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As the title states, I received a bachelors degree from the university of Pittsburgh, and due to my sub-par advisors, I’ve actually completed 132 college credits. Right after graduating, I moved to Florida. I’m not thinking of becoming a CPA, and my research has revealed that Florida has MUCH stricter sitting requirements.
PA requirements to sit: “To be eligible to sit for the CPA Exam, candidates must have graduated from an accredited college or university with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and have at least 24 semester credits in accounting subjects.These subjects include accounting and auditing, business law, finance, or tax subjects sanctioned by the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy.”
PA requirements for licensure: “Candidates must have graduated from an accredited college or university with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and have at least 36 credits in accounting subjects: 24 credits in accounting and auditing, business law, finance, or tax subjects sanctioned by the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy, plus an additional 12 credits in accounting, auditing, and tax subjects. Total credit hours must equal at least 150. Accounting related credits can be completed through undergraduate or graduate courses, or a combination
of both levels of study, and do not need to be part of a degree program.”
FL sitting requirements: “Applicants sitting for the exam must have completed 120 semester or 160 quarter hours from an accredited college or university, unless one is using the provisions of the unaccredited institutions rule, as explained below. The accounting education program must include 24 semester or 36 quarter hours of upper division accounting to include coverage of taxation, auditing, cost/managerial, financial, and accounting information systems. The business education program must include 24 semester hours of upper division general business courses with some exceptions. One microeconomics, one macroeconomics, one statistics, one business law, and one introduction to computers course may be lower division. As part of the general business hours, applicants are required to have a total of six semester hours or eight quarter hours of business law courses, which must cover contracts, torts, and the Uniform Commercial Code. Excess upper division accounting courses may be used to meet the general business requirement.
Excess upper division accounting courses may be used to meet the general business requirement. However, elementary accounting classes are never acceptable for credit. Neither are courses for non-accounting majors and any MBA courses that are equivalent to elementary accounting.”
FL requirements for licensure: “TOTAL REQUIRED HOURS: 150 semester or 200 quarter hours
TOTAL UPPER DIVISION ACCOUNTING HOURS: 36 semester or 54 quarter to include the following: Taxation, Auditing, Financial, Cost/Managerial and Accounting Info Systems.
TOTAL UPPER DIVISION GENERAL BUSINESS HOURS: 39 semester hours or 58 quarter hours to include the following: six (6) semester hours or eight (8) quarter hours of business law. One course can be at a lower lever (freshman or sophomore), the other course must be upper division (junior level or higher). Business Law 1 and Legal Environment of Business are often considered duplicate.”
First off, PA has no requirement that 6 credits be from business law, and, as a result, I have 0 credits completed that relate to business law (so I guess I’d have to take at least 2 classes just to satisfy that requirement to sit in Florida). Also, it is my understanding that I don’t not meet the requirements of completing 24 “upper division” general business credits… I think I’ve only completed 15 according to FL’s definition of “upper division”.
So I think I’d have to take a few classes JUST to sit for the exam. Then I’d have to take like 30 more credits just to get the license here in Florida. But I already have 132 credits from PA, and it appears (to me) that I can sit for the exam in PA right now if I really wanted to. In addition, their additional 30 credits requirement is much less strict, leading me to believe that my additional 12 credits I’ve already acquired (132/120) would apply towards my overall goal of 150.
Here’s the problem, I’m no expert at reading transcripts, so I don’t know what’s what. I’ve contacted 2 universities here in Florida for help deciphering the inter-state transcript rules, but both universities say they won’t offer advice until I actually enroll and become a student… Why the hell should I enroll and sign up for classes if I don’t know if those classes are necessary in the first place!?!?!? I’ve also turned to the Florida state board of accountancy for help, but it clearly states on their site that no transcript advice will be given unless it is officially mailed in with a $50 check and the application to take the CPA exams. Even then, it doesn’t say anything about what kind of response I will get if my application does get rejected. So I don’t want to pay $50 and send in my app if I’m just going to get a letter back that says “denied”.
Who the hell do I turn to in this situation? Is my best bet to just fly back to PA to take all 4 exam parts when I’m ready? Then I can have my scores transferred to florida?
Someone please help, my brain is about to explode.
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