CPA educ. requirements/ have liberal arts B.A.

Having completed a liberal arts B.A., I seek to obtain via online programs the educational requirements in order to sit for the CPA exam in my state, Florida. I need 36 credits upper division undergrad or grad accounting courses and 39 credit in other business/accounting upper division courses (certain non-upper division coursework do count for the 39 such as Statistics/Micro/Macro). I plan on completing an MBA or MAcc online but even with an online masters I have quite a few courses to go. Are there any online Masters in Accounting programs other than Nova and SUNY IT that are regionally accredited? Or online MBAs with concentrations in accounting? Does anyone know of a RA accredited online undergraduate accounting program other than the ones listed at collegedegrees.tripod.com? My three options seem to be (1) a second bachelor's (maybe Excelsior) plus an MBA (though that would be a lot to finish and the bachelor's and masters may require taking courses which duplicate material) or (2) an MBA or MAcc with credit courses from various schools or (3) possibly both a MBA and MAcc (but both Nova and SUNY IT have plenty of prereq's I will need to also take). Any comments are appreciated.

 

Check out Golden Gate University in California. They have numerous online MBA and Tax Programs.

 

I agree with Randy; GGU offers just about everything you would need. But be advised that, effective Fall 2003, GGU will no longer be offering accounting foundation courses online.

 

Sounds like a lot of classes

It sounds like you very much want to get into the business field.
It sounds like you need over 70 credits?
It might make sense to get a second BS in business/accounting and the Masters. A second masters can usually be obtained for 30 credits after the origial bs. That still leaves about 40 credits that you need at the graduate level for your masters.
All the best!

 

Check out New York Institute of Technology. It is RA. It has an excellent MBA program. www.nyit.edu

 

I should have mentioned that without an undergrad business or accounting degree or having passed the CPA exam, most schools will require a certain number of foundation courses. This could add another 12-18 credit hours to the 30 generally required for the MAcc. However, you should be able to apply those extra credits to either the accounting requirement or general business requirement.

One option is to pursue both an MAcc and a MTax. This would, IMHO, be a killer combination for both the purposes of CPA exam preparation and pursuing a career in accounting. Those two degrees (including the foundation courses) would give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 72 credits (not to mention one hell of a lot of relevant knowledge). Then, you might only need to pick up stats, econ, and business law, all of which can be lower division (taken online, at a community college, or wherever).

 

Another thing.....check out FAU. Here's a link (lots of useful information and programs):

http://soa.fau.edu/

 

Thanks for the replies which have been very helpful.
With reference to my original post and to share with the forum, the 17 schools featured at collegedegrees.tripod.com with majors or concentrations in accounting (mentioning professional accreditation in paranthesis) are: City University (IACBE), Excelsior College, Lakeland College, Liberty University, Limestone College, Malone College, Mercy College, Mountain State University (IACBE),Northwest Missouri State University(ACBSP), Regis University, Saint Leo University (IACBE), Southern New Hampshire University, Spring Arbor University, Strayer University, University of Maryland University College, University of Northwestern Ohio(ACBSP),and Upper Iowa University.
I haven't found any of those 17 offering online Masters in Accounting per my research.
I am following up with FAU. At this point in my search, FAU is the only completely online masters in accounting program that I have found that is both regionally accredited at professionally accredited (AACSB). That a school is regionally accredited is a state requirement for CPA purposes. I am partial towards programs both professional accreditated (and AACSB in particular) and regional accreditated in order to capitalize on the time/money spent, although I am sure that institutions not meeting these criteria are offering good programs. Do others feel that professional accreditation is important?

 

You may want to check out the Master of Accountancy program from Auburn University. It requires a one week (four and a half day) residency at the end of the program, but it has a well recognized name and is AACSB. They also have an MBA program.

 

Auburn would otherwise be an good choice but it doesn't appear that a plain vanilla liberal arts degree would get one admitted to the program. I believe they require a substantial amount of course work in business and/or accountancy.

