Accounting Major in California

Hi

I am currently a freshmen starting from the end of August at SMC. I am majoring in accounting and was wondering which schools should I plan to transfer. I noticed that in California, most of the schools with accounting are private schools with expensive tuition. Should I look for schools outside of California?

ps. USC Leventhal is the #1 school I am aiming to. Any other options?

If you go here: http://www2.assist.org/exploring-majors/searchMajors.do and type in ‘accounting’ or ‘accountacy’, you can see all the CSU/UC majors that have to do with accounting. Most are something else with an accounting empahsis.

The UCs that have undergraduate business schools, which you can take an accounting concentration, are: UC Berkeley Haas; UC Irvine; and UC Riverside. Most of the other UCs, such as UCLA, offer accounting in their economics- business/management departments. Haas is very competitive and requires a high GPA, 3.8. UCLA is also competitive, but the GPA is less than UCB. I am guessing around 3.5. The other UCs are a little easier to get into. You can go into each school’s website to see the requirements.

UCB’s Haas is more difficult to get into that USC’s Marshall. Haas is a lot less expensive.

Many CSUs have undergraduate business schools and they are less competitive to get into. Look into their websites.

If you are thinking of a CPA, recently, the requirements have changed and now require an extra 30 semester or 45 quarter units beyond the normal units for a bachelors degree. You can fulfill these requirements through extension courses, accounting certificate program or classes at a community college or a 1 year Masters in Accounting program or a MBA. These new requirements are summarized in the Haas website, the USC Marshall/Leventhal website, other business school websites or the CA St. Board of Accountancy website.

You might want to consider flagship schools out of state such as the University of Washington, Michigan, Arizona, Oregon, etc. These schools charge out of state tuition. The total cost for the University of Washington is still about 15K less expensive than a private school like USC. I heard Arizona State University is fairly inexpensive, even for out of state students.

There are many reputable accounting programs in A, Which is right for you depends on your budget, interests and qualifications.

CSUN Has a very good accounting program.

I think USC is the best for Southern California. CSUF is also good for accounting.