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ABSTRACT Performance Predictors in a Graduate Accounting Program

The academic community has studied extensively the predictors of student performance in undergraduate accounting and MBA programs, but has extended little attention to predictors of success in masters of accountancy (MA) programs. Growth of MA programs and increasing enrollments of international students in U.S. graduate schools warrant an examination of predictors of student success for a new population of graduate business students. This chapter focuses attention on the factors that predict student performance in a graduate accounting program and examines whether the predictors differ for U.S. and international students studying at one U.S. university.

Student success is of obvious importance to graduate accounting students. The graduate programs and accounting firms admitting and hiring these students have vested interests in their success as well. A master’s degree in accounting allows students to meet the 150-hour education requirement in effect in almost all states and is valuable in securing a job in public accounting. Accounting firms depend on universities to admit qualified applicants, whether U.S. or international, and prepare them for careers in a constantly changing business environment. If international students differ markedly from U.S. students in terms of preparation or language ability or if standardized admissions tests have differing validity for U.S. and international students, graduate accounting programs may need to adjust curricula or admissions criteria.

This chapter tests whether the standard predictors of performance in prior validity studies, grade point average (GPA) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores, are effective in predicting student performance in a graduate program in accounting. In addition to using an academic measure of student performance, this chapter specifies a market measure of student performance: success in securing a job in public accounting upon graduation. The chapter tests validity for all students in an accelerated-cohort MA program from 2002 through 2009. As large numbers of students in the program are international students, we are able to test the hypothesized relationships for both U.S. and international students.

We find that GMAT scores and undergraduate GPA are positively, significantly associated with program performance for the entire sample of MA students; however, significant predictors of performance are different for U.S. and international students. International student program performance is associated primarily with measures of communication skills and is unrelated to undergraduate GPA. When we explore the factors associated with obtaining a job in public accounting, we again find significant differences between U.S. and international graduates in our program. In spite of their higher scores overall on GMAT admission exams and overall performance in the graduate program, international students are less likely to be hired in public accounting than their domestic counterparts. Success in obtaining a job with a public accounting firm increases significantly in MA GPA, but only for international students.