 

One other matter that you should consider - you may have but not mentioned it - is that several States have the "150 hour" requirement in place. If you are not aware of this, check with your local State CPA Borad, and.or with the cemtral CPA site - they list every Sate and all requirements including qulaifications, hours cerdit, residence, experience requirements.

There is a good and active group at alt.accounting where members will be very happy to give you specific Stae relatd advice.

Good luck - while there are beans to count, we will need beancounters.

Peter French MEd MAcc CMA
Australia

 

Re: Re: CPA educ. requirements/ have liberal arts B.A.

Actually, I believe over 40 jurisdictions have the 150 hour requirement, including Florida. But that's not at all problematic with respect to someone whose undergrad degree is not in business and/or accounting. Florida also requires 36 semester hours in accounting plus a bunch of general business credits. I can imagine scenarios where those holding liberal arts degrees are bumping 180 hours (perhaps more) after completing the requisite courses.

 

dual bachelors or ba & MS

It sounds like you have a ton of background courses to take before you can formerly start a masters program.
You are right about the number of hours it may take for two fairly unrelated bachelor degrees.
My daughter ended up with 156 undergraduate credits and a BS in chem and a BS in bio. she was able to start with 18 AP credits from high school. But still 138 credits in four years is an effort.
If you are sure of the CPA career. It might make sense to just get a second bs and then start the masters process.
All the best!

 

To sit for the CPA exam in Florida, one should graduate from an accredited college or university in Florida, not from out-of-state.
The CPA organization in FL that will review your transcripts favors FLorida's colleges and universities.

 

Florida accepts degrees granted by all six regional accrediting organizations recognized by the U.S. D.O.E.

Further, one does not even need to sit for the exam "in Florida". An applicant may sit for the AICPA Uniform CPA exam in =any= state and have the scores transferred to Florida. The applicant must, of course, have passed the exam, meet the educational requirements, and not have applied for licensure in any other state. If the applicant has applied for a license in another state or is licensed in another state, then the procedure is by endorsement.

The bottom line is, although it may make sense to attend a Florida college or university if you intend to practice in the state, it is by no means required nor are the graduates (from all appearances) given preferential treatment. There are plenty of CPAs in Florida who do not have degrees from a Florida college or university.

 

Accounting Education

The adding of accounting education requirements is getting a bit bizarre. The accounting profession has created a myriad of rules to deal with almost every conceivable situation.

These rules become irrelevant when professional judgement is applied, as it must, to the valuation of the two biggest assets, capital assets and inventory.

Every accountant, other than myself, could justifiably value both of these asset groups within a wide range of values.

In the Enron case, an accounting firm in its effort to maintain a client worth maybe $ 50 million per annum destroyed itself by its creativity.

How is this covered in 150 hours. One course, maybe. Education is not the problem in accounting so much as basic honesty.

 

not just enron

That accounting firm mentioned in the previous post has its name come up with many other companies who are having problems. They were the accounting firm for the biggest company in Australian history to go bankrupt.
All the best!

 

Re: Accounting Education

My understanding is that documents and computer records were destroyed in an effort to disrupt an SEC investigation. It seems to me that the catalyst for the implosion was trying to cover up the "creativity" rather than the creativity itself.

Regardless, your assessment is correct in terms of educational requirements; increasing the minimum simply won't reduce or eliminate those who lack integrity.

 

Re: Re: Re: CPA educ. requirements/ have liberal arts B.A.

150 hour requirement is still not effective in some States, check to http://www.aicpa.org/states/uaa/150chart.htm

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: CPA educ. requirements/ have liberal arts B.A.

True. However, the requirement will be in effect in at least 45 jurisdictions within the next 2 years. Albeit the thread drift has been somewhat severe, we're still primarily concerned with Florida since, ostensibly, that's where jdc intends to practice.