26Fall Acct PhD Outcomes

AAAQWS

[i=s] 本帖最后由 AAAQWS 于 2026-4-22 05:11 编辑 [/i]<br /> <br /> [i=s] 本帖最后由 AAAQWS 于 2026-4-17 09:34 编辑 [/i] 潜水许久，写一下申请结果回馈一下CD社群，忽略我的名字，当时乱按的，没想到不能改。。。 如果想看更详细的申请总结&经验，可以移步xhs：Wells (上网版) 标化 GPA： 转学前 华师大 会计：3.64 交换 曼大 会计与金融：78/100 转学后 UIUC 数学： 4 课程：基本的会计课，Real Analysis, Probability and Statistics I and II, Grad-Level Mathematical Statistics, 高微，本科计量，还有一些数学课 奖项： 优秀奖学金（二等）(华师大) , Dean‘s List (UIUC), Elizabeth Bennett Scholarship(UIUC) GRE： V: 154，Q: 168， AW：3.5 非标化： 1. 五段Research, 五封强推（OB, FIN, Math Postdoc, Behavioral Econ, Acct） 2. 1.10出了CAR R&R 3. Acct的推荐人十月联系了某校director，发了邮件推荐。 4. RR出来之后，还是这个推荐人让我列了五个想去的学校，他去发邮件。 Outcomes: 最后申了31所，拿到12个面试， Experimental: Cornell Analytical: Columbia, Duke, NYU, OSU, UCLA, HKU, UHouston, WUSTL, Yale, CMU, UT Austin Campus visit：UT Austin，CMU（他们是发offer再访校），Columbia（喊了7个人群面🚬），UHouston（跟UH说来都来Texas了，不如一起安排一下这样要来的👀）。其中UTAustin感觉是走个过场，因为theory只有我一个人，只有Columbia是真的面试，CU需要提前读当天seminar的paper, 然后有一个faculty+candidate+phd students讨论环节，之后参加正式seminar，faculty也会在场，最后是分组群面。 WL： 貌似一般面试完都不会另有告知，除非自己去问。我那时问了一下Yale，是被waitlisted了，后面的学校也没问了。Columbia也是WL了一段时间，Jon联系我之前审慎思考选择接了Austin。如果你不确定是WL还是默拒，可以直接去问，也可以带着offer去催or表忠心。 Offer： HKU，UT Austin, CMU 最终去向： UT Austin！Go Longhorns🤘！

Scotty129

恭喜lz

zuoyz

恭喜恭喜

AAAQWS

<br /> <br /> Thx！

Nogoodname

Just curious. If you are interested in analytical, why pick Austin over CMU?

AAAQWS

[i=s] 本帖最后由 AAAQWS 于 2026-4-22 05:11 编辑 [/i]<br /> <br /> Yeah, it's a good question. I was pretty torn between the two. I know CMU has a very strong analytical program, and UT Austin's placement record isn't as impressive, so choosing Austin might not look like the obvious choice from the outside. But here are my **personal** thoughts. First, theory research group. On the theory side, CMU has Gaoqing and Pierre, while Austin has Volker, Ronghuo, Hyun, and Hristiana. I'm not saying Austin is better just because it has more people. Gaoqing and Pierre are established researchers, and so are Volker and Ronghuo, so as a PhD student I could get high-level guidance at either school. But what's nice about Austin is that Hyun and Hristiana are both junior faculty. They just made the transition from being PhD students themselves to becoming faculty, so I could actually learn a lot from their PhD experiences. On top of that, talking with junior faculty is just less intimidating than talking with senior faculty, which I think matters more than people give it credit for. Second, research topic. I have pretty broad research interests, and you can probably tell that from my background. I believe that ruling out certain methodologies means ruling out certain important questions. What's great about UT Austin is that it has strong research groups across all these areas, not just one or two faculty members. So whatever research idea I have, I can find good guidance within the department without having to look elsewhere (though reaching out broadly is great too, but for an early-stage idea, you may want guidance from people you already know well). Most importantly, being a theory person comes with a lot of uncertainty. You never really know if you're good at it until you're actually in a PhD program doing your own research. That's a very different experience from being a research assistant and finishing tasks that someone else assigns you. So people's interests can shift, and Austin gives me better coverage if that happens to me. Third, cohort environment. The PhD students at Austin are genuinely supportive of each other and very welcoming. You can tell they actually know each other well and have built real relationships. It also helps that the theory student there is around my age, so we have a lot in common to talk about beyond just research. That kind of peer support matters a lot, especially in the early years of a PhD when things can get pretty tough. Fourth, some other smaller factors and they are very personal. 1. Stipend and quality of student life. Austin is pretty generous on the stipend side, no state tax and rent is relatively low, so I can have a pretty decent life there. As a public university, UT Austin has big gyms and swimming pools — one is literally right across from the business school — so I'll have great spaces to work out. Austin is a city, but not an overwhelming one. It's young and thriving, which I like. 2. The business school, and especially the accounting department, is on the rise. The department recently received a large donation and was renamed the Shulkin Department of Accounting. That kind of funding means the department can support students' research and invest in them. Within the business school, the accounting department is also centrally located, which means a lot of resources flow through it. 3. Also, I want to push back a little on the placement point. Austin's placement record is actually not that much of a negative signal for me personally. I don't really like the weight that external expectations put on you. CMU has a long track record of strong theory placements, which means people will naturally expect a lot from a theory student coming out of there. And if you don't fully live up to that, it can actually work against you on job market. Coming from Austin, the expectations are lower, and I think that's fine. More broadly, I got curious about what actually drives placement outcomes, and I asked about this directly during my campus visits. The honest answer seems to be that it mostly comes down to the individual. People always say CMU has great placements because of Jon, but then Sang Wu placed at Columbia after Jon left. So I just asked her directly. She said: where you graduate from can matter for your first placement, but after that you're on your own. I also asked Jon about his most successful recent students, and his answer was pretty much the same: the environment helps, but you have to be proactive yourself. So my conclusion is that all these programs are good enough to support you to be successful. At that point, the real question is just where you want to live for five years.

Nogoodname

This is very good. You are a person with lots of independent thoughts, which is what a successful PhD student needs. Wish you the best of luck!

AAAQWS

Nogoodname 发表于 2026-4-23 09:09
[md]This is very good. You are a person with lots of independent thoughts, which is what a successfu ...

Thank you for your kind words. It’s a long-term commitment, and I hope to give it careful consideration.