What classes should I take?

What is most important for a Ph.D. student to know before entering a Ph.D. program depends to a degree on the type of research that the student wants to conduct. The three "tracts" of research can be separated based on whether the student is interested in conducting analytical, archival, or experimental research.

Analytical Skill Sets

Students that are successfull in analytical fields often have engineering, math, or physics undergraduate degrees. If one is to master analytical accounting research, advanced mathematical skills are necessary. Good classes to take would be Econ 382 (Price Theory) and Econ 478 (Game Theory). Any of the 500 level Econ classes would also help. Get at least an Econ Minor and consider spending some extra time to get a double major in Economics.

Archival Skill Sets

Take Econ 588 rather than Stat 512. If you have time it would be beneficial to take Stat 441 and 442 which are similar to 588 but more in depth. More math is better. Linear Algebra is probably more important than Multivariable Calculus if you have to choose.

Experimental Skill Sets

One of the most important skills to develop as an experimentalist is research design. The strength of experimental methodology is internal validity. Experimentalists should rarely if ever sacrifice internal validity to achieve other types of validity; thus, being able to design high quality experiments is very important. To develop this skill, a Ph.D. prep student would benefit from a detailed study of Cook and Campbell, an experimental design class (if they offer one at BYU), and attempting to design an experiment and then seeking feedback from an experimentalist. Experimental research is not as popular in accounting as archival research. Experimentalists must therefore be conversant in archival research methodologies and so developing the skills used by an archivalist will make your life a lot easier in your Ph.D. program.

The readings seminar provides a great opportunity to discuss the design and experiment in experimental papers. Especially when the author leads to the class discussion, take the opportunity to discuss the instrument they used and ask questions about their design choices. Even looking at the instrument from someone’s experiment provides a lot of insight as to what goes into a good design.

Since there are not lot of classes related to experimental research at BYU, take the time to read some books. As mentioned earlier, Shadish, Cook and Campbell is a book you should take very seriously when you take it with Doug. Read it again towards the end of the program as well because you will appreciate it even more after taking the other classes.

Sarah Bonner has a book, “Judgment and Decision Making in Accounting” that provides a good framework for the literature. Use the first couple chapters to get an understating of the framework and then the latter chapters provide a good review of the literature if you have an area of interest and want to know what papers to read.

An overall heads up for all of the methodologies, the Econ Probability and Stats course at BYU is a good fundamental class. Many of the things you learn in that course, especially the math, will be considered review material and surpassed quickly in a PhD Probability and Stats course. Also, the Wackerly book used for that class, Mathematical Statistics, is probably worth keeping as a resource.

Other Course Suggestions

Here are some other tips on course requirements for the Ph.D. Prep Track. Also, here are several suggestions from past students on classes at BYU.

Here are several minor options for Prep Track Students:

• Undergraduate Economics Minor
• Undergraduate Accounting and Economics Dual Major
• Graduate Statistics Minor