<p>^Good job, gobluecpa! You really make me laugh while waiting anxiously for DD’s college decision.</p>
<p>Johnny you mentioned that you will save 10 years of your life if you become a nurse. Generally, a MBA in accounting generally takes 5 years… </p>
<p>Accounting and nursing are two completely different fields and are each on a different side of the spectrum. Let me tell you first hand, being a nurse is not easy. My job over the summer involved working at a physical therapy facility and the nurses are on their feet all day, bending, squatting, compromising with patients according to their needs and wants all day long. By the end of the day you are physically and mentally exhausted. I’m not saying accounting is not hard, but it is not physically exhausting that’s for sure. Which is not a bad thing at all ;)</p>
<p>An MS may take 5 years, but MBA’s usually require work experience. Depending on the program MBAs may take 1-2 years.
10 years = education (5-6 years or more) + time to pass the CPA exam + time working under a CPA + work experience of 5-10 years to be able to demand salary of $70K+</p>
<p>i have a question, are you limited to working in the same state as your cpa?</p>
<p>Johhny vue notes,"An MS may take 5 years, but MBA’s usually require work experience. Depending on the program MBAs may take 1-2 years.
10 years = education (5-6 years or more) + time to pass the CPA exam + time working under a CPA + work experience of 5-10 years to be able to demand salary of $70K+ "</p>
<p>Response: You can look at a glass half full or half empty. First, you don’t need an MBA. Thus, education of 5-6 years + time to pass CPA+ time working as a CPA for a 5-10 years= a profession that is really in-demand with a salary at that point at least in six figures and good chance of making partner making 250K-500K. Not too shabby!</p>
<p>Another response for Johnny, because his data is so far gone. </p>
<p>At my firm, you start at around 50K and you are making 70K+ after about 2-3 years of work. That is SENIOR level accounting salary, and I’m not even in a large market area. I will second what Taxguy mentioned, that it is not unreasonable at all to hit the 6 figure mark in public accounting (note that this is not considered “bookkeeping”).</p>
<p>Another note is that you can get a job right out of college (with 150 credits - note here that no masters of any kind is required), you can work while studying for the CPA, thus getting your time under a CPA and passing the test.</p>
<p>Response to anatoly: there are resiprocity agreements in place. If you want the specifics, you can look to the board of accountancy for the state you plan on working in.</p>
<p>anatoly, my understanding is that you can get your CPA and practice in your state and to a limited extent elsewhere(i.e. on assignments or whatever). The reciprocity agreements between states are to make that happen, though you cannot get a license in one state and have it carry over if you permanently move someplace else. You only need to pass the CPA exam once of course since it’s the same everywhere(hence “Uniform CPA”). </p>
<p>Basically this means that if you live in a state that requires 150 hours you cannot get certified in one of the few remaining 120 hour states and circumvent the requirement that way(though you are free to move to that 120 hour state permanently if you want). If you meet the requirements of State B but got certified and licensed in state A it shouldn’t be hard to move to state B though. Just make sure you meet all requirements of the place you want to go.</p>
<p>thanks alot guys! i live in nc now and would get my masters (and cpa) while here at unc but i inevitably think i would move elsewhere for example to chicago, (assuming i start at a big 4 and then transition to a corporation- just to make sure, the cpa is necessary for everything accounting, right?)</p>
<p>The CPA is only necessary if you want to conduct audits and only with public accounting firms. If you work for a privare firm or the government, it won’t be necessary. However, it will always be nice to have.</p>
<p>Response to #45.
