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I am 32 & am looking into a career change and was thinking about going into Accounting. I was a Business Administration major in college and really enjoyed my Accounting classes. Before college I also worked for a year as a Treasury Assistant for a multi-million dollar non-profit organization. I am looking into getting a Masters in Accounting, though I know that there are prerequisite classes I will need to take first since I was not an Accounting major. Right now, I am trying to figure out if I am “smart enough” to not only graduate with a Masters in Accounting, but to work as an Accountant. I would love to hear all of your opinions!!!!
My first fear right off the bat is that a lot of Masters of Accounting programs that I am looking into require you to have taken Calculus I and maybe Calculus II. This really scares me because I never even took Pre-Calculus. To be honest, when I was in High School I knew that math wasn’t my strongest point and so I stopped at Trigonometry because I knew that I could! At that point in my life, I never would have expected that I would want to go into Accounting one day. Since I got a Bachelor in Science in college, my college only required me to take Statistics and I therefore didn’t take any other math courses. Are there universities out there (preferably in Florida) that don’t require Calculus? Or are they all considered bad programs? And why in the world does an Accountant need to know Calculus?
Now let me give you an example of my undergrad and grad grades. First off, my undergrad experience was at a private University with a simple grading scale: 100 – 90 is an A and 4.0, 89 – 80 is a B and 3.0, 79 to 70 is a C and 3.0, etc. I graduated in 2005 with a B.S. in Business Administration & a 3.75 G.P.A. Also, I went to Graduate school where I got a M.A. in Theology and received something like a 3.99 or 3.98 G.P.A. (the grading scale wasn’t as simple as my undergrad university and I got an A minus once).
Here are my undergrad business (plus Statistics) grades:
– Principles of Financial Accounting I – A
– Principles of Financial Accounting I – B
– Quantitative Analysis – B
– Financial Management – C
– Elementary Statistics – A
– Principles of Economics I – B
– Principles of Economics II – A
– Business Law I – A
– Business Law II – A
– Business Senior Paper – A
– Strategic Management – A
– Principles of Marketing – A
– Principles of Management – A
– Personal Financial Planning – B
– Micro-computing Applications in Business – A
Now in regards to each of the grades, I do not remember if I scored at the top end of each letter grade or the low end. But let me go into more detail about some of the classes:
– Principles of Financial Accounting I & II – While these classes were really hard, I remember that I really liked them. I don’t remember why I got a B in the second course (i.e. if I was really busy with other classes or if it was just a difficult course for me).
– Quantitative Analysis & Financial Management – I took my Accounting courses my Sophomore year. Over the summer I didn’t take any classes and then in the Fall of my Junior year I studied abroad and took absolutely no business classes while I was overseas. When I got back, I took these courses during the second semester of that year. I remember sitting in those classes and realizing that I forgot a lot if not all of what I learned in Accounting. Not only that, but my mind was not in a Business mind set after spending a semester abroad. In addition, I was more social this semester than any other semester of my college years. I remember that QA was hard, but was fine with at least getting a B. In regards to FM, I remember that a big portion of our grade was a group project. If I recall correctly (which I might not), your group was also supposed to work together on your homework to make it a little easier. My group was absolutely horrible and the students weren’t very smart. I ended up doing all the homework on my own and I remember that I was always really confused. It was one of those classes where you discuss the easiest example in class and then you come home and your homework is 10 x’s harder. In addition, while doing most of the work, I did not get a good grade on the group project. This class was so hard for me that I remember crying during the Final (I rarely cry and besides this have never done so in class). Who knows, maybe if retook Financial Management again, I may do much better this time. I am at a better place in my life now and have fewer distractions. But, if I in fact am not good at FM and a sound understanding of this material is crucial to getting a Masters in Accounting, then it is better for me to not even pursue this degree.
– Elementary Statistics – Yes, I got an A in this course. There was homework after every class and the teacher didn’t mind if you compared your homework with your fellow classmates. Therefore, I got to every class early and I remember changing a lot of my homework answers (hey, it was allowed!). If this were not the case, I probably would have gotten a B in this class.
– Personal Financial Planning – Lol, it seems pathetic that I got a B in this class. But, in my defense it was ridiculously hard and barely anyone got A’s. For some reason the professor decided that his class should be more difficult than personal finances are in the real world.
Anywho, those are my grades. Regardless, I forgot practically everything that I took in Principles of Financial Accounting I & II, Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, & Elementary Statistics. I was already thinking of auditing Financial Accounting I & II (just to refresh things). If I pursued a Master of Accounting, is it important for me to audit Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, & Elementary Statistics too?? As I mentioned above, I already know that I will need to take a number of pre-requisite classes anyways, like Intermediate Accounting I & II, etc.
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