Graduation Countdown, Looking for final push

[dfrecore]

I can agree with Sarg123, learning how to generate a Cash Flow Statement is so old school, it's not even funny. It's like teaching my 14-yo about balancing her checkbook, as if she will ever write a check in her life! Everyone does accounting on a computer, and even the simplest accounting programs generate all of that info for you. You need to understand the theory, and why something is placed on that versus the Balance Sheet vs. the Income Statement and all of that. But you certainly aren't going to be generating it yourself.

[Synicaal]

I don't want this to come out the wrong way, but I have done my due diligence and I am more than comfortable with my choices for this degree. Thank you for your concern but at this point I was just looking for a little bit of encouragement not a critique. I work 50+ hours a week, I have two children under six, and a sergeant husband who works inconsistent hours. Taking classes at my local college is not feasible. I did not think I would have to defend educational path here of all places. I am extremely excited and proud to have accomplished what I have in the past four months. Thank you again for your concern

I apologize if you think my comment was an attack on your education choice. It is not, I am doing the same thing as you with the exception of some BM accounting classes. I also work full time, but I don't have kids so that definitely frees up time. The reason for the post was to warn you and others that may read this thread, an Accounting Degree with zero "Graded" accounting courses is not going to look good to a potential employer. I did my due diligence and spoke with potential employers in my area, and at my current jobs accounting/auditing department and they all will want to see graded credits. I think this is mostly due to the fact that most of the people doing the hiring right now have no clue what ACE Credit is. A quick summary of what I heard :

For ANY state job (where I currently am at) : They require ALL official transcripts before hiring a candidate, the two Hiring managers I spoke with in the department said they WILL want to see a GPA tied to Accounting Courses. (Especially Tax Courses) I work for Tax and Finance so that makes sense.

One accounting firm said they really just want to official transcript of the degree granting school. If they have any questions or concerns they will ask.

Another accounting firm said very similar to what the state said they look for.

So you can see its all over the place really. For ME I took tesu-acct-students advice. That is all and though I would pass it along to others.

To comment on what sarg123 said:

"To give a specific example of what I mean - I had a class on preparing a Cash Flow Statement, and the intermediate teacher assumed that we had already learned it in Accounting I. But I didn't, not really, so I turned to Study to help me learn how to do it. Study gave a very simple overview on the subject, and it did not help me at all for my test, as it did not go into enough detail."

I took SL "Financial Accounting" for Intermediate Accounting I, However, I am taking Intermediate Accounting II through a B&M School. Ran into a lot of similar issues so far that sarg123 used for an example.

Once again I was not meaning to ATTACK your choices. My post was mainly advice for future Accounting Students. I will have 34 Accounting Credits (Earned by BM route) by the time I finish my degree in Accounting. But that was my choice. I didn't say you should start over or anything.

[sarg123]

Thanks for clarifying that, Synicaal! I don't currently work in accounting, so I wasn't really sure, but I got the feeling that I would need letter grades on my transcripts in order to get any kind of real accounting job. I personally am glad I went the B&M route for accounting credits, because I was making a huge shift from the job I am doing now and I started off just to see if I actually do like accounting or not, and if the work is do-able for me. I actually enjoyed my accounting classes, (I know, I'm really crazy), so that was helpful for me in making the decision to continue for the full degree, and I, personally, am glad I learned everything more in depth (as I said, I really do enjoy that part).

I've been reading this site for years, on and off, and I've really gotten a lot of information that was extremely helpful to me, so I just wanted to give something back, which is why I was trying to clarify what I meant to anyone else who would be trying to make the same decision.

The testing out option is great for many people, and if you have looked ahead and are clear that this will work for you, that's great. But if anyone else is reading this, (and this IS a public forum), it is good to know that employer's very often do look for letter grades in the accounting field. I have spoken to friends who work in other fields, and they told me that it is not like that for them. For example, my friend who is a speech therapist told me that she was never asked for transcripts or grades on any job interview, another friend got into graduate school in social work on a completely tested out degree. But accounting is different, at least from what I understand. Just wanted to clarify that for anyone else, as it's always easier (and cheaper) to do things right the first time, rather than going back and trying to fix things later on.

I do appreciate Synicaal's advise, it was extremely helpful to me!

[Synicaal]

Sarg123, I originally planned on testing out of a lot more credits. I was lucky enough to get the same advice from tesu-acct-student that I like to also give now. My Girl Friend has a Masters Degree in accounting and also works for the State. I do enjoy working for the State and would like to remain here. However, I would like to advance my career and with my background working for Time Warner Cable my opportunities are very limited. That is when I decided to get an Associates Degree in Accounting. At my local CC I was going to be able to test out of Half of the degree which was my original goal and I would be finishing up that degree in mid May. However I found this forum and decided to tweak my goals and just go straight for a bachelors degree. I just got a bit off my point so back to it, when she was interviewing for jobs with the State in her field they required her to bring in her transcripts to the interview. She told me that they looked at her GPA at almost every interview she went to. Then when she was finally offered a position, before they could officially give it to her she had to supply ALL original transcripts from any college/institution attended(lucky for her she went to the same school for her undergrad and graduate degrees). They also made her bring in her diploma so they could photocopy it (strange in my opinion). Thankfully here in NYS ACE and NCCRS credit is widely accepted by Civil Service and NYS Education Department. Not so much with actual colleges (every purposed ACE credit was shot down by my CC).

