Maybe you want to be an accountant (and we are talking actually an accountant, don’t let TikTok fool you) or maybe you just are interested in accounting. Many students who concentrate in accounting go on to jobs outside of the accounting field. Jobs like Budget or Financial Analyst, Business and Financial Consultant, Finance Manager, Personal Financial Advisor, and many more. Whatever you want to do with your accounting degree, here are 10 top-tier programs that are perfect for that pursuing accounting:
UT Austin
UT Austin and its McCombs School of Business have a couple of accounting options. The most standard is a BBA in Accounting. Finance majors can also choose an accounting emphasis. There is both a Corporate Track and a Financial Institutions Track. The most unique option is probably their MPA program. It’s a five-year program that combines an undergraduate degree with a one-year master’s program in accounting.
Indiana University at Bloomington
The Kelley School of Business at IUB offers a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Accounting. The program covers topics in auditing, taxation, and systems management as well as communications courses to strengthen the oral and written skills accounting professionals use with their clients. They also offer internships and help with CPA licensing exams.
UPenn
The Wharton School of Business offers a concentration in Accounting as part of its undergrad program. The concentration focuses on skills like financial and cost accounting, tax planning, and auditing. While this is a concentration, all Wharton students do have to take two accounting courses. If you want to do the concentration, you have to take at least four more accounting courses from an established list.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business has a Department of Accountancy. The department offers both a major and a minor option to undergrads. The minor is for non-business students and the major comes with CPA advising options. They also have a four-and-a-half-year MSA option for students that have AP high school credits. MSA students can earn both their BBA and MSA. The MSA has two tracks: Assurance Advisory Services or Tax Services.
USC
The Leventhal School of Accounting at USC is part of their Marshall School of Business. Each student in the school meets with a counselor to build their track. Leventhal is fairly flexible and students can double major in business or another area, do a minor, or get a progressive master's. The Master’s track offers simplified early admission to the MAcc or MBT program and students earn two degrees in five years or fewer.
NYU
NYU Stern houses the Department of Accounting. The department prepares students for careers in security analysis, investment banking, corporate finance, banking, and taxation. Many of their students choose to double major in Accounting and related fields like Finance and Information Systems. Outside of class, they also have The Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi (a National Honorary Accounting Fraternity) for those interested in getting involved in networking in the field.
Boston College
The Carroll School of Management at BC offers three tracks for undergrad accounting majors through their accounting department. Students can concentrate in Accounting, Accounting for Finance and Consulting, or Accounting Information Systems. The department also offers two minors; one in Accounting for Finance and Consulting and one for students who plan to take the CPA exam. Whichever track you choose to take, the department focuses on teaching skills in the field of auditing, taxation, controllership, management advisory services, and information systems.
Babson
Babson offers an Accounting Concentration. Their program prepares students for careers in public accounting, internal audit, private industry, non-profit organizations, and financial institutions. The concentration also prepares students for the CPA exam if they chose to take it. For those taking the CPA exam, they have extra requirements and support in their Public Accounting Path.
Cornell
The Cornell SC Johnson College of Business offers an Accounting Concentration as part of Dyson’s BS in Applied Economics and Management. Cornell lets business students earn between 1 and 2 concentrations. This means accounting students can also choose to concentrate in another field such as Business Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, or others.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Gies College of Business offers a BS degree in Accounting. Their program teaches how to prepare and evaluate financial documents and how to provide clients with information and solutions to run their businesses efficiently, effectively, and ethically. At Gies’s core, students also take the Cohort Sequence which consists of four foundational courses in professional responsibility, business dynamics, business in action, and global business.
Carnegie Mellon
The Tepper School of Business offers a concentration in Accounting. It is only a four-course concentration but the school offers many classes that would be of interest to those pursuing accounting. Their core for all students also pushes students to learn more than just their narrow concentration.
Accounting programs teach solid money and management skills that can launch you into some great business careers. Accountants are also needed across specialties and industries meaning you can work in almost any field. From record labels to governments and everywhere in between, accounting skills are valuable, and getting them from a top-tier undergrad program will launch you into a great career in the field.
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