<p>I dont know if this is the right place to ask this but here I go:</p>
<p>So in my state you need the 150 semester credits/225 quarter credits to sit for the CPA. I've been admitted to a great program w/ good recruiting and that will give me more than enough credits. The problem is that grad school aint cheap and without financial aid and only some scholarships (not enought to even make a dent), I could be paying it back for awhile. My question is, if I get a job in the program, should/could I drop out without looking bad? </p>
<p>I'll have the required credits to sit for the exam half-way thru the program. Recruiting occurs in the 1st half of the year. So dropping out half-way, if Ive gotton a job by then, would drop my expenses in half. Has anyone done this before? if so, how has it worked out for you? </p>
<p>Not only would it drop my expenses but I would be able to either start work earlier or use the free time to work/save money and take the CPA exam. Do you think employers would care about this, if I called them after I had the offer and asked if it was okay for me to do this for financial reasons? or would it look really bad? At my current school recruiters tend to tell you that they don't care how you get the necessary credits, just as long as you do.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Whatdidyou</p>
<p>Pennsylvania is having the same dilemma and a lot of my fellow students are asking the same questions. When your current school recruiter says, “they don’t care how you get the necessary credits?” they really don’t. SOOooooo look at it like this: take more UNERGRAD classes. take yoga, take english, just take college accredited classes. Also make sure, you fulfill your state’s required minimal accounting classes in order to sit for CPA exam. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what state you belong to, but you should really do some more research at <a href=“http://www.nasba.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.nasba.org</a>. Honestly the accounting department in your school should already have this answer in mind since it’s a frequently asked question. </p>
<p>And please please don’t take my word for it. do the research. Even if you’re too lazy to do the research, call up <a href=“http://www.nasba.org%5B/url%5D”>www.nasba.org</a> and they’ll be able to help you. There’s also offices within your state too. For example Pennsylvania has the Pennsylvania Institute of CPA PICPA which is a state division of American Institute of CPA. AICPA</p>
<p>For some reason I thought you could take classes and hold down a job at the Big 4 and then get your CPA…haha it would be pretty hard to take 30 credits and hold down a fairly intense job. </p>
<p>So, what do most people do? I’d love to go to a MAcc program in a big city (I’m going to be a freshman at OSU in the fall, so Columbus is no pushover though).
I had to pass up USC, too expensive, and I looked into their MAcc program, tuition was $42k…kinda high when starting salary is only gonna be ~$55k starting out (that’s assuming I get Big 4, which if I went to USC, I think I would have a decent shot) </p>
<p>And I don’t even think I’m that interested in accounting to get a masters in it(I’d eventually like to branch into something else). But technically the 150 hours could be filled with anything. Thought about getting my masters in Finance, but I would ideally get an investment banking type job after that, so I don’t know if I’d really need my CPA</p>
<p>So do people take 5 years to graduate or do they take full/bigger loads while in college, ie like 18-20 hours a semester? Is going to a CC looked down upon by the Big 4 or do they only care if you get the CPA designation or not?</p>
<p>How do you take classes at a CC while at an internship? Like say I am able to land one in NYC…?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>edit:</p>
<p>Found this…looks like Villanova is pretty flexible and frontloads most of the classes in the summer. Are most programs like this?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.villanova.edu/business/graduate/mac/[/url]”>VILLANOVA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS | Villanova University;
<p>bump</p>
<p>They take AP credit and CC classes while in HS towards the 150 hour rule, right?</p>
<p>I should have about 30ish hours from my APs and a couple CC classes I’ve taken in High School. So this means I won’t really have to load up on classes, like taking 20 credit hours each semester too often, right? And if I do I can fill them with classes like Weight lifting I or something like that?</p>
<p>Also, how does the CPA exam work? Like people say they are a CPA, are they only a CPA in the state that they take the test? Common sense tells me you should be able to transfer it from state to state but then why do some people say some states have different requirements for being able to sit for the CPA exam?</p>
<p>I live in Ohio and couldn’t afford to go OOS, so I’m going to OSU, going to major in Finance and Accounting. But I don’t really want to live in Ohio when I graduate. Should I take the CPA exam in another state or does it not matter that much?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>