On Track for a PhD

Five more years of school.

Bill Tayler heard that number from his professor Monte Swain, who was trying to recruit Tayler into the School of Accountancy’s newly formed PhD prep track. It was 2002, and the last thing Tayler wanted was to spend another five years in school working for his doctorate after he had just earned his MAcc from BYU Marriott.

The polite way for Tayler to decline would have been to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” But that’s not what he said.

“I laughed at him,” Tayler says. “Then I actually said, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen.’”

What did happen surprised him. But more on that in a moment.

WHAT IS THE PHD PREP TRACK?

For students in the MAcc program at BYU Marriott, the School of Accountancy (SOA) offers a unique opportunity. Students can enroll in the PhD prep track, a sort of academic petri dish that allows students to test themselves against the higher-level classes, skills, and thinking it will take to earn a doctorate.

In the prep track, PhD prep courses replace several graduate classes required for the MAcc degree. These prep classes are geared toward doctorate-level subject matter, including advanced statistics, econometrics, and psychology.

The program also gives students a chance to be mentored by professors who provide personal advice, additional instruction, and opportunities for research and publishing. “For those who choose to pursue their PhDs, this track prepares them to hit the ground running,” says program founder and LeRay McAllister/Deloitte Foundation Distinguished Professor Doug Prawitt, who also currently serves as SOA director.

Professors all across the continent are noticing the impact the prep track has on entering PhD students. “It’s as if they’ve already been in the program a year when they show up,” says Russell Lundholm, professor and chair of the Accounting and Information Systems Division at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

BACK TO OUR STORY

Although Bill Tayler had no desire to spend five years pursuing a PhD in accounting, he was definitely at a crossroads in his life.

I went into the accounting program because I was good at accounting. And I found it interesting,” he says. “But after a year, I felt a little lost. I was in the right major; I just didn’t feel right about the anticipated career path.”

On the day he told Swain there was no way he was going to enroll in the PhD prep track, Tayler went home and began to second-guess that decision. “I couldn’t shake the thought for the rest of the day,” he says. “I did a little more research, and by the end of the day, I realized this actually might be the path I was looking for.”

But where would that path lead him and his young family?

A SEED PLANTED IN ADVERSITY

The early ideas for BYU’s PhD track began in Arizona in the late 1980s with a young man who was not prepared for the grueling grind of his PhD program.

Prawitt had graduated from the MAcc program at BYU and was excited to attend the University of Arizona for doctoral work in accounting. Once he began his classes, however, he began to question his decision.

“I was naïve about what research was and unprepared for the rigors of a PhD program,” Prawitt says. “I was shell-shocked the first year and barely hung on by my fingernails.”

He went on to excel in his PhD studies, but that experience led him to create the School of Accountancy’s PhD prep track program more than a decade later.

With his hard-won PhD in hand, Prawitt returned to the SOA in 1993 to teach. His first research assistant was Darren Roulstone, who also planned to earn his PhD. Prawitt wanted Roulstone to be better prepared than he had been, so he mentored Roulstone in scholarship and research. He also helped him enroll in courses that Prawitt wished he had taken before his own doctoral program.

“When Darren got into every elite program he applied to, I knew we were onto something,” Prawitt says. “For the next six years or so, I worked one-on-one with a number of students to help them prepare.”

In 2000, Prawitt and Lee Radebaugh, the director of the SOA at the time, formalized his mentorship program. The PhD prep track was born.

TO PHD OR NOT TO PHD?

Associate Professor and Robert Smith Fellow Melissa Lewis-Western sits on the PhD prep track committee. She joined the faculty at BYU in 2016, a few years after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Before coming to BYU, even though I wasn’t part of the Church at that time, I was aware of the MAcc PhD track because many of my colleagues had been through it,” Lewis-Western says. “In fact, I went to grad school at Indiana University with David Wood, who went through the track and is also on faculty here at BYU.”

Prawitt estimates that approximately half of the students who go through the PhD prep track decide they have found their chosen profession and go on to PhD programs. But Prawitt considers the other half who decide against PhDs to be successes of the program too. “Our PhD track is a much less costly way—in both tuition and time—to find out you actually don’t want to pursue the doctorate, as opposed to finding out after you’re in your doctoral program,” Prawitt observes.

