[bobvarg9]

Hi everyone

So I got my education credentials evaluation today morning from the Illinois board and I was disappointed to see that I do not have sufficient credits to sit for the CPA exam. According to the evaluation I have the following deficiencies:

1. Less than 150 hours (I have 144 hours)
2. Less than 2 hours in Research & Analysis
3. Less than 2 hours in Business Communication (I have 1 hour)
4. Less than 3 hours in Business Ethics (I have 1 hour)

What would be the best way to make up for the deficiencies?

[Bluetoothray]

You probably should be making up anything….. you need to be of good integrity to be a CPA.

[bobvarg9]

What exactly are you implying? What does this have to do with my integrity?

[Anonymous]

@bobvarg9-perhaps some community course classes you could do…I would go back to the board and ask them what they might recommend…

[NeedsA75]

Seems pretty strict that you have to have research and analysis credits to get licensed, let alone just sit for the exam…I wonder if Illinois is more strict than other states

[Bluetoothray]

@bobvarg9 I was making a play on words. You're title uses “making up.” which can either mean filling a gap or shortage or pretending/creating something that's not. A bad joke.

[bobvarg9]

Do I look like the kind of person who hangs around a cpa forum to read retarded jokes? Keep it to yourself next time if you have nothing useful to say.

[CPYay]

bob.. lighten up. It was a bad joke, but harmless. Besides, any post in your thread will boost you back to the top of the page. Be thankful for at least that.

To answer your question, what's your availability? Are you able to attend physical lectures or are you looking for an online program? Definitely check out the community colleges for both options. If you are looking to eventually get a Masters in something, then maybe consider taking courses that will also fulfill the unit requirement for it. At the university level, LSU and UCLA extensions are good options for easily transferable units.

[Bluetoothray]

@bobvarg9 Good luck at becoming a CPA. Good luck on the exams once you get there! I'm glad the chances of being your coworker are very low, however. Get a sense of humor! Laugh a little! There's no point in being angry or rude. Since I feel nice here's a useful link for ya! https://www.phoenix.edu/programs/continuing-education/business-and-management/cpa-related-courses.html
I also second what was said before. Community college classes I have heard work well. Again. Life's too short not to laugh at dumb jokes on the internet in a CPA forum.

[bobvarg9]

@CPYay Most likely an online course, it's for six credits so I don't want to take too much time going for physical classes. Thank you for the recommendation.

@Bluetoothray Perhaps you should look at things from my perspective, I worked hard for years to fulfill the requirements only to be told it's not enough and that I will have to waste even more time and money. I come here in the hopes that someone who has been in my situation will help, instead what I got was someone questioning my integrity.

[Bluetoothray]

@bobvarg9 I repeat. I was not questioning your integrity. My joke was not about your integrity. It was a play on words. Again I was in no way insinuating that you were of poor integrity. I'm curious. If you worked for years to fulfill the requirements, why didn't you look to make sure that by the end you'd have the 150 credits?

[CoachEmUp]

@bobvarg9 Are you in Chicago? If so I fulfilled my requirements going to night classes at Harold Washington downtown (State and Lake). It looks like you'd need to take 3 courses there one for ethics (a Bus Law course), one for research, and one for communications. It's possible you could do all 3 in the fall semester, so the cost would be ~$1100. Not horrible.

[CageTheCPA]

@bobvarg9, what are you going to do with your CPA license? If you ~want~ you could find a state you qualify in, perhaps with 120 hour requirement, and test there.

I live in IL and don't plan on moving anytime soon, but am getting licensed in WI because of the (stupid) Accounting Ethics requirements in IL (I'm not in public). I may do reciprocity in the future, but didn't want to sit through 16 weeks of additional classes when I started this CPA trek.

Otherwise, you could do LSU online or the UNA PAP courses. Those are self paced and could get you credits in Business Communication and R&A. There are some online accounting ethics course at some out-of-state community colleges, but those are standard 8 or 16 week courses.

[bobvarg9]

@Bluetoothray because most of my credentials are from a foreign university, I did the NIES evaluation and the report came back stating I did indeed have enough credits. Unfortunately the Illinois board sees otherwise. Is your curiosity sated Sir?

[Bluetoothray]

By golly it is! I honestly do hope you find the hours you'll need to qualify to take the test and then rock the exam!

[CPYay]

Online.. I can relate. I'm not sure how strict the requirements are between states as far as the units go… but check out Foothill.edu. Online program. Very cheap. TONS of courses. I'm taking Payroll Accounting right now and will be taking the required Ethics course there too. Each class is like $110. Worth it. As Cage stated, they're 16 weeks for Fall/Spring and like 4 weeks for Summer/Winter. Just make sure your state will take the units without exception.

[Author]

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