11-14-2020, 02:22 PM
This community saved me 1.5 years of school and ~$55,000. THANK YOU!
I want to contribute this here as I spent tons of hours reading this forum and found it hugely helpful but nobody reported back on succeeding on my particular goal. I hope I can be a useful data point for the next person who's searching.
TLDR: I finished the education requirement for the CPA in <7 easy weeks for $2,437.
My goal: become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Where I started: undergraduate degree in economics from a major 4 year public university, only 3 lower division accounting hours, minimum total credits needed to graduate (120 semester hours), 10+ years of corporate finance experience.
What I needed:
-150 semester hours of total classes
-24 hours of accounting classes, of which 15 must be upper division and accounting software classes from community colleges don't count
-24 hours of business, economics, or math classes with no specific areas that need to be covered
-1 year of experience within the last 5 years of which a CPA has knowledge
Why I chose Washington: The education requirements are the 3rd easiest and the experience requirement didn't require that I report to a CPA for the experience to count. I worked in a Fortune 20 finance department for a long time but never reported to a CPA which made this WA quirk important to me. I could use my previous experience for my current license instead of having to get the experience post-exams. There is also no residency requirement for a WA license.
Classes I took: I took all the Study.com accounting courses that transfer to TESU (102, 201, 202, 301, 303, 307, 302) except for 101 which was a duplicate of the accounting course I had already taken in undergrad. I then took AC463P & 467P (AUD exam prep) at University of Northern Alabama. Those finished off my accounting requirement but I was still 2 classes shy of the total credit requirement so I took Business 101 on Study.com and the FIN-321 TECEP at TESU.
Difficulty of classes: extremely easy if you already have accounting experience.
I would skip to the SDC quizzes, get about 80% right and then use the answer key to retake for 100%. The final exams were also very easy and anyone able to pass the CPA exam will have no problem passing any of them. I overdid the assignments and would spend ~3 hours/class on them but you can easily spend less. In total, I finished all 7 classes in 3 weeks of part time study but had to wait until the 31st day to take the final 2 exams.
The UNA courses were not as easy and I spent 2 weeks of solid studying on each of the courses. They are exactly the Wiley test prep materials so it double-dips with exam prep. I spent the time needed to get an A on each of them and took me about 30 hours/course but this could be meaningfully shorter if you don't care about the grade (you probably shouldn't care.) I strongly recommend not taking the FAR classes because the multiple choice questions aren't straight out of the book like they are for AUD. I can't speak to REG/BEC but getting an A in AUD was just a matter of buying the book so I could easily look at it during the open-book exams.
FIN-321 TECEP was super easy. I just read the example test questions and then crushed the test. This is coming from someone with serious experience in the field though so pick your own poison.
Total time: 3 weeks of SDC + 4 weeks of UNA + a couple hours for the TECEP. I was diligent during the UNA periods but SDC just filled in random times I was bored.
Total Cost: SDC was $608 because my 7 SDC classes required paying for a second month. The UNA courses were a total of $1,136 because I bought the book (highly recommend, $40 used.) TESU cost $693 in total because I initially applied as a non-matriculated student and then later paid to get an individual learning account (details below.)
What I could have done better: TESU's TECEP test for ACC-421 (Federal Tax) is open book and looks to be really easy if you already have experience in the area. I should have taken that instead of the second UNA course to save ~$400 net of books and two weeks of studying.
Logistics of TESU: I had read lots of reports here about how to transfer Study.com credits to TESU and only take 1 TECEP but I found that didn't work in my case. In particular, you must be an ENROLLED student in order to have them do the transfer evaluation. Due to some weird particulars in my personal life I was unable to enroll at any school during this process and so my Study.com credits got stuck in their que. I was able to call and pay the fee to get setup as an Individual Learning Account (used to be called credit bank) and the issue was resolved.
Result: I've been wanting to get my CPA license for almost 15 years and COVID finally got me the time to do it. I thought I'd need to take a MACC because I had no previous accounting classes and the pre-reqs alone would take me an entire school year. SDC & UNA don't care about pre-reqs and you're able to go at your own pace so I was able to get the credential really fast and for far, far, less than a masters degree at the local university would cost.
NASBA evaluated my transcripts and approved them with no fuss or appeals to the WA board. Was business as usual and I have my notice to schedule (NTS) and am taking the exams.
Exam Prep Tip: if this forum resonates with you then you're probably interested in a self-paced and low cost way of getting ready to pass the exams. I landed on buying Wiley's books and their test bank. It includes everything useful in the big packages except the lectures and those aren't particularly great in general and there are a bunch of lectures on all the topics on YouTube. $120/section for the book and same for the test bank with student discount.
In Closing
If you aren't interested in becoming a CPA and have read this far then I'm confused. If you're like I was and want confirmation that this will work, then I hope the detail has been helpful. Happy to offer more specifics on what I did and thoughts on your personal situation if you want to reach out via private message. I don't check here often but should get back to you.
I hope all of you who answer questions here know that there are many lurkers who are getting life changing value from your expertise. You have blessed us and do send me a note if you want to hit the slopes in Park City, I owe you.