Edit: I forgot to mention they cared ONLY about here ACCOUNTING COURSE GPA. She caught on to this because one interviewer told her so she started writing it on the envelope to make their lives easier lol.

Sad thing for me is, even when I am done with my Bachelors Degree I am going to be seeking out Auditing courses so I can get some graded credits under my belt in Auditing. If I ever want to sit for the CPA exam in NYS I will need at least 1 UL Auditing Course and about 14 additional credits in anything so I can hit the 150. Luckly my path will lead me to a degree at 123/123 but when I am finished I will have 133 credits done because of the ADDITIONAL Accounting courses I took.

[sarg123]

Thanks for the background info! Wow, that's pretty specific, they really DO check accounting grades!

Can a CBE audit class work for an upper level? Oh, not, because no letter grade?

Ok, so I was looking at online accounting classes, because I basically exhausted the classes that I can take locally. I narrowed it down to Peru, Chadron, CSU Global, and of course, since you brought it up, Oakton College. Oakton is by far the cheapest, but Peru and Chadron are reasonably priced as well. I was thinking of taking classes in Oakton, and then using CSU's CBE's for upper level credit - but if there will be a problem with that route later on then it's good to know now!

I was also thinking of taking some summer classes online, but if I will have to get transcripts from every college for every interview it may not be worth it... thanks for giving me the heads up.

[Synicaal]

Thanks for the background info! Wow, that's pretty specific, they really DO check accounting grades!

Can a CBE audit class work for an upper level? Oh, not, because no letter grade?

Ok, so I was looking at online accounting classes, because I basically exhausted the classes that I can take locally. I narrowed it down to Peru, Chadron, CSU Global, and of course, since you brought it up, Oakton College. Oakton is by far the cheapest, but Peru and Chadron are reasonably priced as well. I was thinking of taking classes in Oakton, and then using CSU's CBE's for upper level credit - but if there will be a problem with that route later on then it's good to know now!

I was also thinking of taking some summer classes online, but if I will have to get transcripts from every college for every interview it may not be worth it... thanks for giving me the heads up.

It will work as UL as long as it is an UL course. And I don't want everyone to be scared thinking they need to have all accounting courses with a GPA attached. You will be fine taking a few CBE's or even ACE. The CPA exam takes ACE credits for NYS. Its just Civil Service for NYS that seems so strict on GRADED courses.

[Kgaul]

Sorry if I got defensive. I was literally sitting her struggling to make myself continue to mull over this strategic management material and was feeling discouraged.

[sarg123]

Sorry if I got defensive. I was literally sitting her struggling to make myself continue to mull over this strategic management material and was feeling discouraged.

Sorry, wasn't nice of me to hijack your thread, I should have started a new thread.

[sarg123]

I just registered for the Strategic Management TECEP and I didn't look over the material, as I'm waiting for things to settle down on my end, plus I'm taking some b&m classes, which finish in May.

Is it really so hard? I looked over the multiple choice and it looked like some of the questions were from my management class, but I didn't check the longer answers. I'm not leaving myself a huge window, so I'm wondering... is it really so hard? I guess I'd better start studying soon?

[Synicaal]

I just registered for the Strategic Management TECEP and I didn't look over the material, as I'm waiting for things to settle down on my end, plus I'm taking some b&m classes, which finish in May.

Is it really so hard? I looked over the multiple choice and it looked like some of the questions were from my management class, but I didn't check the longer answers. I'm not leaving myself a huge window, so I'm wondering... is it really so hard? I guess I'd better start studying soon?

A lot have said it seems a whole lot worse that it really is. If either you or @Kgaul didn't get bricabrac's notes I would suggest asking for them. I have just started taking quick looks at them and they are really good. There is also these two links you may want to book mark.

Strategy TECEP Flashcards - Cram.com

https://quizlet.com/79341112/strategic-m...ash-cards/

I think my strategy for it is going to be making sure I have the lists down so I can get all the possible points on the 3 15point questions and hopefully most of the points on the 5 point questions. The multiple choice doesn't seem to bad if they are just like the sample questions. I take a SL final Friday after work and then I will be dedicating at least a week to studying up for the TECEP and then taking it. I will be sure to report back my finding if either of you haven't taken it yet.

My biggest advice would be focus on those 45 points worth of "essay" questions. If you ace those you only need 15 more points to pass which is 50% on the multiple choice. I know I make that sound so easy but in theory it is doable.