BYU Accounting Ph.D. prep track

The BYU Accounting Ph.D. prep track is part of the Master of Accountancy program at the Marriott School of Management designed to train and prepare accounting students to enter into a Ph.D. program upon finishing their master's degree.

History
Douglas F. Prawitt, a BYU Professor of Accounting, started the Ph.D. prep track informally in 1994. Prawitt noticed several students who had a desire to enter a Ph.D. program but realized that they understood very little about what earning a Ph.D. entailed; moreover, since academia is suffering from a significant shortage of accounting professors and is projected to face even more significant shortages in the future, the program seemed ideally suited for the situation., The BYU Ph.D. Prep Track has been suggested as a solution to the potential shortage of accounting faculty.

The program was formalized in 2000, as Dr. Prawitt required application to the program and more formally recruited students into the program. In 2002, seven students finished the program and entered Ph.D. programs. Thereafter, the program has placed between four and nine students each year into Ph.D. programs across the country.

Ph.D. Prep Track alumni are also invited back to BYU to participate in the School of Accountancy's annual Accounting Research Symposium.

Results
The Ph.D. Prep Track was recognized by the American Accounting Association with the 2007 Innovation in Accounting Education Award. Between 1994 and 2007, 51 students graduated from the program and entered a Ph.D. program. As of 2008, 49 of those students were still working towards the completion of a Ph.D. or had graduated and taken a job as an accounting professor.

The Ph.D. Prep Track has been successful in placing into doctoral programs 100 percent of its graduates who have submitted applications. Due to this success, academics have begun to recommend students interested in seeking an accounting Ph.D. to enter the Ph.D. Prep Track before entering into a doctoral program.

The success of the accounting Ph.D. prep track encouraged the information systems' department at BYU to adopt a similar program in 2003.

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