I am a Liberal arts major. My school offers a Masters in Professional accounting I want to consider. Will this be able to get me a job in the accounting field? Are there disadvantages to this?
You will certainly be able to get a job with that degree. You’ll need to take some undergrad accounting courses along the way to be prepared for the masters program. I’d talk with a counselor in the accounting dept and have them plot out your best course of action.
If you are at the school now why don’t you make an appointment with someone at the program to discuss the program itself, recent placement rates, and how graduates do on the CPA exam. This is a pre-professional program and you would not be out of line to ask to meet and discuss these questions.
The programs I know of you would not have to take accounting courses before entering the program. If you get the chance to take one though it would not be a bad thing so you can get a sense for accounting before committing to an expensive program.
My S has a couple of friends who went through an intensive one year program at Rutgers and they did well. The one negative is that a lot of the Big 4 hiring gets is done through an internship program which undergraduate accounting students generally do the summer before they are ready to start full time work. Students in a one year program as won’t have a chance to do a summer internship – many one year programs have winter internships but firms don’t’ seem to take a ton of interns that time of year. Still depending on the program you could have a chance to wind up at a Big 4 or another solid firm.
Once again, I’d contact the person in change of the program and ask to meet.
States are the entity that require what you have to have to take the CPA exam in that state. Speak with someone in the accounting department at your school to find out what you need. If you can take some of these classes as an undergraduate, it will save time and money.
If you graduate with a Masters in Professional Accounting, provided your school provides all the requirements of your state and you have a good GPA (3.5 or better preferred), you can get a job a one of the top accounting firms.