Online Accounting Masters Degree

[purplewoman]

I am also looking to getting my CPA. Initially, I was thinking about law school, because of my 18 years of claims background and didn't want that to go to waste. After taking Financial Accounting and started investigating the accounting field, I realized that I should focus my career change on what I enjoy to do and not put too much emphases on just my background. Of course, I do have my eye on auditing and forensic accounting because of my litigation and fraud experience from within the claims industry, I felt that would be a good match for my skills, and still get with work with numbers.

I have spoken with several CPA's to include some in top 4 and gave them my options about going for MS in Accounting in Sac State and also schools. Including books it costs about 15K to 20K to get an MS in Accounting at Sac State or other schools.

For California on pathway 2, you need 150 credit hours and within those 150 credits, you need min 24 in accounting and 24 in business. If you have 30 units in accounting for example, 6 of those accounting units can be considered business credit. I was advised instead of shelling out 15K to get my MS degree, it's much better to get my accounting certificate at my local community college since tuition is free in CA with BOG Waiver and as soon as I meet the 24 unit min accounting and 150 credits, to start studying for the CPA exam. Based on the recommendations of the CPA's I have spoken with, they advised having a CPA is worth much more than graduate degree. Plus, once you get your foot in the door with a firm, then go to graduate school and have the employer pay for your tuition.

I'm sure everything has different reasons, but I figured I would let you know the info I received and what route I plan to go. My goal is to get my BS in General Business at Excelsior, and immediately go full time at local community college and get my accounting certificate credits to meet the requirements by Spring 2010. Once that is done I plan to work hard on both finding a job in the accounting field, since I have the 24 accounting units at either the City, State, and/or Federal Government, or private firm and study for CPA at the same time. Once I get my foot in the door with a company, I plan to go for MBA w/accounting concentration and have my employer pay for tuition.

who knows, I might go for DBA and teach part time at Sac State in the future

Norema,

This post was extremely helpful! My overall career goal is the CPA, too. I like the idea of having a company pay for the master's degree, but I really don't want to work full-time & go to school too. That would be a LOT of time away from my kids. I'm home with them full-time right now and have the time to get both degrees done before I go back to work. Also, I have pretty much taken all the accounting classes my local community college offers.

I am curious, though. What is Sac State. Is that Sacramento State University? Sorry if that's a dumb question. I'm a little new to all of this. Thanks for all your help!

[purplewoman]

>>

I am pretty sure you won't be able to count CLEP in your 150 to sit the test- double check.

Here's what I found online for the educational requirements of the Illinois CPA Exam.

"Test credit (e.g. CLEP, AP, proficiency credit) posted on an accredited
school’s transcript will not be accepted unless academic credit was also
earned at that institution."

So, the way I am reading this I need to take some classes at TESC instead of transfering in 100% of the degree and then I'll be OK. Hope that's right...

[cookderosa]

Here's what I found online for the educational requirements of the Illinois CPA Exam.

"Test credit (e.g. CLEP, AP, proficiency credit) posted on an accredited
school’s transcript will not be accepted unless academic credit was also
earned at that institution."

So, the way I am reading this I need to take some classes at TESC instead of transfering in 100% of the degree and then I'll be OK. Hope that's right...

>>

That sounds good! I don't know anything about CPA exams except that some states have CLEP rules and that the credits must be regionally accredited. Looks like you will be all set!

[joel66]

Norema,

This post was extremely helpful! My overall career goal is the CPA, too. I like the idea of having a company pay for the master's degree, but I really don't want to work full-time & go to school too. That would be a LOT of time away from my kids. I'm home with them full-time right now and have the time to get both degrees done before I go back to work. Also, I have pretty much taken all the accounting classes my local community college offers.

I am curious, though. What is Sac State. Is that Sacramento State University? Sorry if that's a dumb question. I'm a little new to all of this. Thanks for all your help!

Sorry, Sac State is California State University - Sacramento. If you already have 24+ accounting units, then I would suggest you get with your state to see what requirements you need within the 150 units. It might be that MBA could be a better option because you might need to take additional business units and try to avoid any overlap on accounting units. You might want to focus on courses that would assist you on passing the CPA and you might be much closer than you think.

For me, I initially wanted to obtain a B.S. in Liberal Arts, but changed my mind and went the business route. I have four classes left. By the time I complete my degree, I will already have 150 credits, as I have 140 units now. The quickest route for me is to get the 24 accounting units. I don't have to go full time and work full time, but the way the economy is now, I have been taking classes at my community college and filling in the rest at CSU-Pueblo and Penn Foster at a 15 to 18 unit pace the last year and working full time and saving as much money into my savings account as possible, in case I lose my job. My wife is also going to college full time at local community college to become a nurse and working 30 hours a week, as well as my son going to college full time at Sac State and working part time. I guess this is one of the reasons why I am trying to cut cost and was told CPA is in hot demand and not wait for graduate school because employers want to grab people who have a CPA.

As for graduate school, I know you want to get that out of the way, but I know there are schools out there where you can go part time and some are more at your pace. Just throwing out the route I plan to go to see if it helps anybody out there in the same situation as me.

If you live in California, even if you make 60K a year, still file for financial aid, because you still have a very high chance of getting a bog waiver and don't have to pay for tuition. If you have other family members in your household and going to college, you have a good chance of getting pell grants, which is why I am taking min 6 units at school and filling in the rest at other schools and test. You can get between 600 to 1200 per semester at local college, plus free tuition.

Joe