<p>So what is a good school for an accounting major in california. anyone know?</p>
<p>San Diego State</p>
<p>Good acctg school in Cal or good school for acctg major who is from Cal? </p>
<p>Wake Forest University (in NC)- perennially tops the list of schools whose acctg grads pass all four parts of the CPA exam the first time. Private, 75% from out of state.</p>
<p>University of Southern California</p>
<p>UCLA claims to have the highest rate of passage on the CPA exam .</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO</p>
<p>Notre Dame, Holy Cross, USC.</p>
<p>A good private school for accounting major is Santa Clara University. Good internship possibilities, including Big 4 internships during summer between junior/senior years that not only pay well ($8K for the summer) but can also result in a job offer after graduation BEFORE you've even begun your senior year of college. The downside to Santa Clara is that it is expensive and not overly generous with financial aid. It's a gem of a collegiate environment that is smack dab in the middle of the Silicon Valley (think headquarters to Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Symantec, Advanced Micro Devices... plus a short drive to a slew of biotechnology companies, e.g., Genenetech).</p>
<p>as i recall there are only five programs in cal accredited specifically in accounting. they are san diego state, fullerton, santa clara, USC and UCLA. you can't go wrong at any of those though there others around that are accedited in business, 33 throughout the state including 16 in the CSU.</p>
<p>how about on a national level...particularly on the east coast....ive heard wake forest is supposedly the best...and ive heard Notre Dame too...any others???...and where do you all get this info anyway?</p>
<p>UVA, W&M were good in my day. (I am a CPA who went to W&M)</p>
<p>jwat,
go to <a href="http://www.aacsb.edu%5B/url%5D">www.aacsb.edu</a> and then click on accredited institutions. there is a separate process of accreditation for accounting. you might note that far fewer schools have the blue ribbon for acctg than the entire unit of business.
trag,
virginia is outstanding in both biz in general and acctg specifically. but regret to tell you that bill and mary is not on the accred list in your field. don't fret though...many other good ones aren't either.
j</p>
<p>I personally wouldn't recommend making a decision based upon AACSB's accounting accredidation for a few reasons.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The list has little correlations to recruiting. In Massachusetts, for instance, there are about five heavily recruited schools, only one of which are on there. Two schools that are not so heavily recruited are.</p></li>
<li><p>Accounting education is rather standard--while not always true, the programs tend to be rather similiar from school to school.</p></li>
<li><p>Overall business education is extremely important--if you have the choice between an excellent business school with a non-accredited accounting department and an okay business school with an accredited accounting department, choose the stronger business school, hands down. At the very least, it will make your life a lot easier when it comes time to take the CPA exam, as you'll have to know information systems, finance, statistics, economics and business law inside and out for it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>it doesn't matter where you go to college for accounting as long as you pass the CPA... even if you don't pass the CPA you should still be fine long as you have work experience... my sister has an accounting degree (from "third tier" uni) but never passed the CPA she makes 65K/year... she's only been out of college for like 2 or 3 years now.</p>
<p>she was making 45K/year right out of college.</p>
<p>"it doesn't matter where you go to college for accounting as long as you pass the CPA... even if you don't pass the CPA you should still be fine long as you have work experience... my sister has an accounting degree (from "third tier" uni) but never passed the CPA she makes 65K/year... she's only been out of college for like 2 or 3 years now.</p>
<p>she was making 45K/year right out of college."</p>
<p>A few general comments:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Passing the CPA exam does matter--in fact, it's required for promotion to manager at the Big 4 (usually happens in your 5th year) and for many exit opportunities.</p></li>
<li><p>It wasn't very common until very recently, but the trend is to take the CPA exam as soon as you graduate. I highly recommend doing so.</p></li>
<li><p>It is true that, as long as your school is recruited, it does not matter much what your school is. At the Big 4, all entry level employees are paid the same--there is generally no negotiating your starting salary.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>CPA matter if you want to work for a public accounting firm... i don't think it matters very much if you work for a private accounting firm... </p>
<p>is beers and cutler one of the big 4? if so my sister got a job offer from them too for like 60k/year without a CPA. i'm sure she would need to eventually pass the CPA exam to move up but you can get a well paying job without the CPA...</p>
<p>"CPA matter if you want to work for a public accounting firm... i don't think it matters very much if you work for a private accounting firm..."</p>
<p>The vast majority of students choose to start in public accounting. There's nothing wrong with starting in private accounting, but a few years in public accounting usually affords better opportunities.</p>
<p>Being a CPA isn't required to start in private accounting; however, many upper level private accounting jobs require Big 4 experience and being a CPA.</p>
<p>"is beers and cutler one of the big 4? if so my sister got a job offer from them too for like 60k/year without a CPA. i'm sure she would need to eventually pass the CPA exam to move up but you can get a well paying job without the CPA..."</p>
<p>No. The Big 4 are Deloitte and Touche, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst and Young. </p>
<p>No one is saying that you need to pass the exam to get a job in public accounting (the vast majority of people have their initial job offers well before they even qualify to sit); however, you do need to pass the exam to stay in public accounting. Law now requires that the person who signs off on an audit be a CPA. As a result, just about every large firm requires you to be licensed to be promoted to manager.</p>
<p>ryan,
i agree that you need not locate an AACSB accredited accounting program.
in california there are only five, and surely any fool can locate more than five almost world class accounting programs in this education rich state.</p>
<p>what i would do is consult the aacsb list of accredited BUSINESS programs and choose from there. if your choices coincidentally include the accounting gold star consider it a bonus rather than a must have.
j</p>
<p>Dang, my state is AACSB rich... all 3 of the biggest state universities are AACSB accredited in both business and accounting, the big private university is highly ranked in accounting and accordingly accredited in both by AACSB, and another smaller state masters university is accredited by AACSB for business. Also, Utah only has 11 schools where students can earn a bachelor's degree or higher (5/11 AACSB accredited is pretty good, IMO).</p>
<p>Of course, the business school I attend is not accredited by AACSB, but ACBSP for their (good, IMO) reasons:</p>
<p>"The School is also a Member of AACSB, but has chosen not to pursue accreditation by that organization. The reason is simple: our mission is about teaching and learning; AACSB accreditation is more adequate for schools that have research as a primary function of their mission. Our choice is very intentional and speaks to our commitment to excellence in teaching and learning.</p>
<p>This decision allows us the freedom to be innovative in our curriculum design, while still maintaining very high international standards for business education. It also allows us to spend the bulk of our resources providing a cutting-edge educational experience that is balanced between foundational business theory and practical application - - a balance that is tested with Corporate Executive Advisory Boards, Alumni, and Employers."</p>
<p>I agree with ryan, AACSB accreditation is not the best indicator of the quality of education being provided.</p>
<p>am not sure what a "best indicator" might be if not accreditation. placement data is highly suspect or it would be. and while there are a few very rare exceptions for the most part the very best business programs in the united states are accredited. teaching schools are not? check again. a significant number of schools on the accredited list have teaching as their primary mission, including 16 institutions in the CSU system and countless others across the nation. while i have no clue what school you mean that "has chosen not" to pursue accreditation but several schools i know "chose" not to do so simply because they failed to meet accreditation guidelines which include such things as class sizes, ratio of full to part time faculty, published work in the field, terminal degrees earned, professional experience, and other trivial stuff. how many outstanding colleges of business can anybody name that are unaccredited?</p>