[spsone07]

I am a 25 year old full-time worker. My past coursework is nontraditional since I did not take an accounting course until after finishing undergraduate studies. I’ve been working 4 years as a high school math teacher, which my contract runs out in June and I want to devote my future studies into getting into the accounting field. I’ve completed a ton of courses since realizing I wanted to be an auditor/accountant 2 years ago. I have a few questions that I hope you guys can offer some help!

I went to a small liberal arts college with a bachelors in mathematics and a minor in asian studies. My undergraduate course covered class by units and not by credit hour. I took a few courses outside my college and the way they converted credit hours to unit is as follows 1 Unit = 3.6 Credit Hours, or 1 Credit Hour = 0.28 Units. I know this will mess with how my studies affect my education requirement. If NASBA counts 1 Unit = 3 Credit Hours, then I would have 106.9 Credit Hours. If NASBA counts 1 Unit = 3.6 Credit Hours, then I would have 127.48 Credit Hours. What do you guys think about this situation?

After finishing my undergraduate degree, I received 36 Credit hours from a local community college, Southern New Hampshire University, and LSU Distance Program. From SNHU, I took Taxation, Cost Accounting, Financial Analysis (Equivalent to Principals to Financial Accounting), Financial Management (Intro to Finance), Business Law, Financial Reporting (equivalent to Intermediate Accounting Part 1 (Through first 5 chapters). I took Principals of Managerial Accounting at a local community college. At LSU, I took Intermediate Accounting Part 1 (Chapters 1 – 8), Intermediate Accounting Part 2 (Chapters 9-16), Accounting Information Systems, Auditing, and Advanced Accounting.

I started at SNHU because I wanted to work full time and to make my transition easier once I had a degree with the title accounting. I dropped out of SNHU because I was paying over $2000 per course where I could’ve received the same quality work from LSU and other institutions for $600 per course. Now, I am in the process of preparing for graduate school and so many options are available to me since I completed all the pre-requisities.

With my current situation, I want to leave teaching all together and enter Auditing as soon as possible. I qualify for a ton of graduate programs for a MS in Accounting. I am unsure if I have met the 150 Credit Hour depending on how my undergraduate credits are recognized. The following thought went into my mind this past week, test the waters to see if a reputable local, regional, or national accounting firm will hire me as an intern or staff accountant. If that happens, then I do not see the need to get a MS in Accounting immediately. If this happens, I would plan on taking the CPA exams, what would be the best study guide? Money is tight but I will make the investment in expense review courses if it will help me land a quality job.

What are your thoughts? Any advice?

CA CPA hopeful

FAR: passed
REG: passed
BEC: on deck
AUD: crying

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." - Mike Tyson

[Anonymous]

@spsone07 I'm not too sure about the credits question, so I cannot provide any good input there.

In regards to the MACC, if you can go and attend it at a decent school where public accounting firms recruit and graduate with minimal debt (under 20K) while still working (maybe just do it at night), this is what I would do. As long as your at a target school with good grades/WE/activities/etc you'll be fine regarding the major firms (B4/regional/local).

The MACC with the on campus recruiting from a decent program will give you the best shot of entering public accounting. Not saying its impossible elsewhere, it will just be more of an uphill battle.

[Author]

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