[Anonymous]

I’ve been thinking of possibly teaching on the college level and have been toying with the idea of getting a PhD in Accounting…Just curious if anyone has gotten one/plans on getting one and why…Or knows anything about teaching Accounting, or getting a PhD in it…

Thanks!

[PhDCPA]

Sure does! It depends on what school you go to after graduation. If you go to a teaching school, which pay the lowest, you can expect to start at about $110-120 thousand, but if you go to a research school you are looking at a lot more. The starting salary for the professors at my school is over $150,000. People underestimate how much work is involved in being a professor, they only see that they have a couple of classes a semester to teach and then office hours, but most of a professor's time goes towards research.

[misanthrope87]

You only need a CPA to teach accounting at a uni..

B 2/12 87
A 11/11 90
R 8/11 86
F 5/12 88

[OnMyWayToCPA]

@ valueofnothing, agreed that this topic can die =)

Just want to cosign with mIa that my degree will not indicate whether I attended live or online classes. It will only say:

Kansas State University

Oklahoma State Univerity

University of Oklahoma etc…..

Which may not be “well-known” or nationally renowned but neither are 70-80%(or maybe higher?) of the colleges that every person on this forum has attended.

For the most part, when choosing which college to attend, we just pick one of the 5 or 6 universities in our state of residence. I'm not going to uproot myself just to get a degree at a school with a fancy name…

B - 79 PASSED (1/4 there!)
A - 77 PASSED (1/2 there!)
F - 79 PASSED (3/4 there!)
R - 83 PASSED (DONE!!!!!!)
Review Course: Lambers , Wiley and Ninja

[mla1169]

Value in a way I know what you mean, there was a good reason why I chose not to “be a phoenix” (no disrespect to those who do) and go to somewhat local school that happened to offer online courses.

And I know that personal preferences play a big role in recruiting as you've been so open with your own. That said, if I had to choose between some snot nosed kid whose mommy & daddy supported them so they could party 6 nights a week while receiving supposedly superior education or someone who chose to put themselves through school later in life as a single parent and who managed to balance education, family, and a full time job…give me the person who can prioritize and is a true go getter any day.

[My snarky point is, education is what you make of it yourself…..not necessarily what is offered to you. I know plenty of folks who attended highly prestigeous univesities and got top quality educations, but barely made it out and got no tangible skill set except binge drinking. LOL.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

From the websites of the two (not online 🙂 ) schools that I've begun looking into, it appears that one doesn't need a Master's degree in order to go for a PhD. Is this correct?

[valueofnothing]

you call it like you see it – and theres nothing wrong with that – and obviouslly, much respect to one who educates him or herself in the manner you described.

REG - 81
BEC - 88
AUD - 85
FAR - 81

[PhDCPA]

Acct – you technically do not need a masters degree to get into a Ph.D. in Accounting program, but given how competitive it is right now it is basically required to get admitted. Keep in mind that each program only accepts about 2 to 3 students a year and I've heard that it is much more competitive now than in previous years. Ridiculously enough, if you are interested in getting a Ph.D. in Accounting and you know for sure that is what you want to do then getting a master's degree in accounting may not be the best route (my masters degree is in accounting by the way). A masters degree in statistics, mathematics, or economics may be more beneficial because of the intense quantitative nature of accounting Ph.D. programs. However, if you do decide to get a master's degree in accounting while knowing that you are going to go the Ph.D. route afterwards, you should definitely look into taking some math classes while you're in school anyway, most programs want you to have at least had Calc II and linear algebra before starting.

[PhDCPA]

That being said, depending on the ranking of program that you are looking into, your background, and your gmat score, you may be able to get into a program without a masters degree.

[Anonymous]

@PhDCPA

I began going for an M.S. in Taxation this Fall. I wasn't even considering a PhD until someone mentioned it to me a few days ago, and I still don't know how seriously I'm considering it. I see that the school I'm in has a PhD in Accounting program and it doesn't seem that a Master's degree is required, which is why I was asking about it…I had always thought that it went Bachelor's, then Master's, then Doctorate…

Thank you for the information. I'm going to try to speak to some of my professors, as well, and see what they can tell me about the local PhD programs.

[PhDCPA]

Best of luck to you! When I was initially thinking about it I talked to some of my professors too and they were very helpful. Another good resource is the Ph.D. in business forum on urch.com.

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

(Please excuse my ignorance-) What kind of research do professors do, and why?

[mla1169]

PhDCPA, I don't think I am likely to ever consider a PhD (although not long ago I didn't think I was likely to even get an associates degree LOL) but do you have to get published in an Accounting PhD program like you would in say a PhD of sociology?

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[PhDCPA]

@acct: accounting professors do research to answer questions that are interesting and unresolved in the field in order to get their work published in scholarly journals. If you are interested in a Ph.D. you must be very interested in conducting research because that is exclusivley what Ph.D. programs teach, you don't learn about how to teach in a Ph.D. program. An example of a research question might be “Does a longer auditor/client relationship lead to lower earnings quality?” or “Do managers use accounting accruals to manipulate reported earnings in order to maximize their compensation?”

@mla: you don't need to get published while you are actually in your program, there are practical difficulties in getting published before graduating because it usually takes about 3-4 years to turn an idea into a publication. You do have to write a dissertation and possibly another paper depending on your program (both of which you would hope to eventually get published). After the program, you will need to publish in order to get tenure at a university, though publishing requirements to get tenure can be very tough or pretty easy depending on what school you go to after graduation.

[Anonymous]

@PhDCPA

Sounds interesting. I'm not sure how seriously I am considering going for a PhD, but thank you for answering my questions! I'm beginning to understand more of what it entails…

[Author]

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