Daily presence on campus is necessary for adequate interaction with faculty, fellow students, and visiting scholars. Although some students have lived in Atlanta and commuted, this is an added stress which is less than optimal. The cost of living in Athens is relatively low with abundant rental housing available. In return, students are expected to act as research assistants to faculty members or teach introductory accounting classes. In each year, students usually teach two sections of accounting principles one semester and act as a research assistant in the other semester.
Doctoral coursework takes about two years.
Recent dissertations have run the gamut from financial accounting to auditing and tax issues. For the financial accounting track, one year is devoted to economics and finance courses and another year to accounting seminars and econometrics courses. Students with a behavioral interest substitute management, psychology and statistics courses for the finance and econometrics courses as appropriate. All doctoral students take these three seminars. This is usually done prior to coming to campus.