I will be attending grad school fairly soon, so it’s time to look into grad programs. I want to get a master’s in accounting and I am wondering which of these colleges would be the best to attend.
I am a NY state resident, so I would be paying OOS tuition for Rutgers. Right now, I am not eligible for financial aid for the undergrad program I’m in, so I probably won’t be for grad school either.
I can commute to SUNY Albany; I would have to find an apartment for SUNY Buffalo/Binghamton, and Rutgers does have graduate housing. My biggest reservations with Rutgers is the price and the fact that their graduate programs are taught on the Newark campus. However, I know Rutgers has a very good reputation and is probably the best out of the listed colleges.
My undergrad years will not leave me in much debt, so I am trying to figure out if it’s worth going away or if I should just commute to Albany.
I think you should probably just commute to Albany. Rutgers isn’t really known as a top accountancy program, as far as I know; it’s not like going there will crack open a world that SUNY won’t. And you can save a boatload of money by community to Albany - being without student debt is a serious thing. I have something like $38K of debt (which is pretty low given that I have a PhD) and my monthly payment is gonna be nearly $450 under standard repayment. You can do a lot with an extra $450+ a month!
Other than working at a Big 4 accounting firm or trying to be an accountant at a really prestigious company, I don’t think accounting is one of those prestige-obsessed fields.
Thanks for the response! If I were to get admitted into a better accounting program – say University of Illinois UC – would it then be worth the cost? I actually do want to try and work for the Big 4 and I was thinking that a more well-known college would be good in a resume.