[Anonymous]

Hello all,

Looking for some advice on how to best approach getting into accounting as a profession.

Situation: I am 6 months from finishing a MA in English. I have a BA in Sociology. No real accounting or business academic credit (6-9 semester hours total). Looking to eventually qualify to take the California CPA exam.

Background: I actually have tremendous financial and accounting experience, but it is limited in scope. I was an orders writer and analyst in the Marine Corps and dealt with budgeting, accounting, office automation, and analysis on a regular level. After taking a look at a few introductory textbooks in accounting and some of the lectures available as OpenCourseWare, I realized that a lot of the content covered is stuff that I have some experience with. In addition, I have been an entrepreneur and individual investor since 2003 and have a lot of experience with small business administration.

Objectives: I’m looking to complete the requirements to sit for the California CPA exam. I prefer to complete the requirements from a distance learning institution, as this is the best I learn and digest knowledge.

Since California is changing their education requirements, though, I’m not sure how I can approach the exam prerequisites.

Should I be looking at the 24 sh of accounting courses + the additional 30 sh of accounting study as me needing to find graduate programs that will net me 54 semester hours of graduate education in accounting? Or do the graduate courses I’m using to fulfill the new 30 sh requirements also cover the required 24sh of undergraduate courses?

I have more questions but I’ll lead off with that one. Hopefully it’s not too confusing.

Thank you all for your help.

– Jesse

[Mayo]

“Objectives: I'm looking to complete the requirements to sit for the California CPA exam. I prefer to complete the requirements from a distance learning institution, as this is the best I learn and digest knowledge. “

I would recommend you consider how distance learning will impact your ability to find an accounting position when you graduate. Many accounting jobs recruit through on-campus recruiting.

“Since California is changing their education requirements, though, I'm not sure how I can approach the exam prerequisites. “

I would carefully pay attention to the language used on the CA board of accountancy website. Not sure if this is available to you, but see if there is a way the board can evaluate all the credits you have now. That way they can spell out every single class you are still required to take.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[rupert]

Mayo's second point is a very good one. I'm in IL, didn't have an accounting degree and wasn't sure how many of my undergrad courses would actually satisfy the business requirements. I chose to pay up front for the credentials evaluation knowing I wasn't anywhere near meeting the requirements (hadn't even had a single accounting course). It helped me map out a plan of exactly what I needed to take. Each semester, I would send a transcript to the board for an updated evaluation.

FAR 90 Oct. 6, 2012
AUD 96 Dec. 8, 2012
REG 93 May 30, 2013
BEC 84 Aug. 31, 2013

NIU CPA Review Correspondence and Wiley Test Bank

[Anonymous]

For a distance learning college, I would recommend Thomas Edison State College. They specialize in working with adult learners who already have a vast amount of credits elsewhere, but are needing to complete a degree now. And I would get the accounting credits through Louisiana State University, because they're cheaper and self-paced, and then transfer them to TESC. This is actually what I did myself – I went to one school freshman year, then another due to finances for sophomore year, then stepped back and realized that I couldn't afford the time to go to classes on campus…so I started working with LSU and TESC and completed the last 2 years of college for just a few thousand dollars. If you are interested in learning more about this or in pursuing a degree this way, please contact me over linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabethrichardson or email: elisabethr90@aol.com so that I can give you more details. I promise I'm not looking to sell anything. 😉 Just explain more about the process I used to get my degree.

As for @Mayo‘s concern about getting a job post-graduation, I would say that isn't necessarily a concern. @coffee24, what are you goals with the degree? If you're wanting to get a job with the Big 4 or a large regional firm, then going to a college where they recruit would be important. However, if you're just looking to use your accounting knowledge/ability to work with smaller accounting firms or smaller companies in the private sector, then I don't think there's any need for concern. As long as the college is fully accredited (which TESC is), and doesn't have a bad reputation, a degree is a degree in the world of more local companies/firms!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your timely responses.

I see there are a lot of concerns about my employment objectives; thank you for looking out for my best interests.

I'm looking to stay with the federal government and/or work in a smaller capacity. Though I wouldn't cross it off my list, a job with one of the Big 4s isn't my goal. I have a lot of military experience which gives me a solid leg up in the hiring processes for federal jobs, and since accounting and budget analysis are in high demand, would like veterans, and require accounting degrees (and pay significantly more with for a CPA), I'm targeting either federal or state government jobs and/or smaller firms.

Additionally, I have teaching experience and would like to leverage that with some of the community colleges around where I'm going. A friend of mine is the associate dean of online learning and says he's always looking for anyone with a graduate degree in accounting to take on a teaching load ($55/hour full-time with benefits? Not too shabby.)

