[kky617]

Hi,

I have BA in Psychology and finally fulfilled the 150 credit requirement (including the required Accounting and Business credits( to take the CPA exam. I have no experience in accounting field.

I thought my worries would be over once I am done with the credit requirement, but now, I am more worried about the career options. I am a permanent resident (can work legally in private and public sectors just not the government job) and will apply for citizenship in July of 2015 (next summer).

I live in Colorado Springs, CO.

I am debating whether to pursue CPA license or just pursue EA license.

Pursuing CPA license would require me to find a CPA firm that will hire me after I pass all 4 sections of the exam or to get a graduate degree in order to fulfill licensing requirement through education in lieu of experience (totaling 18 more hours in Accounting and 15 more hours in Business related subjects). Getting the golden CPA license would allow me to work in various industries (public/private/government once I get my citizenship).

Pursuing EA license would require me to study a lot more about taxation and pass the SEE exam. One good thing about getting this license is that I don’t have to have additional work or educational experience to get licensed upon passing the exam. With EA license, I would need to open my own business (most likely) and advertise a lot to recruit my clientele in order to stay in business.

Please help me decide.

Thank you so much :)!

[vanadium3]

just here to shed some light as I'm doing the last part of EA test as we speak. each 3 part is composed of 100 questions. 3.5hr time limit per section. it took me about 50-60hrs to prepare for each section. so if you are somewhat familiar with corp and indiv tax, you can do it in a month if you study crazy full time like you would REG (given you passed REG on 1st try).

Part 1 individual pass rate 80%

part 2 business 60%

part 3 IRS ethics.. more rules than regular ethics/common sense sadly… 80%

I passed the first 2 part 1st try. doing part 3 soon. I would say the whole EA test difficulty is almost as hard as REG at least for the time put in. this is really because EA test is based on “if you know it or you don't” with no SIMS. Unlike REG where they really would trick you if you don't RTFQ.

CPA

[Author]

Replies