150 Credit Hour Options

College Majors Business Major
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<p>Hi I'm a sophomore accounting major. Really enjoying my accounting classes and doing very well in them. Was thinking about different ways to go about reaching the 150 credit hour requirement (probably plan on becoming a CPA). Of the following options, which seems the best? I listed some thoughts on each, but if there are any that I'm missing or that shouldn't be there please let me know and provide me with feedback on why that option would be best.</p>

<p>Accounting/MIS double major:
more job options, specialization might help me stand out in accounting field (IT audit is still in demand, right?), 5th year of undergrad may be cheaper than MACC</p>

<p>Accounting/Computer Science Minor:
similar factors such as MIS but it might affect my GPA (3.7 overall/4.0 major) due to potential difficulty and time requirements (debugging code, etc.)</p>

<p>Accounting/Masters in Accounting:
Can help a lot for that very hard CPA exam, chance to go to a school with a better reputation/second chance at recruiting (only 2 of the Big 4 recruit at my school to give you a sense of my school's reputation), might be a little more costly depending on program but this may or may not be an issue</p>

<p>I'd like to get into accounting/finance/consulting positions throughout my career, but am open minded to IT related work if it means having a good job in this kind of economy/information age. Another thought I had is MIS/computer science coursework might show financial firms (which are an option too) that my interests might lie elsewhere, which might not be great. Please provide your thoughts reasoning behind them. Thanks, really appreciate it!</p>

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<p>…anyone?</p>

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<p>Accounting/MIS double major.</p>

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<p>the CPA exam is f’ing cake.</p>

5

<p>don’t do the master’s in accounting. Its basically a scam… are debits and credits different at the master’s level? Firms don’t pay anymore because you have a masters in accounting either. pick up another major like you were thinking, even something kinda easy like finance. </p>

<p>the masters in accounting is only worth it if your undergrad degree was not in accounting, so that you can get the subject-specific classes required to take the CPA (audit, tax, financial reporting, etc). Like i know this one girl who graduated as a bio major and now is doing the MAcc at my school because she wants to switch careers… that makes more sense.</p>

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<p>That seems to make sense. So the MACC doesn’t help much as a way to prepare for the exam while getting credits? I think double majoring might be great because it will allow me to specialize and/or broaden my horizons. The only thing is recruiting. I go to a decent school right now, but there are much better schools out there (I attend Montclair State University). If during recruiting, what if I don’t get into one of the two Big 4 that recruit here or at least a top regional? Should I go off to a “better” school in the region for a second shot at recruiting? Or would I still be able to get a second chance at the same school by staying an extra year?</p>

7

<p>This is how I would do it (actually how I did do it, even though I didn’t plan it that way)…</p>

<p>The MAcc does help you prepare to pass two parts of the CPA exam and all its gonna cost you is between 17 and 20k depending if you are a state resident (my school is like 32k or something crazy like that). That’s after you take your GMAT, fill out an application, write essay’s, get letters of recommendations, all that pain…</p>

<p>OR</p>

<p>assuming you get into a top firm (not just big 4, but all national and some regional ones), they will pay for your comprehensive accelerated CPA prep course and then pay you a $5000 bonus for passing all 4 parts within a year (or $3500 if within 18 months). In that case you could double major, push your graduation a back a year, get hired by an aforementioned kind of firm, study over the summer between graduation and beginning employment, pass 1 or 2 parts, pass the rest within a year, collect $5000 upon passing all four parts, and after 5 years or so go get a useful (depending on the school) graduate degree like an MBA or Masters in Taxation. Again, if you are recruited to work in Tax, many firms will pay for your Masters in Tax in its entirety. (I’m not sure about the MBA but good companies have at least some kind of educational reimbursement credit.) </p>

<p>plus with an accounting undergrad, you already pretty much have the foundation to: with some hard studying, pass the CPA, and 2) start a career in accounting. that’s the way it was done forever before the education rules changed. </p>

<p>If you add a major like MIS, you make yourself a stronger candidate to work for a top acct firm because then they may consider hiring you for advisory, which deals with like really sophisticated business technology solutions (or something like that) as opposed to being limited to tax or audit. MIS/ACCT is the way to go. </p>

