It doesn’t matter what sort of degree you are seeking, you should have a plan. Well, it’s no different for accounting students except that most CPA firms want you to have at least 150 semester hours of schooling completed when you come to work. Yes, 150 hours and the BBA – Accounting degree is only 123. So unless you changed degrees after a couple of years, you’re most likely going to need to take a 5th year. Now you might ask why do CPA firms want students to have 150 hrs? I address this in the Q-n-A section of this blog, but it boils down to that is how many hours are needed to get your CPA certification.
So first thing is to sit down and determine how many hours you currently have, how many hours you’ll have after finishing the BBA requirements, and how many extra classes will you need to take.
In the box.net widget, there is an excel file with the school’s 4-yr plan. I would use this as a starting point to build your own. If you know you’ll need five years, add another column for those semesters. The key with building a plan is knowing when and how often courses are offered. Many of the accounting classes are only offered once per year and if you miss it, you could be pushed back an entire year. Especially if the class is a prerequisite for other classes. Just to provide an example (each class is one semester long):
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Acct 261 (Fall 08) must be taken before Acct 262 (Spring 09) and
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must be taken before Acct 361 (Fall 09) which must be taken before Acct 362 (Spring 10) and
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must be taken before Acct 401 (Fall 10)
As you can see, missing a semester can set you back, so a good plan is needed.
So how do you know when classes are offered, course descriptions in the UAF catalog will tell you if a class is offered in the Fall, the Spring, or both. Problem is you can’t be certain if the classes will have scheduling conflicts. A good rule is to look at previous semester catalogs and look at the times classes are offered in those semesters. While this is not entirely accurate, it does give you an idea. Also, if you have the last couple years worth to to look at (i.e. campus library, or UAOnline) and you see that a certain class has always been offered in the Spring on MWF from 3:30-4:30, chances are good that it will be offered during that time-slot again. Professors like consistency.
Accounting majors are required to take two (2) 400-level advanced accounting electives. Take them in the semester after the prerequisite courses. That may seem like a no-brainer of a statement; however I’ve seen a few students who wait a year in between and struggle through the class. They’ve passed, but it was a bunch of extra work.
One final bit of advice, if you are starting to pursue an accounting degree right away and will need to take the full 150 hours, take some 100- and 200-level electives in the later years. These classes will give you a much needed break when you have multiple term papers or projects due for the upper division classes you’ll be taking.
If you have any questions, please comment on this blog.
