[TobyU]

I’m not trying to come off as a “try hard” or “over achiever” it’s just I’ve never taken school seriously up until college and excited thinking about my future.

So I’m a rising sophomore and this is what my plan looks like

Sophomore year- Maintain good GPA. Apply for local summer internships that deal with accounting/Apply for Big 4 Summer Leadership Programs/ or KPMG Future Diversity Leaders Program( All 4 recruit at my school)

Junior year- Maintain good GPA. apply for internships for summer or summer leadership programs

Senior Year- Maintain a good GPA. apply for big 4 internship summer or regional accounting firms

5th year (Masters)- accept big 4 offer(if hired) or apply for other big 4/regional firms in the fall and start preparing for CPA.

You may wonder why I have the summer leadership twice, from what I’ve researched, the big 4 wants students to attend the Leadership Programs year before interning, so if i do a 5 year, it will be after my junior year instead of sophomore year. I checked the sites and I’m not sure if you can attend twice so if any of you have knowledge of it that would be appreciated.

You may also wonder why I’m doing a big 4 internship after senior year instead of junior year, based off what I heard with 2014 CPA requirements (I live in CA) and forums, big 4 recruits internships the year before they are eligible to sit for the CPA exam. . And due to the 150 hour requirement, I will be doing my masters. I never took AP in high school because I was never really serious back then, so it’s assumed i will have around 120 credits by the end of my senior year. If there are any other options you recommend I will gladly listen, I don’t know if it’s to late as a rising sophomore to double major but if you know ways how to do it it will be great. People have said to skip masters and do a double major but I don’t know how to go about this. So any information would be great.

My school offers a masters pretty much to fulfill the 150 hours and prepare for the CPA. It is 15 months(July-Sept) designed for flexibility for working full time. And since I want to have an internship after my senior year, I hope it won’t conflict. It’s twice a week evening classes and some on alternating Saturdays. Pretty much I will be doing the last 2 months of my internship while doing my masters.

I’ve tried many forums and this one seems to have the most experienced people with knowledge in the accounting field, so any tips/advice would be great. I know this may seem annoying or pushy, I may not even end up in accounting, but on a bored summer day I’m always thinking about my future.

Thank you.

[Monkey Wrench]

Heres my question to you; what is your backup plan when your plan will inevitably not workout as planned.

[Anonymous]

It sounds good to me. Do keep in mind that you may not be able to accomplish everything you want and don't give up. As far as double majoring goes, I would recommend it. I have a M.Acc. and I double majored in accounting and finance in undergrad. I found my finance major far more useful for the exam than the masters. My program only required that you obtain an additional 30 hours beyond the 120 for a regular bachelors. Which is exactly what you need. If you go the double major route you may want to consider a related field that will help you in accounting such as finance, economics, or even information technology. Good luck!

[Author]

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