<p>apply online to all the top CPA firms that don’t come to recruit at your school. every one of them has a careers tab for college graduates with info on how their selection process works. Apply at a lot of places, don’t limit yourself. There are a ton of firms out there that are great to work for because they find niches the big 4 can’t fill because of audit independence issues. GT, BDO, McGladrey, ParenteBeard, WTAS… even consider getting an accounting job not in public accounting (that is for a company whose core business is something else, eg. investment or commercial banking, insurance, manufacturing, telecom, publishing, etc…) I mean… who has the best tax services practice in the world bar none? General Electric! imagine what you would learn working there!</p>

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<p>Wow thank you so much that is awesome advice. I’m really gonna look into double majoring now. MIS sounds like a great degree to pair up with accounting. Just curious are there other subjects that go well with accounting AND make someone more marketable? Or is it just MIS that is really the way to go? MIS seems very interesting, I just want to know what all the options are and which are the best to pursue.</p>

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<p>if your school is typical a 4 year degree in accounting will get you 120 credits. that means you need 30 more credits, or 10 classes, to be CPA eligible. so if you take another major within the business school how many more classes is it? for my school after you finish your gen eds and core business classes you only need 5 in finance and I think 9 in MIS. I would do MIS then and take one elective in something really interesting that is totally unrelated to business, i mean anything esoteric like ancient roman history, or evolutionary psychology, whatever… you would be surprised how often in interviews the interviewers are interested to see if your a well-rounded person with diverse interests and can talk about different interesting subjects unrelated to business or accounting, and get excited to finally get to hear about something besides the same old pre-rehearsed answers to typical questions. If you take finance, you still need 5 classes, so maybe even do a minor in a foreign language, or a minor in econ, or take a combo of interesting humanities classes and some law classes, especially business law or tax law, or take ALL the finance classes offered. say if you have to pick an upper level in finance class in either derivatives or investments or real estate, take all three. there is a lot of flexibility in getting to 150. Or if your college class offers a personal finance class that deals with personal investments and retirement planning thats a good class to take too. You never know, a lot of CPAs open up their own tax, retirement and estate planning businesses and work for themselves. </p>

<p>I think a degree in computer science or engineering or math is an indication that the applicant is very intelligent, but that requires a huge commitment and possibly more than 10 additional courses. You don’t pick up a major like electrical engineering because you need extra classes to take the CPA</p>

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<p>Just checked hours requirements in my state (NJ). In addition to the minimum 24 accounting hours I’ll get during undergrad, apparently I need at least 15 hours in accounting at the graduate level as well. So unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty much forced to get an MS in Accounting? If this is the case, what are some schools that are worth going to/worth the cost that are in the North East region?</p>

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<p>I think that you are mistaken. I haven’t heard of any state requiring 39 credits in accounting. I believe the max is 34 or 36, and it could be any accounting class. (doesn’t have to be a graduate level) So, you can still do MIS, and just take a few additional accounting classes at any level. For instance, in NY you have to have 150 credits, and 34 of those have to be in accounting. NJ is probably the same.</p>

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<p>*Actually, it is 33 credits (not 34), just to correct myself.</p>

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<p>"*Actually, it is 33 credits (not 34), just to correct myself."</p>

<p>I’m taking my exam in PA, and I have all my acct classes at the undergraduate level:</p>

<p>financial accounting
managerial accounting
cost accounting
intermediate I
intermediate II
auditing
advanced
acct info systems
federal tax
business law for accountants
accounting senior seminar (special topics)</p>

<p>11 undergraduate classes x 3 credit hours per class = 33 accounting credits</p>

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<p>You need :
33 credits in accounting
36 credits in business electives
60 credits in liberal arts and sciences
Total= 129</p>

<p>150-129=21 (can be in any discipline)</p>

<p>BTW, I don’t think that a “business law for accountants” will count towards 33 credits because it is a business law class. (more like a business elective) I don’t know exactly though. You will have to verify it with your state. These requirements are for NY, but most of the states that require 150 hours are all the same in terms of educational requirement.</p>