<p>So, I just got a rejection from my top choice (Fordham), it was a reach, but I am very disappointing nonetheless. I am trying to narrow down my list of other schools I applied to. So far, I've got Butler, Creighton, Loyola Maryland, Xavier, SLU and Fairfield. I've gotten 14,000 to 19,000 in merit scholarships from about half of them. Assuming they all have similar Financial Aid , which do you think is best? I am going into accounting. I am also looking for other schools that have good accounting programs, and would be of similar rankings to Butler or Loyola Maryland. I also applied to Bentley, but I am a little worried that may not work out after receiving a rejection from Fordham. Any suggestions (preferably near big city, but with normal campus, in Midwest or West Coast, ~3,000-10,000 students)?</p>
<p>Stats;</p>
<p>31 ACT
3.2/3.6 GPA
All honors and AP classes from top 10 Illinois public HS
300+ Hours community service
Average Recs and well-written essay
4 years of volleyball and multiple jobs
High income bracket and Caucasian
Male</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated! I am really worried after my rejection...</p>
<p>1) How many accounting courses does your school offer? A lot of places only have small departments with a few introductory courses. For instance UCLA has less accounting courses than a good community college and the CPA it is all about units.</p>
<p>2) Prestige doesn’t really matter. Accounting is so standardized that is pretty much the same everywhere. What you want to see if a school with good Big 4 Accounting recruitment. For this reason local commuter state schools are better than high ranked LACs. To a large degree the recruitment will be regional. </p>
<p>Thank you so much @bomer . My goal is to get in into the Big 4. All of the schools I have applied to have sent interns to the Big 4 and have sent recent graduates to the Big 4. My main concern is that I cannot find out which schools are target schools for the big 4. Do you happen to know? Other than that, is there any thing else you can tell me about your experience in accounting? I am a little worried about the math…I am pretty good at it (29 on ACT in math, B in AP Calc AB). I have heard that the math is not much harder than any other business degree, just alot more of it. Is that true? Thanks!</p>
<p>I know USC & CSU Fullerton send people to the Big 4 here in SoCal; as i said it’s all regional so I only know about my region.</p>
<p>I would describe accounting sort of like chemistry. Reason being is it requires both memorization and math problems. Math problems are much like Chemistry and are not that hard compared to lets say Calculus. It’s mostly memorizing the rules to set up the questions. Furthermore the rules you learn in Financial Accounting don’t apply to Managerial/Cost accounting so it gets tricky. Worst case if you can’t handle accounting then you can always drop to finance or even marketing.</p>
<p>@bomerr Thanks for you insight! Do you know if it is possible to get a job at a big 4 in a city away from where you go to college, even though it is all regional. For example, if I want to go to Loyola Maryland (Baltimore), could I then land a job in Chicago after graduating? </p>
<p>I know that Alabama acct’g students go to the Big Four. Bama has a highly ranked accounting program. You would get accepted. You missed the “priority scholarship” deadline (yesterday!) but Bama has been known to go ahead and award merit for ACT 30+…does your weighted GPA show up on your transcript? </p>
<p>it is too late to apply to the CSU and UC system. Perhaps UOP, Loyola Marymount and St Mary’s Moraga - they are all in your size range and probably academically accessible though i don’t know when their application window closes.
Good luck. </p>
<p>I know it is not really the “mid-west”, but have you considered SMU–the business school is ranked 21st in the nation and they have a 5 year accounting (MPA) program. They give lots of merit aid and their business grads find jobs easily. </p>
<p>sorry did not notice you have been offered scholarships from those listed schools. As noted before, as long as the big 4 recruit there you are ok, even they do not as long as its an AACSB school, you are ok.</p>
<p>Also, you need to find out if the second tier CPA firms also recruit there. Even they are less prestigious, but second tier CPAs are very good as well., </p>
<p>@artloversplus Thanks for the info! All. All of the schools I listed are AACSB accredited, and most have their undergrad business schools in the top 75 by BusinessWeek. All of the schools send several people to the Big 4 for internships and and jobs after graduation. I don’t know if the Big 4 recruit there, or if the students simply apply to get interviews. My main problem, though, is that I can’t find out what schools the Big 4 recruit from. Is there as unofficial list somewhere? </p>
<p>My daughter went to University of South Carolina. She got a internship the summer after her junior year with Deloitte at the Parsipanny New Jersey office. She is currently working for them. They are just beginning to recruit heavily from South Carolina because the accounting department staff was ranked very high. Most of her coworkers were recruited from Rutgers though. </p>
<p>If you liked Fordham and you want California then look at USD, very beautiful Jesuit school I also think they have 5 yr programs, I only know that a friends daughter went as acct major she did a 1yr masters and I saw that her resume was very impressive with internships and she went to a big 4firm on graduation and seems to have good traction in career at young age. For that matter you might look at Santa Clara and USC along same lines, but I haven’t looked at how your chances are, I fguesstimate better than Fordham.</p>