berlinerd - Degree Planning Advice - aiming for CPA

[berlinerd]

I am aiming for Illinois CPA, because is one of the few states which do not require U.S. SSN at all, and their website is actually very good and informative (in contrast to a few other states). I've wrote their Board an email in past and they told they accept online courses. I asked: will 100% online degree from SNHU be eligible for CPA exam & license (I considered SNHU at that point of time) and they answered - yes, they accept both in-person and online courses subject to general requirements of 120/150 exam/license credits and necessary amount of business core/accounting courses + audit, ethics etc.

Just an FYI, I'm looking at the IL Board of Examiners website to see what they require.  They will accept "Pass" grading, so that is the first hurdle.  But, it is very unclear to me what they're saying here:

ACT/SAT, AP, CLEP, DANTE or IIC
Candidates may submit ACT/SAT, AP, CLEP, DANTE or Individual Institutional Credit (IIC) credits. These must appear as hours earned (e.g. MATH102 3 SCH) on the official transcript(s) for consideration towards required semester credit hours (SCH).  The ILBOE accepts these credits only as they appear on the originating institution’s transcript. The ILBOE does not accept these credits if they appear as transfer credits or duplicate coursework.

I'm not certain how every school would put CLEP credit on their transcripts, but I know for certain that TESU puts it as transfer credit.  Someone who went to UMPI could tell you about that.  So even if they accepted ACE credit (which they might if they take CLEP & DSST), it wouldn't be from TESU.  But the wording is odd and I'm not certain how to get a feel for what they're asking for there.
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Next, I googled "do you have to be a US Citizen to sit for the CPA exam in every state, and I got back that you do have to be in every state except AL, LA, HI and NC.  Then, I searched for info about SS#, and WI, MT, IL, NY & SD allow for someone without a SS# to take the exam.  Since there is no crossover there, I'm going to assume that you need to do further research.

Thank you for your thoughts! I actually had thought about the same issue with ACE transfer, so I wrote to ILBOE a few days ago and I am waiting for their response, I'll inform about what they answer.


I think that maybe I'll take 30 accounting courses without any transfer credit at all (even though I've passed FinAcc on Sophia already) to be 100% safe... but I am waiting for an answer still from ILBOE.

Also, as I understand, in fact in UMPI's B.A. Accounting (or if you take BABA with Accounting concentration you can do electives to have the same courses) they have 24 credits of upper level accounting (300-400 courses) so that should be in fact just enough for most of states requirements who differentiate between UL and LL accounting courses (as you gave examples of such in another thread)

I am going to look into Montana, as I understand that may be a viable option for a nonresident alien. California actually looked good too, but they require SSN or ITIN and I've never had a tax liability in the US to be able to apply for ITIN...