I have a lot of strategic and managerial experience in addition to my years working grunt number crunching and office automation, and I think using this to compliment an accounting education (and hopefully CPA licensure) would be a smart idea for someone like me. Worst case scenario, I have another (maybe two) graduate degrees. Best case scenario, I spend the next 12-16 years in a federal job until my cumulative federal service affords me an opportunity to retire, do that, then continue working or teaching.

[Anonymous]

@coffee24 Sounds like you've got a solid plan, and like the specific school won't matter too much in that case. For the teaching potential, a Master's of course will be highly useful…and will help you meet the accounting credit requirements. If you can find an accounting Master's program that will accept you without an undergrad in Accounting, then I'd just take undergrad courses to supplement the Master's for the requirements…like if I'm understanding the CA requirements correctly, the Master's will take care of the 30 part, and you'd want to take a few undergrad accounting courses for the 24, but wouldn't have to take them as part of a degree program. In that situation, Roger's review offers up to 6 college credits for completing their CPA review course (just saw it today and wished I'd seen it earlier!), and LSU is the cheapest accounting classes that I have found.

You may already know this, but a lot of “brick and mortar” faculty look down on online learning, so a degree from an online-only college may create some roadblocks for face-to-face teaching. However, for online teaching, it would be an asset, and even in the face-to-face world people are learning they have to accept the reality of online education!

[mla1169]

I did both my bachelors and masters at a brick and mortar school that offered almost all of their classes online. As a single mom of 2, it just wasn't feasible to work 9-10 hours a day then spend another 2-3 hours at school. My degree is exactly the same as any other from SNHU. Granted its not a top ten school but it's what worked for me.

Govt accounting is such a fabulous specialty niche, and there's plenty of demand even in industry for people who know federal acquisition regs. Combining that with a CPA will open doors for you that Big 4 can't. I'm paying a consultant $225/hr because even though I've taken FAR classes, he knows those regs inside and out! He's a CPA retired at 50 from the govt.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I suppose that answers my question about the MAcc program — that it will satisfy the new 30sh requirements, but I'll need an additional 24sh of accounting related subjects.

Am I reading this correctly? 30sh of accounting study + an additional 24sh of accounting study (so 54sh total?) + an additional 24sh of business study?

I'm not sure if classes can count toward multiple requirements, but everything I've read points to “no.” Does this mean I need an additional 78 semester hours of graduate study on top of my BA in Sociology and MA in English?

[Anonymous]

Actually I may have found the answer on CalCPA.org's website:

Question: The new 20 semester units of accounting study that take effect on January 1, 2014 indicate that they can come from accounting subjects, business-related subjects, and other academic work relevant to accounting and business. Do in need to have a class from each area?

Response: No. At minimum you will need to complete an additional 6 semester units in accounting subjects. The other 14 semester units may come from additional accounting subjects or in business-related subjects. You can also have up to 9 semester units in other academic work relevant to accounting and business.

[Anonymous]

By the way, there is legislation in the CA legislature right now to extend the additional education requirements to Jan 1 2016 instead of 2014…so you might not have to worry about them at all!

Beyond that, CA's requirements are weird, and I'm not sure how to interpret them lol. I'm sure that you don't need 78 credit hours specifically for this…! For comparison, KY requires 39 hours of business and accounting, of which 27 have to be in accounting. So, if CA requires 78 hours, that'd be fully double the requirements…and I hope that's a wrong interpretation! 😛 The one PDF I found of CA's requirements ( https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/tip_sheet.pdf ) kinda looked like what your quote from CalCPA says, that you need 24 + 6 Accounting hours, and then maybe 38 additional credits which are either accounting or business, but it looks like some of your communications courses will count for that.

[Anonymous]

Found some more… Looks like in my frustration I'm not seeing this upon initial reading:

I have earned a Master of Accounting. Will the courses I took as part of the master's degree program qualify toward the other educational areas?

Yes. The Master of Accounting degree will satisfy the 20 semester units of accounting study, while the units completed in the fulfillment of the master's degree can be counted toward the other three educational areas – 24 semester units of accounting subject, 24 semester units of business-related subjects, and 10 semester units of ethics study.

The accounting study regulations require that a minimum of six semester units be completed in accounting study. Is this in addition to the 24 semester units of accounting subjects presently required?

Yes. At the time of licensure, if you do not possess one of the three specified master's degrees, an additional six semester units of accounting will be required bringing the total to 30 semester units.

The first one is what I'm concerned about. It looks like with a bachelors and a masters, you can apply your graduate credits toward both the pre-exam requirements (24sh accounting + 24sh business) AND the licensure requirements (30sh accounting study).

Calling today to make sure. The line is always busy.

[Author]

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