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11 Oct 2019, 08:11
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Hello everyone, I am currently preparing myself to apply to doctoral programs. I plan to apply for Fall 2023. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting from Texas A&M, and graduated with a 3.22 overall GPA. I have a CPA license and have been working for 6 years now. I haven't taken the GMAT yet, but I have been told by other professors to update my math skills. I am currently taking Calculus I at a community college and plan to take: Cal II, Cal III, & Linear Algebra. I am interested in behavioral accounting and I looked at BYU Accounting website using the Managerial/Experimental cross section.
If I take all these math courses and get a GMAT score of around 700-720 range, do you think I would be competitive for the following schools? Also does anyone have a list of schools that specifically specialize in Behavioral Accounting? I'd be interested to see if they line up to what the byu rankings say.
Schools interested in: UT Austin, Emory, Cornell, Pitt, Georgia State, University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Indiana University, University of Alabama, UMass, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Florida State, Texas Tech
Also, should I take more math courses besides the ones I listed? Is there anything else that I can do that will make me stand out for a behavioral accounting research program?
If I take all these math courses and get a GMAT score of around 700-720 range, do you think I would be competitive for the following schools? Also does anyone have a list of schools that specifically specialize in Behavioral Accounting? I'd be interested to see if they line up to what the byu rankings say.
Schools interested in: UT Austin, Emory, Cornell, Pitt, Georgia State, University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Indiana University, University of Alabama, UMass, U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Florida State, Texas Tech
Also, should I take more math courses besides the ones I listed? Is there anything else that I can do that will make me stand out for a behavioral accounting research program?
12 Oct 2019, 12:29
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Math skills are very important indeed, so it's good you're taking care of that. You didn't mention your skills with statistical software, that's also something that is better to develop before starting a PhD.
A GMAT of 700 probably would be acceptable, it's usually the minimum recommendation. But it's not exactly an impressive score, as many PhD applicants have a score like that.
Then you asked about things that will make you stand out. GPA, GMAT, and coursework matter, of course, but I think they are more about showing that you can deal with classes, or something like that. They still are not good enough to show that you can deal with research, and that's the focus of a PhD. So, I think that applicants who stand out are usually those who also provide some evidence of that. Maybe because of a paper they have published, experience working as RA for a professor, a conference presentation, or strong letters of recommendation from professors who have a good reputation with research, for example.
About a list of schools, that's something that nobody can really do for you. It's very hard work, I know, but it's hard work you are expected to do. To check the universities, check the faculty, check their research interests, check their papers, and see how your plans match what they are doing. If you think you can extend the research a professor has done, for example.
Why did you apply to a specific school is a very important question you are expected to answer. If you just tell that it's because the university specializes in behavioral accounting, then probably it is still too generic, and answer that would apply to many different universities. And you only will be able to provide an excellent answer if you really did your research about the university's program.
A GMAT of 700 probably would be acceptable, it's usually the minimum recommendation. But it's not exactly an impressive score, as many PhD applicants have a score like that.
Then you asked about things that will make you stand out. GPA, GMAT, and coursework matter, of course, but I think they are more about showing that you can deal with classes, or something like that. They still are not good enough to show that you can deal with research, and that's the focus of a PhD. So, I think that applicants who stand out are usually those who also provide some evidence of that. Maybe because of a paper they have published, experience working as RA for a professor, a conference presentation, or strong letters of recommendation from professors who have a good reputation with research, for example.
About a list of schools, that's something that nobody can really do for you. It's very hard work, I know, but it's hard work you are expected to do. To check the universities, check the faculty, check their research interests, check their papers, and see how your plans match what they are doing. If you think you can extend the research a professor has done, for example.
Why did you apply to a specific school is a very important question you are expected to answer. If you just tell that it's because the university specializes in behavioral accounting, then probably it is still too generic, and answer that would apply to many different universities. And you only will be able to provide an excellent answer if you really did your research about the university's program.
01 Feb 2020, 17:24
Kudos
Bookmarks
Just 2 cents from another person interested in a behavioral managerial PhD program.
I would say a 700 score would be the absolute minimum for tier 1 programs (Illinois & Texas at Austin), and at that point you still probably wouldn’t be considered in the first batch of students. I’m in the process of hearing back from applications right now (I have a similar post from a few months ago if you want to check that out).
As mentioned above, start to reach out to universities. I talked with several programs, including ones that didn’t specialize in behavioral or managerial programs and it was extremely helpful. They are very kind and respond well to genuine questions. However, make sure you don’t ask any questions that you could find on their website. If you ask too many, it sends the wrong signal that you’re not willing to do the research on your end.
BYU rankings are great for picking out programs. Here are the programs I applied to:
Illinois
Indiana
Pittsburgh
Emory
MSU (historically more behavioral, but lately has been more archival)
ASU (definitely archival, but they have a ton of managerial faculty and researchers)
Georgia Tech
South Florida
South Carolina would be a great one as well. They only admit every other year, 2020 being their off year, so I didn’t apply there.
Cornell and Alabama are much more financial programs than managerial. Those are programs you’d want to contact to see if they could or would want to support managerial research.
VT, Texas Tech and UMass might be a bit more archival than experimental as well. I did some research into them, but those would be good schools to contact as well.
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.
P.S. My GMAT score was only a 690, and I’m guessing that some of my applications didn’t go as far as I would have liked because of that, despite my other qualifications.
Your GMAT score will be a very strong heuristic for programs, regardless of whether or not it reflects how well you would do. For better or worse. 700 would be a minimum, but if you want your application to be strongly considered by top programs, a 740+ would be a great goal.
Posted from my mobile device
I would say a 700 score would be the absolute minimum for tier 1 programs (Illinois & Texas at Austin), and at that point you still probably wouldn’t be considered in the first batch of students. I’m in the process of hearing back from applications right now (I have a similar post from a few months ago if you want to check that out).
As mentioned above, start to reach out to universities. I talked with several programs, including ones that didn’t specialize in behavioral or managerial programs and it was extremely helpful. They are very kind and respond well to genuine questions. However, make sure you don’t ask any questions that you could find on their website. If you ask too many, it sends the wrong signal that you’re not willing to do the research on your end.
BYU rankings are great for picking out programs. Here are the programs I applied to:
Illinois
Indiana
Pittsburgh
Emory
MSU (historically more behavioral, but lately has been more archival)
ASU (definitely archival, but they have a ton of managerial faculty and researchers)
Georgia Tech
South Florida
South Carolina would be a great one as well. They only admit every other year, 2020 being their off year, so I didn’t apply there.
Cornell and Alabama are much more financial programs than managerial. Those are programs you’d want to contact to see if they could or would want to support managerial research.
VT, Texas Tech and UMass might be a bit more archival than experimental as well. I did some research into them, but those would be good schools to contact as well.
If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.
P.S. My GMAT score was only a 690, and I’m guessing that some of my applications didn’t go as far as I would have liked because of that, despite my other qualifications.
Your GMAT score will be a very strong heuristic for programs, regardless of whether or not it reflects how well you would do. For better or worse. 700 would be a minimum, but if you want your application to be strongly considered by top programs, a 740+ would be a great goal.
Posted from my mobile device
