<p>I am attending the University of Florida for my undergrad in accounting and can not decide where to go to to finish my grad degree and become a CPA. I was reading on the USA news website that graduates of accounting programs such as University of Southern California and NYU make significantly higher starting salaries (above 100k) than grads of UF (within the 70ks). All three of these are schools that I am thinking about applying to but if the numbers are true UF will be out of the picture. </p>
<p>Well my question is how true is this information? Can I really earn that much upon graduation or is it possible that the students that they included in the stats already have years of experience within the accounting field? I know that UF is number 14 or so for accounting in the nation but could going to USC or NYU greatly increase my starting salary?</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that there is going to be a significant difference in salaries, not because of the school that they went to, but because the NYU graduates will work in NYC while the USC graduates will work in SoCal, both of which are much more expensive than anywhere in Florida. I am not sure whether the difference in salary is as great as you indicated but there likely will be a difference in salary but it will be mitigated by the cost of living increases in those cities.</p>
<p>The whole point of this is to say that you should go to the grad school in the state in which you want to practice because they can gear their coursework towards allowing you to sit for the CPA exam in their state.</p>