I’m about to be a junior accounting student and I was looking over the required classes. Well in the upper-division, you’re given a choice of two out of eight possible classes to take. I’m confused as to knowing which ones to pick because I’ve talked to an advisor who said just take whichever sounds most interesting to you and I’ve talked to other students who said they took insert class here because they want to do insert job title here. I honestly have no idea what specific type of accounting I want to do but I know I want to do accounting.
The required accounting classes are;
ACCT 2100 - Introduction to Financial Accounting
ACCT 2200 - Introduction to Managerial Accounting
ACCT 3100 - Intermediate Financial Accounting I
ACCT 3200 - Concepts in Federal Taxation
ACCT 3300 - Accounting Information Systems
ACCT 4050 - Intermediate Financial Accounting II
ACCT 4150 - Auditing & Assurance
ACCT 4300 - International Accounting
The two of eight I have to pick out of are;
ACCT 4100 - Advanced Financial Accounting
ACCT 4152 - Internal Auditing
ACCT 4200 - Advanced Managerial Accounting
ACCT 4250 - Advanced Taxation
ACCT 4350 - Accounting Systems Audit & Control
ACCT 4490 - Special Topics in Accounting
ACCT 4600 - Governmental & Not-for-Profit Accounting
ACCT 4700 - Valuation of Closely Held Businesses
I’m thinking advanced managerial accounting and advanced taxation would be my best choices because I plan to go on to obtain my M.Acc. w/ concentration in Financial Reporting & Auditing and then take the CPA exam which I think having taken those classes would best prepare me.
See what fits into your schedule 2) Pick a good prof. 3) Take anything you might be particularly interested in 4) As an accounting student eons ago, I found governmental accounting helpful because it is a topic covered on the CPA exam and I had it nailed while others struggled a bit with it. My S found advanced financial accounting to be helpful (but he had an excellent professor)…
As you take more required classes, you’ll have a better idea of what interests you. You’ll also have an idea of which of those classes you wouldn’t take if your life depended on it. You couldn’t have paid me enough to take another cost accounting class.
Bottom line, your career will not be hindered your choice of electives. I think it would be fine to tell an interviewer, “after taking Internal Auditing (for example), I now realize I’m more interested in taxation.”
I second happy1 and arc918’s comments. It really depends on what career path you choose to follow. If you want to go into audit, taking an advanced course in tax doesn’t really make much sense. For audit, I would recommend internal auditing and financial reporting. Managerial accounting is mostly geared towards decision-making. It is something to take if you see yourself managing your own business or perhaps being a CFO. As for the CPA exam, a lot of people do seem to struggle with government and non-profit accounting and it is somewhat significantly tested.
Ultimately it depends on your interests but as arc918 mentioned, your choice of electives are not going to have a meaningful impact on your career. I doubt that once you enter the workplace, taking one elective over another will limit your possibilities. Good luck.
I think as accounting students, it’s sometimes hard to know which direction our career is going to take us (rightfully so). Things that sound good in a text book, might prove less exciting in real life. There’s also some luck of the draw, you get staffed on a certain job (randomly) and you happen to find that industry really interesting. It works the other way too, where you may roll off a job a say, “I never want to do that kind of work again.”
You’ll likely take a CPA review course, so don’t worry too much about picking your electives for CPA exam prep purposes. Unless you have some specific interest in Governmental, I’d probably take something else. Indeed, advanced tax might not be the best elective for a future auditor. But if you have the potential to work at smaller CPA firm, then you could end up doing both tax & audit.
Just my $.02 from a slightly biased tax guy who hates cost accounting & governmental accounting…