CPA designation with only an Associate Degree 60 credit Hours!!

Exactly, I mean if you have accumlated 120 credit hours you should be really close to earning a degree or have already did.

 

Don't forget to consider the cost of review materials, the exams and any necessary continuing education once you get the license. Although I believe you are only a "Certificate" holder in Deleware until you obtain the other requirements (experience) to become licensed.

Also, consider the time it takes to prepare for the exam. The CPA exam is very tough (I'm speaking from experience). Check the comments on the cpanet.com forum...many appear to be international folks and many take sections numerous times over an 18-month period. I don't know how well a Canadian associates degree will prepare you for the US CPA exam, but you may have to study extra hard compared to a newly minted US student. Some say the CPA exam is tougher than the Bar exam due to the breadth of the material (i.e. Peter Olinto, JD, CPA - instructor from Becker CPA review). I highly recommend the Becker review course by the way!

I would look closely at obtaining a license that might actually allow you to practice in your country versus a foreign license that is just a resume bullet.

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the exam or anything else (I passed 1 year ago and became licensed earlier this year).

 

macattack,

LUCK YOU! you passed the exams. How long did it take you to prepare for it?
I know it is not an easy task and needs lots of preparations. I have been a while on the cpanet.com forum and read a few posts there.

Well the 2 year Canadian diploma in Accounting (what I am doing right now) focuses on Intermediate 1 & 2, Management accounting 1,2 (Cost) and computerized accounting I will still have to take a few more other courses to meet the accounting courses requirements.

Now I need to ask you this, I understand that after you passed the exams it took you about 1 yar to get license. May I ask why is that? Was it a lack in work experience?

 

The CPA exam may seem difficult when initially looking at all the material, but the level of mastery required to pass it isn't as high as you might think. I think people tend to over study a bit. Just remember a 75 is a pass.

 

It didn't take that long, but my situation was not normal. I took my last test at the end of August 2007 and found out my final score in several weeks later (it takes a while sometimes to get scores). Then I had to order, take, and pass an Ethics test and get everthing up to the State Board (WA state). Then, I had to get my experience validated by a qualifing CPA. Since I no longer work for a CPA firm (or for a CPA for that matter) I had to find someone eligible and willing to help me out. Unfortunately the person I had chosen allowed his license to lapse since he became the CEO of a Bank. I had to find someone else and the new person wanted me to do a little extra work which took a couple months. By the time it was all said and done, I became licensed in January. Anyway, WA requires 1 year experience, it varies by state.

I would recommend getting a cheap review book to get an idea of the material and types of questions asked. The folks at cpanet.com are helpful as well. Obviously you'll need to know US GAAP and tax code. Many folks struggle with the BEC section as it covers subjects other than accounting like economics.

It took me about 6 weeks to prepare for each section a couple hours per day. If I wasn't as busy, I would have studied in a more condensed fashion. It will vary by candidate to candidate, but I was a few years out of school. I managed scores in the 83-87 range, so I may have over prepared a little, but I did not want to re-take any sections. I think if you get the Becker review course and follow it in its entirety you will pass. It is expensive though.

 

I hated the testing experience. I came out of the testing site on 3 out of 4 exams thinking I failed miserably. In reality, I passed all sections easily and did not score any higher on the one I felt good than the ones I felt horrible.

Vincey, have you taken and/or passed the exam?

How did you like the GGU tax program?

 

I have passed the exam.

The GGU program has very qualified instructors (VP Tax, Big 4 Partner, IRS Senior Attorney, US Tax Court Special Trial Judge, etc.), and strong connections with the market. The material is deep, but it's not too hard to get a B. A's are quite difficult however. The quality of students is high despite relatively low admissions standards (no GMAT, auto admit above 3.0, conditional admit below). Online students are welcome on campus and to campus events. With tuition above $2,000 a class, it'd probably be best to convince the employer to pay for this one.

 

Thanks for the info, the program is very popular with CPAs here in Washington State. They also offer the tax program in the classroom in Seattle.

 

Assuming that those credits are from RA schools, you could probably end up with a degree tomorrow (or very soon) via TESC (Thomas Edison State College). I should point out that TESC is one of the "Big 3". The Big 3 consits of TESC, Excelsior College and COSC (Charter Oak State College). These three schools are unique in that they will allow a student to transfer in 100% of the credits required for a degree program. Also, you may take CLEP, Dantes, Excelsior and TESC exams to "test out" of the degree requirements.

