<p>I don't know if you can get an MBA in accounting, I think you're thinking of an MPA or something. Nevertheless, getting a professional degree in accounting only takes one year of grad school (compared with 2 for an MS or MBA, 2 for a JD, or 4+ for MD, PhD...)</p>
<p>er... A JD is generally three years.</p>
<p>taxguy what are some good books on taxes for beginners? Im majoring in accounting and want to go to law school and become a tax attorney.</p>
<p>Collegeboy, J.K. Lasser's Tax Guide, H.R. Block Tax Guide, Lower Your Taxes:BIG TIME et. al. However, if you want to go to law school to become a tax lawyer, don't worry about reading tax guides. You will learn what you need in school. Moreover, most tax lawyers that I know go on for a masters in taxation,which is pretty thorough.</p>
<p>taxguy, is it better to get my degree in accounting and work for an accounting firm after graduating or it doesn't really make a difference and i should go directly to law school? I know most tax lawyers were CPAs before they went to law school but id prefer just going to law school and not spending that extra time getting my cpa and then working for a firm.</p>
<p>I majored in accounting before going to law school. Although it did help in my tax courses, I was greatly hindered in other courses. Frankly, law school is about writing, and knowing the constitution won't hurt either for a number of courses. If you want to do well, the best majors are philosophy and political science or to take a few courses in each. Accounting majors aren't really taught to write well enough for law school.</p>
<p>Also, you can go into tax law without majoring in accounting. My best friend, who was rated by Harvard as being one of the top tax litigators in the US, majored in History as an undergrad.</p>
<p>If you do major in accounting, take some writing courses and take a course or two from the political science department on constitutional issues. Taking a few philosophy courses won't hurt you either.</p>
<p>thanks for the information taxguy</p>
<p>Accounting Disappointment!</p>
<p>My friend's son wanted to major in accounting at Penn State, but could not transfer into that major (from "undecided") because his gpa was a little shy of the requirement. Now what? His major is currently econ, I think. Can he still become an accountant without transferring to another school? It would have been the perfect career for him, and he has several family members in the business.</p>
<p>lkf725, sadly, some schools don't allow automatic entrance into the business curriculum or accounting major. They have to "prove" themselves first. This seems to be the trend for the more popular majors.</p>
<p>But accounting isn't that much popular at Penn State. It's pretty easy to get in as long as you have a 3.0 GPA. I know Finance is really difficult - you need a 3.3 to get in. I know people that had 3.27 and 3.25's that didn't get in.</p>
<p>MightyNick, maybe it is more popular than you thought. Also, maybe because accounting is deemed to be a tough major for business, the school wants more qualified students.</p>
<p>Who knows? Maybe Pennstate has a high attrition rate in the major, and the school is trying to pre-qualify kids in order to reduce this attrition rate.</p>
<p>I dunno, but I feel really bad for him. He has persevered with a verbal (reading and writing) learning disability and has come so far only to be denied. He is, however, really good at math and numbers. Maybe PSU is too big to care about that. Maybe he'd be better off to try a smaller school, but he is really attached to "happy valley" at this point. </p>
<p>BTW, I think admission to Smeal Business School at PSU is pretty competitive for all majors.</p>
<p>Yeah PSU is really strict when it comes to that. I actually have a friend who was going to be a senior at PSU (he already had 90 credits) but wanted to change his major to Finance from Marketing. However, they didn't allow that because it was too late, and his GPA was slightly less than a 3.3. He transferred to Michigan and now he's gonna stay here an extra year and major in Economics (even though he doesn't like it, but thinks its better than Marketing).</p>
<p>At Smeal, they admitted 55% of applicants. Finance was the most popular major 38% with accounting coming in second at 19%. </p>
<p>I can't find it, but I was under the impression that internal transfers (or whatever you call students who began with summer admission and were therefore listed as "undecided") needed about 3.4 or 3.5 to enter those popular majors.</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess when a school is so enormous they have to be strict.</p>
<p>Lfk725, the enormity of school is irrelevant. Communication is a very popular major in Penn. I was told that you need a 3.5 at Penn to be able to major in communications. They have other majors that have GPA qualifications too.</p>
<p>Both at Towson and University of Maryland, most kids aren't even admitted into the business school until their sophomore year. They have to have a certain GPA. This seems to be a trend at many schools. Sadly, most people think that when you get admitted to a schools, such as Univ. of Penn. you can major in whatever you want. This isn't true!</p>
<p>Actually, he realized that his admission to accounting was "conditional" and that he would have to apply for junior year admission to the that major. That was the chance he took. What would you suggest for him now if he still wants to be an accountant?</p>
<p>Accounting is under "enrollment control" at PSU.</p>
<p>There are a couple of majors that are under "enrollment control", you usually have to have a gpa from 3.0 to 3.30 by your third semester.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.psu.edu/dus/adminenr.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.psu.edu/dus/adminenr.htm</a></p>
<p>The majors from the Smeal, Eng., and Comm. are the only ones under "enrollment control".</p>
<p>I don't exactly know why they put some majors in "enrollment control".</p>
<p>For ex:</p>
<p>Mech E and Elec E are two popular majors in Eng.
There are like 500 to 600 (jr. and sr.) kids in both majors.</p>
<p>But M E is the one under "enrollment control" (3.0)
whereas EE isn't.</p>
<p>"The University's goal is to adjust to shifting student interests and to accommodate all qualified students in the undergraduate majors of their choice. When limitations of space, faculty, or other resources make this goal unattainable, the college dean responsible for the major may request administrative enrollment controls. "</p>
<p>lfk725, I would suggest speaking to his advisor ASAP and see if he can get into the accounting program. If it looks unlikely then I would suggest either finding a suitable alternative major or transferring. There are plenty of fine schools that don't have these types of restrictions. Check out Bentley among others. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks, I'll pass that advice on to my friend. Frankly, I don't think he would have an easy time getting into grad school. With his limitations and the family members in the accounting business, that was probably one of the better choices he could have made.</p>