First of all if you took time to read my post, I never said you needed an MBA. I do however agree that you should get 150 hrs done first. Secondly, the salary figures you quoted mean nothing. Yes, you may be able to get $250k+/year, but you can also earn that much in nursing as well as many other professions. Yes, your firm may pay $50k starting salary, but that figure is not the average nor is it supported by documentation. What I’ve quoted as salary figures can be verified and double verified at any job sites. I do recognize that there are accounting jobs open, but there is more than an adequate supply of accountants to meet demand, unlike nursing. Many bookeeping jobs paying $30-40k require a bachelors degree in accounting!!</p>
<p>“you may be able to get $250k+/year, but you can also earn that much in nursing”</p>
<p>lol dude. maybe if you are a “nurse” for hugh hefner. the hot kind you find in magazines, not hospitals. of course, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>Actually the 50K that I qouted is the norm. Please review the accounting salary statistics by Robert Half, I have included them for your reading pleasure. I’m not sure the link will work because it links to a .pdf, but you can look the statistics up yourself. Again, you keep qouting “bookkeeping” salaries - A FOUR YEAR ACCOUNTING DEGREE = ACCOUNTANT - NOT BOOKKEEPER. You can get a bookkeeping job with a 2 year degree, thus the lower salry statistics. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www1.ficpa.org/FS_FICPA/PublicFiles/Visitors/Accounting_Careers/HSC/Salary_Summary.pdf[/url]”>http://www1.ficpa.org/FS_FICPA/PublicFiles/Visitors/Accounting_Careers/HSC/Salary_Summary.pdf</a></p>
<p>Also, please note the correct spelling of bookkeeper since you keep using it in your posts.</p>
<p>TheTaxdad, that page wont open for me… I really want to see it. It opens to a blank page and then stops loading.</p>
<p>^ I can open the link. Do you have Adobe Acrobat installed in you PC?</p>
<p>Thanks TheTaxDad for the link.</p>
<p>All those salary info is nothing new. But I see this the first time
</p>
<p>to those that have always argued that “it doesn’t matter where you go to school, as long as you have a high GPA.”: how do you explain the 8% of College or university attended vs. just 5% of Grade point average?</p>
<p>before you start hammering me on internship exp plays a bigger role than the school you attend, let me just say that the quality of the internship that a student can obtain usually reflects the reputation of the school.</p>
<p>Here is another useful link from RH, every year they do a salary projection and summary. The summary is free and may be of interest to some of you that are considering the field. They produce these reports for a variety of fields, not just accounting.</p>
<p>[Robert</a> Half International - Salary Guides](<a href=“Staffing, Recruitment & Job Search | Robert Half”>http://www.rhi.com/SalaryGuides)</p>
<p>Robert Half doesn’t mean anything. It’s the salary that company’s offer YOU that matter. Not some research done by a recruiting firm. Just because it says (according to you ) $50k doesn’t mean you are going to get that much. Many nurses don’t make $250k+ and the same applies to accountants. </p>
<p>Looking at 2008 wage statistics, the entry level wage for accountants and auditors is $18.60/hr
<a href=“http://www.tracer2.com/admin/uploadedPublications/863_Texas_2008.xls[/url]”>http://www.tracer2.com/admin/uploadedPublications/863_Texas_2008.xls</a></p>
<p>If you want to expect making $18 per hour, then good luck to you. For everyone else out there, RH is one of the leading research/consulting/staffing firms out there and utilize statistics given to them by the Big 4 as well as many of the top 100 accounting firms. Take it for what its worth.</p>
<p>I am officially done responding to your useless posts.</p>
<p>Let’s see - 18.60<em>40</em>52=$38688. That matches the Cost Accountants/Tax Accountants’ entry level salary for a Medium company for Corp Accounting (in the low end) in the Robert Half Report. (So the RH report does mean something!)</p>
<p>Johhny, that’s why many here in this forum wants to land in public accounting (esp. big4) or at least large corporate to chase the 50~60K starting salary.</p>
<p>You don’t make 50k doesn’t mean others can’t make 50k.</p>
<p>Mom - good point! I guess I was focusing more on the public figures, I should have been more specific- thanks!</p>
<p>I personally tend to think that the salary figures are even a little on the low end for the link I posted, but that is just from my experience in talking with people in my market area.</p>