<p>I have a question about requirements to be a CPA. You need 150 credit hours with "30 credit hours of Accounting Coursework". Are those "30 hours" specific classes you need to take? or for example, Community Colleges offer numerous different Accounting classes beyond just the first 2 intro courses: Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting...they offer courses like "Intro to Accounting Spreadsheets", "Business Income Taxes", "Individual Income Taxes", "Accounting Spreadsheet Applications", "Bookkeeping", and "Payroll Accounting". Would these "other" Accounting courses at a Community College count towards the "30 Accounting Hours" needed? or would the courses have to be completed at a 4-year school and would Intermediate Accounting I and II and Advanced Accounting be required?</p>
<p>Yes, the 30 hours have to be in financial, managerial, tax, and audit. Intermediate 1 and 2 are basically required because they are a prerequisite for higher-level classes. Advanced may not be required per se but when taking 30 credits, advanced probably would be a class taken. The tax classes would count. I doubt Bookkeeping, Payroll, and Spreadsheets count. Those are classes to help one become a bookkeeper.</p>
<p>You * must * read your own state’s rules and statutes to know for sure, and you ought not rely on anyone else’s reading. It matters not one iota what any of us say; the only opinion that matters is that of your own state’s Board of Accountancy.</p>
<p>In my state, the rules specify that you need x hours of upper level courses. Community colleges in my state can’t offer upper level courses by definition. (I actually had to get my out-of-state transcript evaluated by an in-state school, and get a letter specifying which courses counted as upper level, because I got my degree from a school with a weird course numbering system, and you couldn’t just count the classes that started with a 3 or 4.)</p>
<p>But my experience doesn’t mean anything to you, because the only important thing is what your Board wants. (That’s true even after you become a CPA, too.)</p>
<p>Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta</p>
<p>Alright, I noticed that for example: Florida does not allow any of the 30 hours to be completed at a Community College, there all the course-work must be upper-level and at a 4-year university. The states that I am considering becoming a licensed CPA in are Georgia, South Carolina, or North Carolina. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if these 3 states would accept any Accounting Coursework beyond the 2 intro courses from a Community College, or if any of these 3 states are more similar to Florida in that NONE of the Accounting Coursework can be from a Community College?</p>
<p>I know FL requires “36 hrs of upper level accounting courses” (via myfloridalicense.com), which would basically require a master’s. One cannot take that many accounting classes in a basic 4 year degree. It’ll vary state to state.</p>
<p>I found the following information for Requirements for Georgia: Can courses taken at a community college be accepted?
Courses taken at a community college can be accepted, however, accounting courses used to meet the accounting requirement that were taken at a community college must be transferred into a four-year accredited institution in order to be counted. ([FAQs</a> | NASBA](<a href=“http://nasba.org/licensure/nasbalicensing/georgia-2/faqs/]FAQs”>FAQs | NASBA))</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Accounting Credit Hours from The University of Phoenix (Online) will be counted as “Upper-Level courses from a 4-year school”? Like, is The University of Phoenix considered the same thing as a 4-year University or is it considered more like a Community College? I do not plan to get a Masters in Accounting or enroll in a program, I just want to take the required courses by themselves.</p>
<p>Nevermind about the University of Phoenix (that place is expensive!). I will just have to find somewhere else to get the required number of Accounting Courses. I am looking to find a somewhat cheaper place to get my Accounting Courses Completed On-Line. Let me know if anyone knows of anywhere that offers Upper-Level Accounting Courses On-Line.</p>
<p>Does it look bad if I take 90% of the required “30 hours” at a Community College rather than a 4-year University (as long as it meets the requirements to sit for the CPA Exam in the state that I live)? Would that limit my Career Opportunities at all? I do not want to work for the Big 4, I would rather work for a Mid-sized Firm or similar.</p>
<p>Again I ask…</p>
<p>How much does the CPA help the person who did not attend one of those “Top B-Schools”?</p>
<p>^ What? A CPA and a “Top b-school” are unrelated things. Most CPAs didn’t go to business school at all… You need to do some research on the career path of a CPA yourself dude. Question doesn’t make any sense.</p>
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<p>Yes, I realize that misused some terms. I forgot that for you business types, “B-School” means graduate business schools. What I was getting at was would obtaining a CPA be an “equalizer” for folks who did not attend the so-called “top school”. </p>
<p>I ask that question because being in software engineering for so many years, experience and certifications pretty much make hiring decision-makers forget about your undergrad school whereas (from what I hear and see on these boards) the business industry is very “school brand name” influenced even after obtaining experience.</p>
<p>On top of that, I as posing these questions for a couple of students that I know.</p>
<p>Sorry for mixing the terms.</p>
<p>No, you’re still not getting it. It’s not like you either go to a top business school or get a CPA. They’re separate things. Everyone studying accounting who wants to get anywhere in their career needs a CPA.</p>
<p>I think what GLOBALTRAVELER is asking is if you get a CPA as an accountant is that similar to a non-accountant getting an MBA.
^the only semi-logical conclusion I could come to.
As domrom1 said, they are two different things. A CPA is a must for an accountant to further their career as they need it to work for major accounting firms, or even if they want ot move further up the corporate ladder. An MBA is a Masters of Business Administration, as in it doesn’t have anything to do with accounting but rather business in general. It is like comparing SAP training to an MBA, they just don’t equate since they are completely unrelated.</p>
<p>TL;DR: MBA is not comparable to a CPA or apples =/= oranges</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers. I see where the CPA comes into play for accounts.</p>