Experience: None

Teaching Experience: None, outside of one-off trainings

Work Experience: 10 years, big 4 and/or Fortune 500

 

Concentration Applying to: Accounting

Number of programs planned to apply to: tbd: 10-20

Dream Schools: UT-Austin, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin

 

Weaknesses:

- Quant classes: calculus 1, statistics and macro/micro-Econ. No more advanced mathematics courses. Sadly, the calculus grade was also C as it fell into my less responsible first half of undergrad. As in the other classes.

No calculus beyond calculus 1, or linear algebra, etc.

-Quant GMAT score: see above

-Reference letters: I attended a regional state school for both undergrad and graduate degrees. The school had very limited (if any) active researchers in the field and limited PhD's. While I will have 2 academic and 1 strong professional referral, I think the academic referrals will be severely discounted as they are not from active researchers and/or phd's and as I'm 10 years out of school.

 

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I think it's fairly evident that top/ dream schools are outside of my reach. Ideally, I'd like to understand if I am competitive top 50-ish and/ or at a school that I could ultimately potentially obtain a fairly strong research placement. If not, I could postpone a year and:

 

1) retake Gmat to try to improve quant a few more points,

2) "refresh " calculus and gain additional quantitative background. (Note that I intend to do this regardless of whether or not I push my application back a year as the skills will certainly be needed for PhD studies).

 

There is not much I can do about the other weaknesses, I think, although potentially if I take additional quant classes I may be able to secure a stronger rec. letter

 

The downside of the above, of course, is deferring my application for the year and potential for underperforming in additional quant classes due to schedule/work.

 

Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

 

Edited by Dak601
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I think you could get into a decent top 50 program now and that you could end up with a research placement from there. This would likely be on the lower end of the top 50 for the reasons you pointed out. Those schools could value your work experience and the overall GMAT would be good. You likely wouldn't be significantly behind in math compared to other people at those schools. However, placement at a research university afterwards would be far from guaranteed coming from the schools that I think you would get into now.

 

I think that if you show more recent work in calc 1 and 2, up the GMAT quant, and get to know a little more about research while getting to know a research active faculty member somewhere to write a better letter, then you will have a shot at your dream schools in a year. Some of this obviously depends on how lenient your work is / how much you are willing to sacrifice work and other things in the next year to improve your placements.

 

You seem fairly well aware of the weaknesses that you need to address. If you decide to put this off for a year, here are some things that I recommend:

 

1) GMAT - the overall score is fine for most schools, but the quant score is low. Work to get that up to a 50. Improving quant ability through other work will help this too. I bet that you can get this score up.

 

2) Quant background. A lone C in calculus from years ago is not a good sign for your quant ability. You will need to work on this for the PhD anyway, so you may as well get a verifiable signal out of it. Community college works fine for this, some of the more verifiable internet things are probably good too. I have been trying to get someone to try this program for awhile. I don't know that it would serve any better than a course or two at a local CC, but it seems cool and I am curious to see how well it works. Try getting through calc 1, 2, 3, and linear algebra. That is a lot to do, but is possible if you plan for 2018 entry.

 

3) Research interest / Knowing what you are getting into - Your list of top schools is a little confusing. They are all good schools, but it almost looks like you want to do behavioral research and then I see Michigan, which is known for producing good archival researchers. What type of research are you interested in? Do you know the main categories of accounting research? Have you seen a research paper? Very few people enter a PhD with a great idea of what they want to do and exactly what accounting research entails, but it will really help if you can narrow your interests down a little and have a basic idea of some of the things that have been done or are currently being done in an area. I wouldn't expect you to read entire papers, but looking through abstracts and introductions of current work will help a lot. If you don't find those interesting, then you probably shouldn't do this at all.

 

Is your undergrad a strong research school? Is it the kind of place you want to end up? My undergrad was very much a teaching school, then my masters and PhD are at progressively better research institutions. Talking to professors at the more serious research schools is different than talking to professors at the lower ranked schools. If you want a research placement, do what you can to realize what that entails.

 

4) Workshops - On a related note, see if you can attend a workshop series at a local university. It looks like you are at a fortune 500, so there is probably a respectable university near you. Contact the director of the PhD program there and talk with them about your goals. Ask for guidance, their advice will probably be better than mine. Ask if you can attend the workshop series. Most schools have outside speakers come in every week or so. Attending these will expose you to current research and how academics interact while talking about research. Additionally, if a professor sees you be dedicated enough to attend these every week for a year, then you will likely get a strong letter from that person. These are normally in the middle of the day, so it may be tough to work out, but it could be quite valuable.

 

I hope that helps a little. Again, I think that you are set up right now to get into a decent school, but you could aim higher if you think that you want to go into a higher end research institution.

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I think you could get into a decent top 50 program now and that you could end up with a....

 

Hi YaSvoboden,

 

Thank you for your rapid response! I had actually considered the LSE program (I think I saw you post it elsewhere), although given the coursework I'm looking for LSU may be more economical/ easier logistically.

 

You were spot on regarding research interests- I lean toward behavioral, but haven't ruled out archival. I have a pretty good grasp of the different types of research, and have spoken with some active researchers (at stronger schools) and recent phd graduates to discuss the program, fits, etc., as well as looked through some research, although I deferred a deeper dive until I had taken the GMAT (argh!). Unfortunately, my undergrad is a teaching school, which is part of what contributed to the reference letter situation.

 

The research workshop is a good idea, and I will pursue that to the extent possible.

 

I have some thinking to do over the next few days, but I sincerely appreciate your insight!

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