Help on TESC Residency Requirement for International Students

[Yanji]

Well, you have a couple of options... If you have one year of work experience as an accountant that can be verified by a CPA and you don't need public accounting privileges, you can take the CPA in Colorado (the last 120 hour state) and get licensed before they become a 150 hour state on July 1. (Some states do not let you use the CPA designation as an out-of-state CPA, but that does not prevent you from making the factual statement that you are a CPA in another state on your resume) You don't have to actually physically go to Colorado to do this, but you must have all requirements met and your paperwork filed by the end of June when the door closes. Once you get your 150 hours you can convert back to your home state, which is a much easier process than transferring exam scores. If you don't want to do public, you can actually just stop here.

Otherwise, most states (including MA, my state board) allow CLEP credits to count towards the 150 hour requirement, as long as they are on some sort of college transcript. Taking 30 credits worth of CLEPs in non-duplicative subjects and then paying to Credit Bank them at Excelsior should be much faster/easier/cheaper than messing around taking fluff courses at TESC. However, if you have any courses you've been wanting to take, now is a good time to take them for "free" while you need the credit anyway. Do not take any courses from non-RA institutions like PF under any circumstances - IMO for accounting you should seek to earn the "highest-quality" credits possible (e.g. AACSB business courses, RA other courses) because doing otherwise could geographically limit you, which is another way of saying it could harm your career.