Help planning my degree

[thecontrarian]

Want to chime in with a piece of input given that you already have extensive accounting experience and are looking to get a degree in the field: look up how your classes will match against the CPA's education requirements.  I think you'll find Washington to be the fastest way to get licensed since you can use your pre-existing work experience but you may need a local one depending on the exact nature of your current work.

I say this as someone that paid zero attention to this in undergrad and then went back to clean it up 12 years later and could've saved himself a bit of trouble with some forethought.  You state that you prefer taking tests to papers and already have extensive work experience so I expect the exams would be no trouble for you.

Hi, thanks, that's a very interesting point. Why is Washington easier than other states?  The experience requirements? Do you have any tips regarding CPA in Illinois?

One thing to be careful of; does your target CPA board accept online degrees which include credit via CLEPS and ACE and also ungraded credits. 

Most do, but there are some weird ones that don't. Like Texas is real strict on their requirements.

I dropped an email to my CPA board asking them if my degree and approach was valid (including AP, CLEPs, ACE etc) and they were OK with it.

You would need to email the IL CPA board for their thoughts. But as long as you're not in Tx, you should be OK.