I know that some top universities like Stanford or Harvard do not offer BA degree in accounting major because their business schools are graduate school. Then who do students attending those universities without accounting major become CPA? Do they just major in economics at Stanford and sit in some accounting courses and take CPA exam?
If you want to be a practicing accountant, you don’t go to Stanford or Harvard! Both schools have great PhD programs in accounting if you want to be a professor, but many of the elite universities tend to avoid “vocational” undergraduate degrees and master’s programs.
There are a few elite universities where you can major in accounting: Wharton, Notre Dame and USC come to mind. At Michigan, you can get a BBA, but it doesn’t have an undergraduate accounting major (at least it didn’t a couple years ago). However, Michigan has a great MAcc program that they encourage their students to apply for if they want to be a CPA.
Most of the other top rated accounting programs are at large, highly-rated state flagship universities such as Texas, Illinois, Indiana etc. Great universities, but not ivies.
Add UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School. There is no accounting degree. At Haas, there is an renowned undergraduate and graduate business degree and one would take all the accounting classes offered to concentrate in accounting. Haas has produced numerous CPAs and many of the Big 4 partners. I believe University Michigan undergraduate business school has done similar too. I believe Cornell has an undergraduate business program too.