I want to contribute this here as I spent tons of hours reading this forum and found it hugely helpful but nobody reported back on succeeding on my particular goal. I hope I can be a useful data point for the next person who's searching.
TLDR: I finished the education requirement for the CPA in <7 easy weeks for $2,437.
My goal: become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Where I started: undergraduate degree in economics from a major 4 year public university, only 3 lower division accounting hours, minimum total credits needed to graduate (120 semester hours), 10+ years of corporate finance experience.
What I needed:
-150 semester hours of total classes
-24 hours of accounting classes, of which 15 must be upper division and accounting software classes from community colleges don't count
-24 hours of business, economics, or math classes with no specific areas that need to be covered
-1 year of experience within the last 5 years of which a CPA has knowledge
Why I chose Washington: The education requirements are the 3rd easiest and the experience requirement didn't require that I report to a CPA for the experience to count. I worked in a Fortune 20 finance department for a long time but never reported to a CPA which made this WA quirk important to me. I could use my previous experience for my current license instead of having to get the experience post-exams. There is also no residency requirement for a WA license.
Classes I took: I took all the Study.com accounting courses that transfer to TESU (102, 201, 202, 301, 303, 307, 302) except for 101 which was a duplicate of the accounting course I had already taken in undergrad. I then took AC463P & 467P (AUD exam prep) at University of Northern Alabama. Those finished off my accounting requirement but I was still 2 classes shy of the total credit requirement so I took Business 101 on Study.com and the FIN-321 TECEP at TESU.
Difficulty of classes: extremely easy if you already have accounting experience.
I would skip to the SDC quizzes, get about 80% right and then use the answer key to retake for 100%. The final exams were also very easy and anyone able to pass the CPA exam will have no problem passing any of them. I overdid the assignments and would spend ~3 hours/class on them but you can easily spend less. In total, I finished all 7 classes in 3 weeks of part time study but had to wait until the 31st day to take the final 2 exams.
The UNA courses were not as easy and I spent 2 weeks of solid studying on each of the courses. They are exactly the Wiley test prep materials so it double-dips with exam prep. I spent the time needed to get an A on each of them and took me about 30 hours/course but this could be meaningfully shorter if you don't care about the grade (you probably shouldn't care.) I strongly recommend not taking the FAR classes because the multiple choice questions aren't straight out of the book like they are for AUD. I can't speak to REG/BEC but getting an A in AUD was just a matter of buying the book so I could easily look at it during the open-book exams.
FIN-321 TECEP was super easy. I just read the example test questions and then crushed the test. This is coming from someone with serious experience in the field though so pick your own poison.
Total time: 3 weeks of SDC + 4 weeks of UNA + a couple hours for the TECEP. I was diligent during the UNA periods but SDC just filled in random times I was bored.
Total Cost: SDC was $608 because my 7 SDC classes required paying for a second month. The UNA courses were a total of $1,136 because I bought the book (highly recommend, $40 used.) TESU cost $693 in total because I initially applied as a non-matriculated student and then later paid to get an individual learning account (details below.)
What I could have done better: TESU's TECEP test for ACC-421 (Federal Tax) is open book and looks to be really easy if you already have experience in the area. I should have taken that instead of the second UNA course to save ~$400 net of books and two weeks of studying.
Logistics of TESU: I had read lots of reports here about how to transfer Study.com credits to TESU and only take 1 TECEP but I found that didn't work in my case. In particular, you must be an ENROLLED student in order to have them do the transfer evaluation. Due to some weird particulars in my personal life I was unable to enroll at any school during this process and so my Study.com credits got stuck in their que. I was able to call and pay the fee to get setup as an Individual Learning Account (used to be called credit bank) and the issue was resolved.
Result: I've been wanting to get my CPA license for almost 15 years and COVID finally got me the time to do it. I thought I'd need to take a MACC because I had no previous accounting classes and the pre-reqs alone would take me an entire school year. SDC & UNA don't care about pre-reqs and you're able to go at your own pace so I was able to get the credential really fast and for far, far, less than a masters degree at the local university would cost.
NASBA evaluated my transcripts and approved them with no fuss or appeals to the WA board. Was business as usual and I have my notice to schedule (NTS) and am taking the exams.
Exam Prep Tip: if this forum resonates with you then you're probably interested in a self-paced and low cost way of getting ready to pass the exams. I landed on buying Wiley's books and their test bank. It includes everything useful in the big packages except the lectures and those aren't particularly great in general and there are a bunch of lectures on all the topics on YouTube. $120/section for the book and same for the test bank with student discount.
In Closing
If you aren't interested in becoming a CPA and have read this far then I'm confused. If you're like I was and want confirmation that this will work, then I hope the detail has been helpful. Happy to offer more specifics on what I did and thoughts on your personal situation if you want to reach out via private message. I don't check here often but should get back to you.
I hope all of you who answer questions here know that there are many lurkers who are getting life changing value from your expertise. You have blessed us and do send me a note if you want to hit the slopes in Park City, I owe you.
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