Undergraduate Accounting Programs in California

<p>Which Universities in California have the best programs in accounting, preferrably the best 10? I'd like to know where most of the undergrads of these colleges go to.</p>

<p>I’m not positive about top 10, but I would say Cal, UCLA, Stanford, USC and UCSB are up there. USF gets recruited pretty well by firms in San Francisco/Northern California.</p>

<p>Does Cal even have an accounting program?</p>

<p>Yeah, through Haas.</p>

<p>Any graduates of UCLA who are working in accounting right now? Did you pass the CPA exam? Are you planning to fulfill CPA requirements? Did you do the accounting minor at UCLA?</p>

<p>Haas has an accounting sequence available to undergrads</p>

<p>rusoboy has no clue what hes talking about. usc, cal and santa clara are the top 3 accounting programs in the state by pass rate(santa clara is #1 overall for pass rate in cali and 9th in the nation). stanford and ucla dont have accounting programs, and usf and ucsb are not well regarded. usc’s accounting program is ranked in the top 5 by us news fwiw.</p>

<p>While I can’t say I’m 100% sure about Stanford, I know for a fact that UCLA has an accounting program because I am in it. It’s not a major, but a minor, but nevertheless that doesn’t stop any of the Big 4 or the tens of midtiers/locals from recruiting from here. I haven’t looked at the rankings, but I have met countless staff and managers from various Big 4 firms that have graduated from UCSB and USF. So again, while I am not 100% sure about the rankings, I do know what I’m talking about. Rankings in accounting don’t necessarily matter. All that matters is if your school gets recruited.</p>

<p>Jace, I am in the minor right now and it is a great and rigorous program that prepares you very well for the CPA exam. I will be interning at a Big 4 firm this summer. The hardest part of the CPA exam requirements is probably the 225 unit requirement. You can just take some bs classes online for that, though.</p>

<p>^an accounting MINOR with only 7 courses offered isnt much of a program tbh…</p>

<p>^
Doesn’t stop you from taking more than 7. All you need is 9 classes anyways for the CPA.</p>

<p>rosoboy, are you schedule to get license before 1/1/2014, meaning meeting both education and work requirement, and pass all parts? Otherwise, you might be subject to meet the new requirement. I somehow remember you from another thread, but don’t remember you are a sophomore or junior. I’m surprise that not many are not following this change. According to the current proposal, it calls for minimum of another 6 semester units ( 12 quarter units) of accounting specific coursework, has to be upper. This is in total of 36+12= 48 quarter units, it’s more than 9 classes. </p>

<p>Below is the link for the proposal from CBA, it’s not final yet. But it’s good to keep in mind that you might need something extra if not licensed before 2014.
<a href=“http://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/misc_notices/not11-17.pdf[/url]”>http://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/misc_notices/not11-17.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>^ This is embarrassing that I couldn’t do the math correct -
6 semester units is 9 quarter units, so 36+9=45 quarter units of accounting.</p>

<p>An accounting major doesnt have much more than 7 courses. My undergrad had 9 mandatory acctg courses to be a major. Granted you had to take certain electives, but they were not acctg courses. I doubt taking 2 less courses than scores of the “real” acctg majors would make them that much more likely to fail.</p>

<p>a_mom, yes I’m on track to pass the CPA exam before 2014, it’s a top priority because I don’t want to have to take those extra additional units. I just finished my Junior year so the plan is to (if I <em>hopefully</em> get a full-time offer after my internship) push back my start date to January, 2013 instead of September, 2012 and use those extra 3 months to take at least 2, hopefully 3 of the 4 CPA exam section because I will need to take some additional community college classes to get to 225 units (UCLA is on quarters units). Then all I’d need is to pass 1 or 2 sections in 2013.</p>

<p>UCLA’s minor may as well be a major - you need 9 accounting courses to fulfill it, in addition to 2 Econ courses and 2 calculus courses, and nothing stops you from taking more electives. It prepares you for the CPA exam, which is what any accounting concentration/major should do.</p>

<p>Collegebound, I will bet you the Big 4 and most locals/midtiers consider UCLA’s accounting MINOR much more prestigious than 95% of the accounting MAJORS out there.</p>

<p>Generally, you can throw prestige out the window for purposes of accounting. This is not banking/consulting. Just go to a school where the Big 4 recruit. All you really need is a top GPA, good communication skills, and good social skills. </p>

<p>At the end of the day, your success at a firm depends more on your personal ability rather than what school you went to.</p>

<p>“All you really need is a top GPA, good communication skills, and good social skills.” </p>

<p>Not true. </p>

<p>"At the end of the day, your success at a firm depends more on your personal ability rather than what school you went to.</p>

<p>True.</p>

<p>what do you think of these programs/schools in preparation for accounting.
Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State, Fullerton, San Jose State, Long Beach, UCLA, UCI, UCSD,
I mean which of the state schools does good job preparing students, and which UC does excluding business admin programs in the UCs. And also which one is actually the better Cal state or UC or private?</p>

<p>not sure about accounting, but for business UC Riverside is the second best UC according the US News and World Report after Berkeley for getting picked up by recruiters.</p>

<p>^ Just want to point out that, there’s only two UCs running for this. The one doesn’t get the 1st place will sure get the 2nd. Other UCs won’t be in the ranking either because they don’t have a “traditional” under business program or the program is too new to be ranked. So don’t overlook other UCs’ equivalent programs.</p>