Depending on the program and your area of specialty, courses might include economics, business, finance, accounting principles, research methods in social science, microeconomic theory, qualitative methods, data mining, managerial accounting, auditing and a doctoral seminar. Most PhD programs require two years of coursework, though some require three years. Most doctoral programs require that you successfully pass at least one comprehensive exam (or comp) that covers the content you learned throughout the course of your academic career in accounting.  There are both written and oral comps, and you might need to take one of each. In many cases, the PhD program will provide you with study guidelines for the exam and will tailor the comp questions to your specific area of specialty. To prepare for the comps, write a brief (one page) summary of each academic article you read during your seminars and classes.  Summarize the main argument or question the author is tackling, as well as his or her findings and conclusion. When getting your PhD, you’ll need to write a dissertation, a long, book-like treatise on a particular problem or issue in modern accounting.  Your dissertation should be focused, specific, and thorough.  Your academic advisor -- a member of the university’s accounting faculty -- will help you focus the dissertation question or questions, and point you in the direction of useful research.  You may have suggested the topic you want to work on in your initial application to the university.  Don’t feel obligated to stick to that exact topic, since other issues or problems in accounting might spark your interest as you progress in your program.  However, ensure that whatever topic you select is one that you’ll be able to receive guidance on from your academic advisor. Current trends in accounting encourage PhD students to pursue positivist (non-theoretical) research on subjects relating to the influence of accounting practices on global markets. After you’ve settled on a research topic, you’ll need to make an actual research plan.  This means identifying sources you want to examine, traveling to archives (if necessary), and creating a timetable in which you’ll meet certain benchmarks for writing the dissertation.  You may need to pursue outside funding from your institution or the institution you will be conducting research at.  You might begin by drafting an outline of your dissertation on the topic of tax evasion.  Perhaps you’ll break the dissertation down into various subtopics or chapters, each focused on a particular issue or question related to tax evasion such as the ethics of tax evasion, the law regarding tax evasion, and the future directions accountants that investigate tax evasion could pursue. Decide when you want each chapter completed and give yourself a certain number of hours each week to work on the dissertation. If you're conducting research at a far-away archive, ask the archive or its parent institution if they offer funding for visiting scholars.  Alternately, contact the head of your own school's accounting department about getting travel funds. With your research questions and your timetable laid out for you, you’ll be able to look for sources to develop your dissertation.  You should take advantage of both academic literature and raw data if you’re interested in financial accounting and taxation.  You should use an experimental approach if you’re conducting research related to auditing or financial decision-making.  Use academic literature databases like Corporate Information (http://www.corporateinformation.com/), EconLit (https://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/), and Research Papers in Economics (http://repec.org/) to look for useful academic resources. Examine raw data relevant to your topic.  There are man sources of raw data that you can use to develop your dissertation, including stock prices, financial statements, and mathematical proofs.  Think about the sources that would be most useful to you and ask your academic advisor for advice as to where you might look for more information. If you’re interested in experimental research, you will need to arrange controlled experiments with people to probe questions related to accounting.  For instance, perhaps you want to find out how much people know about different types of investments.  You could conduct oral interviews or administer surveys asking specific questions about the differences between IRAs, Roth IRAs, stocks, and mutual funds. When you identify useful sources, immediately write them down in a notebook or a word processor file.  Alternately, you could note them directly in your working dissertation document, then develop them later when you have time look at the source and footnotes in more detail.  If you’re conducting experimental research, use surveys and record interviews whenever possible.  Either way, ensure you document the sources you use and keep a paper trail for yourself to consult when you go back to summarize your findings. Ensure you obtain permission before recording potential interview subjects. Crafting the dissertation is a research-intensive process.  The dissertation should explore the findings of your research or experimentation in depth, and demonstrate that you have a deep and thorough understanding of accounting.  The front portion of the dissertation should be used to ground your research process by demonstrating how your research relates to the other academic publications in the field.  For instance, if you write about managerial accounting, you should read as much as possible in the academic literature about managerial accounting, including past PhD theses.  Use prior studies to give meaning to your own work by demonstrating that your dissertation is exploring new territory.  You should end the introduction with a specific statement outlining your argument, and a summary of each chapter or section of your dissertation. The body of the dissertation lays out your main findings.  Each chapter should look at a specific topic relating to the larger issue you're examining.  For instance, if you write about managerial accounting, you might use each chapter to examine accounting practices in several different large firms within a single industry.  The chapters would offer in-depth information comparing and contrasting the different accounting practices with each other. Conclude your dissertation with a final section summarizing your findings overall and suggesting new directions or solutions to the topic you've examined.  Include raw data -- stock prices, interview transcripts or surveys, and other documents -- in an appendix. During your writing process, submit chapters or portions of the dissertation to your academic advisor for review.  Use his or her feedback to shape your dissertation. After completing the dissertation, you must present your dissertation before a departmental committee.  The committee will ask you probing questions about your research process and findings.  Talk to your academic advisor about how you can best prepare for the questions you might be confronted with.
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One-sentence summary -- Enroll in and complete the required courses. Meet exam requirements. Develop your dissertation topic. Craft a research plan. Conduct your research. Take rigorous notes. Write your dissertation.


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One-sentence summary --
Ask about oral contraceptives (for women only). Ask about spironolactone.