For the BA in Liberal Arts, TESC does not require any upper (300-400) level courses. So, if you have 120 lower level courses (in the right buckets) you might be in great shape to wrap up that degree!


Good luck,
Tom

 

Gleim worked well for me.

 

I've looked into both Becker and Gleim. Gleim appears to be about 1/3 the cost of Becker

 

I've never used Becker so take this for what it's worth.

But the Gleim online system is nice. You get the standard Q&A stuff plus multi-media lectures and help with the simulations. The Gleim online system also has very nice PDF printouts to use as study guides.

My experience was that if you have the academic background and you go through each Gleim module as they suggest you should, you'll pass the exams.

Gleim is also very customer-friendly. I dilly-dallied with one exam and my subscription for the course was about to run out. I called to extend the subscription and they did it for free because my test was so close. They also called me to ask how I did afterwards.

Nice people...

 

Tom,
I've been considering Excelsior. I started my undergrad at the University of Akron with the goal of a double major in Biology and Chemical Engineering. I did well in HS so I was a direct admit to the program, which allowed me to just jump right in with the major requirements and pick up the general ed stuff as I went. I tried to take an abundance of classes in my major, which worked well in the beginning, but when I got to the junior level engineering classes I started to burn out. I eventually left akron after a total of 96 credits.

I'm currently in a BS of business admin at Franklin University. I should finish up within the next 6 months, but I wouldn't mind having something to account for all the extra classes I've completed. Of the "big 3", is there one that has a better reputation? Or one less recognized than the others? I'm worried that Excelsior is going to turn into UOP (nothing against their curriculum, just their aggressive marketing). Also, I would like to apply those credits to a concentration - do TESC and COSC have concentrations within their liberal arts degrees?

 

In my opinion the Gleim books take last place by a large margin when compared to Becker, Bisk, and Wiley.

The information is there, but it is poorly organized for learning and occasionally unclear compared to the other products. It's like the Gleim authors just wrote one giant outline. The competitors have obviously taken great care to present the information in an easy to follow, learn, and remember structure that just blows Gleim away.

I should note the last version of books I looked at was the 2006 edition, and I have no experience with any of their other prep materials. However, it would take a complete rewrite, not just a revision, to bring their books up to the level of the competition.

 

Could be the case. I have no experience with their books. The Gleim system I was referring to is their online classroom, which also has handouts. The handouts are definitely in outline format but I appreciated that.

Just my $0.02 but I think the CPA exam would be incredibly difficult to pass relying on written guides entirely. The feature I loved about Gleim and their online system was the testing portion. I can't compare it to anyone else because I only used them.

And I passed.

One data point doesn't make for a trend but if the goal is passing and Gleim is less expensive...I'm your huckleberry.

Of course, it all depends on your level of preparation coming in to the exams. I didn't even attempt the CPA until after I'd finished an MBA and additional classes in accounting. I knew most of the financial accounting and business environment concepts very well by then. I only needed to be strengthened with auditing and regulation concepts.

After finishing the CPA, I became amazed at what we call a business degree in the US. How is that people can graduate from a 4-year school with a degree in 'Business Administration' and not know the different forms and structures of a business entity inside and out? The CPA really enhanced my MBA studies.

 

One question-


The CPA requirement for Florida is, "39 semester hours in general business education which shall include not less than 6 in business law"
http://www.beckercpa.com/florida/

How do I know if these classes would qualify as "general business"?
BUS508 - Fundamentals of Business for Managers -
ETH501 Business Ethics -
ITM503 Management of Information Technology -
MGT501 Management and Organizational Behavior -
MKT501 Strategic Marketing -

MGT5005 - Management Finance and Control
MGT5016 - Managing Change
MGT5028 - Applied Statistics
MGT5000 - Business Organization and Management
MGT5015 - Interpersonal Dynamics

ECE Labor relations
DANTES – HR Management
DANTES Intro to Business
DANTES Organizational Behavior

 

The safest thing is to call the Florida board and ask them how they make that determination. My 'guess' is they'll use the prefix, so MGT would probably do the trick BUT I wouldn't risk it.

 

Try to use this link and on page five it will more less tell you what transfer and if you continue reading it will explain it:http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/cpa/documents/CPAExamApplicationPackage.pdf

That is what I did before I made my application.

Hope it helps.