What’s more, the PhD prep track helps non-PhD-bound students when they enter the business world. “Despite not having completed the program myself, the structured thought process and academic rigor is equally important in the corporate world,” says Mark Larsen, who earned his MAcc at BYU Marriott’s SOA, worked for four years, and is now pursuing an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “I use data to prove or disprove hypotheses and drive impactful changes in organizations.”

PREPARATION BREEDS PRODUCTIVITY

Scott Dyreng, a prep track alumnus and current associate professor at Duke University, reflects on the out-of-the-gate benefits of the track: “On the first day you come to your PhD program, your advisor can give you a research project, and you know how to execute,” says Dyreng, who notes that students become valuable right away instead of two years after they start the program.

“The coursework in the PhD prep track broadened my horizons beyond accounting and business to disciplines such as economics, psychology, math, and statistics,” says Nick Guest, assistant professor of accounting at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. “This variety challenged me to think in ways accounting courses never had, which was instrumental preparation for the ambiguity and rigor of a top PhD program.”

The track’s rigorous preparation leads to lower dropout rates. According to Prawitt, the typical dropout rate in an accounting PhD program is approximately 25–30 percent. He estimates, however, that the dropout rate for BYU students who come through the MAcc PhD prep track is only around 5 percent.

“You start becoming a member of the academic community earlier on than you would,” says Fabio Gaertner, a PhD prep track alumnus and associate professor of accounting and information systems at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Now as a faculty member, when I recruit PhD students, I can see why the School of Accountancy’s MAcc PhD track puts students ahead of everyone else. They are miles ahead of other students starting their PhDs here.”

ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM: “BURSTING AT THE SEAMS”

The School of Accountancy also hosts the annual BYU Accounting Research Symposium. During this event, all PhD prep track alumni are invited back along with other friends of BYU and special guests.

“When I first attended, it was a fairly small group,” Tayler says. “Now we fill the room. It’s bursting at the seams.”

Over the years, the symposium has become a key networking hub for accounting PhD students and faculty around the country. They come together to present papers, f ind out about what is happening at other institutions, and connect to pursue new avenues of service or research.

“We are setting up our students to be successful as teachers—and disciples—at prominent universities all over the world,” Lewis-Western says. “Their ability to be an influence for good is powerful.”

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

For those MAcc students who have families, the PhD prep track can help them anticipate the challenges—and rewards—ahead.

“In our MAcc program, and even more so in a PhD program, there will be many late nights and maybe even times when you won’t be able to devote as much time as you might like to your spouse and family,” Prawitt says. “The experience stretches the individuals and their families. Sometimes they may wonder if it’s worth it. I believe it is. You work very hard as an academic, but the flexibility is a very real, rewarding aspect of an academic career path. Wealth should be measured in having enough money to do some of the things you want—and in having the time and freedom to do them.”

Ryan David Sommerfeldt, a PhD student at the University of Illinois, agrees. “My wife and I are extremely happy that I chose to pursue an academic career in accounting,” he says. “During the PhD program, I have been able to work hard to do well in my classes and on my research while still being able to make time for my family. The prep track not only helped me know what the PhD would be like, but it also helped my wife get a sense for what to expect. Our prep track experience helped us make the decision together.”

WHAT HAPPENED TO BILL TAYLER?

If you will remember, we left our story when Tayler couldn’t shake the thought of the new PhD prep track program—a program he initially laughed at because he was determined not to spend another f ive years in school.

Swain got the last laugh when Tayler joined the first cohort of the PhD prep track in 2000. Tayler completed the program and was accepted to Cornell University in 2002. “I would never have gotten into Cornell without the prep track,” Tayler says.

And now? He is back where it all started: at BYU Marriott. He is on the SOA faculty as the Glen Ardis Professor and is an SOA associate director. He also serves on the PhD prep track committee, where occasionally a MAcc student laughs at him when he suggests they consider joining the program. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” they may say.

Tayler simply smiles.

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Written by Christopher K. Bigelow
Illustrations by Harry Campbell