[Anonymous]

Hey everyone!

I suppose that this could’ve went in the MBA/MAcc topic, but I’m looking to return to school within the next year or two to earn an MBA with a finance concentration. I have two reasons for this: 1. I’m currently a CPA in an accounting/assistant controller role, and I’d like to eventually transition into a broader financial management role within the company, and 2. I want to teach accounting at a college in some capacity (part-time/evening to start and perhaps doing it full time one day).

There are two AACSB-accredited MBA programs that I am considering. One is a satellite campus of a large, widely known university (e.g., Penn State). The other one is a state school that is known in the area but not known nationally. The price tag is significantly less at the state school – $17,500-$19,000 for the state school vs. $27,000-$29,000 for the more-known school. My employer provides tuition reimbursement only for the $5,250 federal tax free limit per year, leaving me on the hook for a sizeable portion of the more expensive MBA.

I’m not too concerned about the state school MBA holding me back from career advancement as opposed to the more known MBA. I work at a medium sized privately held company. I’m more concerned that getting the state school MBA could hold me back from teaching opportunities. I’ve heard that colleges can get kind of snobby on where their faculty obtain their degrees.

Does anybody have any experience on this? Thanks!

[Just3Letters]

If you really want to get in to teaching… only getting an MBA will most likely limit you to teaching introductory debit/credit classes at community colleges. This is a totally OK thing but just a consideration. I also really want to eventually get in to teaching so I have looked in to this.

So I would say it would be getting an MBA rather than a PhD that will be the limiting factor rather than where you get your masters degree.

FAR- 81
REG- 81
BEC- Aug 22, 2016
AUD- TBD

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can pretty much write your own ticket with a PhD in accounting. I'm not too keen on the research aspect, nor is leaving the workforce for 4-5 years realistic in my situation. I've considered it, but I've always favored the CPA/MBA route. I went to a small private school, and most of my professors were CPA/MBAs with 10+ years of experience. One actually just had a CPA, but he was a director with Sony for like 25 years. I've always enjoyed the real world experience that my professors brought into the classroom, and they are the kind of professors that I wanted to become. My alma mater has had bad experiences with PhDs in the past, so they've shifted their focus to CPAs with masters degrees. The accounting PhD pool is so thin that smaller schools like my alma mater tend to get the bottom of the barrel.

[Anonymous]

To add on to what Just3Letters said, I think (and I plan to clarify this soon…) that an MBA would qualify you to teach college general Business courses, but not necessarily Accounting specific courses. With the Finance concentration, you might even be able to teach some slightly-higher Finance courses, but still not many Accounting courses. A friend of mine who had looked into teaching as an adjunct (part-time/online/evenings/etc.) found that at the colleges she'd looked at, the requirement to teach as an accounting adjunct was at least xx Master's credits in Accounting; her MBA was 1 class short of meeting that requirement. I don't know how standard this requirement is, but it's made me think that while an MBA is the choice I want for my career, it may limit me to more general business classes if I want to teach as an adjunct someday (which I do). A PhD is helpful for any college teaching, but Master's and CPA is sufficient for at least some adjunct jobs; however, MBA being a Masters in Business may just qualify for generic (aka intro) business courses, rather than specialized (aka higher level) courses (unless the CPA makes up for what it lacks).

But…I work at a college (Controller), so I plan to sit down with our Academic Dean someday and say “Hey, not looking for a job, but what would it take to be qualified to teach if I wanted to someday?” and see what he says. If I get an answer, I'll try to remember to post it on this forum. He and I need to sit down and meet about a couple business-related things, so I might take on some personal-career-questions on the end of a business meeting. Only problem is business meetings tend to run over with no time left for non-agenda items…and both of our schedules have been so crazy I haven't even asked for a personal career meeting.

Anyway, I'm getting an MBA, cause it's what I think will advance my non-teaching career, but it's with the awareness that it might not qualify me for teaching accounting courses.

Edited to add: started this post earlier, just finished it now, based on the post above me, it looks like CPA/MBA combo is common for teaching. Yay! May still require x credits in accounting, and might require an extra couple courses beyond your typical MBA (the Finance MBA I'm doing I think only has 1 accounting course – just started it, but if memory of the degree plan is right…), but still better than having to get a whole second Master's. Smaller schools will pay less than bigger schools, but getting in at a smaller school is easier, and you get to be more involved with your students at a smaller school, so might be worth it.

[Stilgoin]

My school had 2 MBA/CPA professors that made decent money (>70k). They taught Acct 1 and 2 (gen bus). They could not teach above that, so intermediate classes and beyond were not an option. General business would also include general finance, I think, but it is true- you need a certain amount of hours to teach the classes with an MBA. I took the extra grad accounting class if I ever wanted to teach. I’m assuming it would be the same for finance.

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[Anonymous]

This is a typical accounting cliche, but it really comes down to cost-benefit. I can get an MBA in finance for next to nothing (with the $5,250/yr employer reimbursement) at the lesser-known school. However, it only has one accounting class. I feel like that can significantly affect teaching prospects down the road based on what you guys said so far. At the wider-known school, the finance and accounting concentrations have a good amount of overlap (e.g., Financial Reporting I and II count for both concentrations), and there's a more elective options to get additional accounting credits. I think my plan had 12 credits of graduate accounting credits. For colleges that hire CPA/MBAs, I'm not sure how many credits in accounting they look for. I would think additional certifications outside the CPA, like the CMA and CFE, would have to count for something as well.

[Anonymous]

The issue that colleges have to deal with when hiring is that they have fairly strict accreditation requirements, which specify certain minimum requirements for professors. I don't know what those are (I work at a college, but in accounting, not academics 😛 ), but I know they exist. These vary from one accrediting agency to another, but whatever agency accredits the school, the school will have to follow that agency's rules. So, if the agency accrediting the school you apply to requires 9 credits of graduate accounting and you have 6, CPA + CMA + CFE + ______________ won't mean anything. But, if the agency requires 6, and the school's standards beyond that are to ensure that their professors are highly qualified, then the CPA + CMA + CFE + ____________ will count.

[Stilgoin]

My school was AACSB accredited and, I believe, required 24 accounting hours and a graduate degree to teach accounting classes. I have never heard the dean mention any respect for other certifications besides a CPA at my school.

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[.]

At the university I went to, the professors need a PhD in accounting in order to get tenure. I've heard that being an adjunct professor pays very little and often times they are forced to teach at several different colleges at the same time.

FAR - June 2016 - 88
REG - July 2016 - 89
AUD - Aug 2016 - review phase currently
BEC - Sep 2016 -

Wiley CPA Excel & Ninja MCQ

[Author]

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