<p>I'm an economics major at Michigan entering my junior year. This fall I'm taking econ 401 and I don't really want to take accounting 271 in the same semester. Basically, I was wondering if it would be a good idea to take 271 at community college this summer even though the class would not transfer to Michigan. Would this class count toward the 150 hours that one needs to take in order to take the CPA exam? Also I want to keep the option of working for one of the big four after graduation would I be able to tell them that I took financial accounting or whatever. </p>
<p>If you want to work for the Big 4 after graduation, you need to be either an accounting major or clearly have enough courses in hand to sit for the accounting exam. And the accounting department, or the Michigan AICPA, will be able to tell you what those requirements are. </p>
<p>The Big 4 have consulting practices - and they may hire non-accountants including Michigan econ graduates - but those practices are highly restricted by audit independence (only Deloitte has a “real” practice, and that was so because they never sold their management consulting practice in the face of SEC and independence concerns in 2000-2001). This is not to say that you should not look at a Big 4 firm for consulting but there are many more firms in the same business that may provide better opportunities. But if audit and attest are what you want to do - get the CPA hours in - and by all means look at the Big 4. Accountants are in high demand - but it is a very difficult - and sometimes tedious profession.</p>