<p>Say I graduated with a 3.6 GPA in Finance and Accounting. What would be the next logical step...</p>
<ol>
<li>Go for a Master in Accounting at a top 10 Graduate Program.</li>
<li>Go to work</li>
<li>Get CPA then work</li>
<li>Or another combination...</li>
</ol>
<p>Do you usually get the job, and then the Masterand CPA during your time there which leads to promotions/etc, or try and get Master in Accounting and CPA before the job so they know you are ready for anything.</p>
<p>May I ask why you are double majoring in Finance and Accounting if you are planning on going into Accounting (you mentioned the CPA) and you are also considering doing a Masters in Accounting??? Makes no sense.</p>
<p>If you have the credits to sit for the CPA exam, do it. If you don’t, go straight to grad school and then do it. You will probably take a job before you have your CPA if you go to a decent school.</p>
<p>A Masters of Accounting will be useful if you plan on staying in accounting throughout your career, but if you are considering switching into a more finance-oriented role at some point, I would just sit for the CPA. </p>
<p>If you went to a good school, you should have enough credits to sit without taking any additional classes. The whole point of a MAcc is to get you to 150 credits, so I would recommend not pursuing it if you don’t need to.</p>
<p>If you have failed to get a particular job you want(Big Four, regional, whatever) which is really hard to get once you’ve graduated, you are best off getting into a Master’s program and playing the internship game again. If you manage to get the kind of job you want without doing that then that’d be better of course.</p>
<p>I would probably reconsider accounting as a career path. </p>
<p>Just wait until you divide your salary over how many hours you’ve worked during the year. You’ll be sad to find out that you make less than a McDonald’s toilet cleaner.</p>