Hello everyone. I’m a high schooler who is thinking about going to Tufts in the future. I want to pursue a career in accounting, basically become a CPA or something along those lines. So I was wondering if Tufts has anundergrad or graduate accounting program because I can’t find any info about it. Also, what are some other classes I should take if I want to pursue this career, and if Tufts doesn’t offer this, what are some other good colleges in the Boston-Cambridge area that have good accounting programs. Thanks so much for the help everyone!
Boston College is generally considered one of the better schools in the Boston area that has a good accounting department. Also take a look at Babson and Bentley.
At Tufts you’d probably major in Econ but I don’t think it has an accounting focus.
You cannot become an accountant, at least not a CPA, unless you complete an accounting degree. As an undergrad economics major you would need a master’s degree in accounting.
This is not a correct assertion. You need to look at the rules promulgated by the Board of Accountancy in the state(s) in which you intend to practice to determine what the requirements are to be eligible to sit for the CPA Exam and to be eligible for licensure.
My only degree is in Psychology, and I am a career-changer CPA. When I became licensed about 10 years ago, there were no states requiring an accounting degree to be eligible to sit for the exam or to become licensed. Nor did any state require coursework equivalent to an accounting degree; it would have taken me about 30 more credits to get a degree, rather than just the jumble of classes my Board required.
Some people find it more convenient to get a degree, but that’s different than having to get a degree.
@allyphoe I am only speaking from my knowledge as a CPA in Massachusetts:
https://nasba.org/exams/cpaexam/massachusetts/
And yes they vary by state and have been become more stringent recently. it is not 2006 anymore.
Wait, so does Tufts offer accounting degrees? I checked their websites and only see one or two classes related to accounting…
@OptimisticKid - No.
You now need 150 credits to become a CPA. By the time you take all the accounting requirements you need you will damn near have an accounting degree. You can just take the classes without getting the degree but the amount of work will be the same.
Sorry, I don’t see anywhere that MA requires an accounting degree to be CPA Exam eligible. You need a bachelor’s degree, 120 of your 150 hours, 21 accounting hours, and 9 business hours. But I see no mention that your degree must be in a specific subject. Am I missing something?
I practice in Oklahoma, and my eligibility requirements in 2006 were more stringent than MA’s current requirements! We had to have the 150 hours to sit for the exam, plus more accounting hours than MA requires, plus a minimum number of upper-division classes, so you couldn’t get up to 150 by taking a bunch of 101 classes. I think we were early on the 150 hour bandwagon, so actually no changes in the last 10 years in my state.
I remember when I was studying that there was still at least one state that only required 90 hours, so no bachelor’s degree at all. Maybe you thought that’s what I was referring to? I was speaking specifically to your claim that an accounting degree was required.
would it be harder to write the exam without an accounting degree or would it be the same. For example, if i decided to take economics or finance instead, would it make it harder to take the exam or would it be beneficial?
@allyphoe If you are going to take an extra 30 or so credits of accounting and business courses post bachelor’s you might as well go for a master’s. Several Boston area schools offer such an M.S. degree for non-accounting undergrads.
The academic gods at Harvard consider it blasphemy for a liberal arts college to offer accounting courses. Given its close proximity to Harvard, Tufts has decided that, in the interest of neighborly relations, it will only offer a couple of accounting courses.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/1/3/for-harvard-no-accounting-101-in/
Holy Cross is one of the only liberal arts colleges that I know of that offers a full undergraduate major in accounting. I guess they are accountable to a higher power…
http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/economics-and-accounting
For the most part, if you want to take more than a few accounting courses at the undergraduate level, you need to attend a university with an undergraduate business school
The CPA requirement of 150 hours requirement essentially dictates 5 years of schooling.
Taking no accounting courses as an undergrad typically results in one having to take a few prerequisite courses
before the Masters in Accounting program and having no electives during the Masters Program.
Majoring in accounting typically eliminates the prerequisite courses and frees up course slots for electives.
Taking some accounting/business courses as an undergrad puts you somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.
Required coursework can vary per state, so make sure you understand the requirements in your state(s) of interest or attend a masters program in your state of interest.
In theory, you may be able to complete all the accounting/business coursework as an undergrad, but because you would be older and a better student and the masters level courses could be more rigorous, taking them later would seem to be better preparation.
http://www.babson.edu/Academics/graduate/msa/Pages/home.aspx
http://www.bentley.edu/graduate/ms-programs/accountancy
http://www.bc.edu/schools/csom/graduate/msa.html
http://www.bc.edu/schools/csom/graduate/msa/academics.html#MSASummer
My $.02 (as a long time CPA) - if you are certain you want to study accounting and become CPA, you are better served by going to a school where you can get an accounting degree. If you are candidate for Tufts, there are many other fine schools in the area where you can study accounting.
Now if you were a 3rd year studying econ at Tufts, then I’d probably say stay put, take whatever accounting classes they offer, and look for a masters program.
Good luck!