Accounting courses ultimate goal cpa

[Motivated2move]

I am looking for help finding the fastest way to add 20 accounting credits that can ultimately be linked from an acbsp or aacsb school.  This is to satisfy requirements to sit for the CPA. I have an MBA, but not in accounting.  Does anyone have a roadmap for the big 3, or any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[videogamesrock]

How about an MS in Accounting at APUS?

[dfrecore]

WGU is ACBSP and is going to be your cheapest option for a BS in Accounting. I'm guessing you can just choose 20 credits worth of courses and stop at that point to get them transcripted, but if I were you, I'd go for the full degree. Not sure how many credits that is with a prior MBA, but it might really be worth it. And if you ever want to get a MS in Accounting there, you have to have a BS in Accounting.

APU is ACBSP and has the MS in Accounting, and you don't have to have a BS in Accounting to take the courses. It's more expensive than WGU, but it's a good way to get graduate-level courses.

The cost for 1 term at WGU (BS in Acct) is $3370, and then 1 term for the MS in Accounting is $3945. So you're looking at $7k-$11k for a MS in Accounting depending on if you can do 2-3 terms total. The cost for a MS in Accounting at APU is $12,600.

[sanantone]

You can only earn AACSB/ACBSP credits from an AACSB/ACBSP accredited school. Did you carefully read your state's requirements? Do you really need AACSB/ACBSP accreditation? Will they accept ACE/NCCRS credits as long as they're on an accredited school's transcript? Will they accept online courses? My state requires 15 face-to-face credits.

[Motivated2move]

You can only earn AACSB/ACBSP credits from an AACSB/ACBSP accredited school. Did you carefully read your state's requirements? Do you really need AACSB/ACBSP accreditation? Will they accept ACE/NCCRS credits as long as they're on an accredited school's transcript? Will they accept online courses? My state requires 15 face-to-face credits.

I need the credits listed on a transcript from an aacsb/acbsp accredited school.  I suppose that means I am in for a degree/ certificate if transferring in ACE,  or I can take the classes at an accredited university, then stop when I have what I need.  Online is okay. 

Faster is better for me.  I know the material, just have to prove it with credits.  I'll check out WGU to see if they will let me  take what I need in the undergrad then transition to the MS.

[sanantone]

You can only earn AACSB/ACBSP credits from an AACSB/ACBSP accredited school. Did you carefully read your state's requirements? Do you really need AACSB/ACBSP accreditation? Will they accept ACE/NCCRS credits as long as they're on an accredited school's transcript? Will they accept online courses? My state requires 15 face-to-face credits.

I need the credits listed on a transcript from an aacsb/acbsp accredited school.  I suppose that means I am in for a degree/ certificate if transferring in ACE,  or I can take the classes at an accredited university, then stop when I have what I need.  Online is okay. 

Faster is better for me.  I know the material, just have to prove it with credits.  I'll check out WGU to see if they will let me  take what I need in the undergrad then transition to the MS.

You don't need to complete a degree or certificate. There are two ways you can do this. You can apply for a degree or certificate program, transfer in ACE/NCCRS courses, and take one course from the school so that you'll have a transcript. The other way is to get a credit bank transcript at TESU. Excelsior and COSC aren't accredited by ACBSP or AACSB, so their credit banks wouldn't help you.

You just want to be sure that alternative sources of credit are acceptable. The source of the course will be listed on the transcript. It will be listed as a transfer course, so it will be obvious that it did not originate from an accredited business school.

WGU is strict about the undergrad requirement for the MS. You have to have an undergraduate degree in accounting. Getting the BS and MS would be overkill since you only need 20 credits.

[bjcheung77]

Hey OP - How much is your budget and is your workplace providing you some tuition reimbursement? If you do have a limited budget and paying out of pocket, I will lean towards Sanatone's options. If you have tuition reimbursement, then I will recommend dfrecore's option of getting a Certificate/Degree out of it... I would go with the path with least resistance and the cheap/easy/fast of the two.

Certificate - 18 credits, Degree - 24 credits, pick your poison. What was your undergrad in, was it business? Did your MBA have any accounting courses? There are a couple people here who have a business degree, but not an accounting concentration also with an MBA. One decided to go back for TESU to get a BSBA Accounting as their workplace paid for it, the other also went back to TESU, but I don't recall if their workplace is paying for them...

[dfrecore]

WGU is strict about the undergrad requirement for the MS. You have to have an undergraduate degree in accounting. Getting the BS and MS would be overkill since you only need 20 credits.

If someone wants to be a CPA, depending on how competitive in his/her area of the country, a full BS and then an MS is not a terrible idea, and definitely not overkill.  Getting more than you need now, for not a ton of money, may make it much easier to get a better job, and even make it much easier to study for the CPA exam.

At a minimum, since the OP already has an MBA, they may have a huge waiver for courses at WGU, and so they may not need a lot more than 30cr in the first place.  If that's the case, it might be really, really easy to finish the BS in Accounting in a single term.  Why stop at 20cr when you can get the degree for no extra money?

[sanantone]

WGU is strict about the undergrad requirement for the MS. You have to have an undergraduate degree in accounting. Getting the BS and MS would be overkill since you only need 20 credits.

If someone wants to be a CPA, depending on how competitive in his/her area of the country, a full BS and then an MS is not a terrible idea, and definitely not overkill.  Getting more than you need now, for not a ton of money, may make it much easier to get a better job, and even make it much easier to study for the CPA exam.

At a minimum, since the OP already has an MBA, they may have a huge waiver for courses at WGU, and so they may not need a lot more than 30cr in the first place.  If that's the case, it might be really, really easy to finish the BS in Accounting in a single term.  Why stop at 20cr when you can get the degree for no extra money?

It depends on how much money the OP wants to spend. CSU Global has ACBSP accreditation, and their SSAs are $250. For 21 credits, that would be a total of $1750.

[dfrecore]

WGU is strict about the undergrad requirement for the MS. You have to have an undergraduate degree in accounting. Getting the BS and MS would be overkill since you only need 20 credits.

If someone wants to be a CPA, depending on how competitive in his/her area of the country, a full BS and then an MS is not a terrible idea, and definitely not overkill.  Getting more than you need now, for not a ton of money, may make it much easier to get a better job, and even make it much easier to study for the CPA exam.

At a minimum, since the OP already has an MBA, they may have a huge waiver for courses at WGU, and so they may not need a lot more than 30cr in the first place.  If that's the case, it might be really, really easy to finish the BS in Accounting in a single term.  Why stop at 20cr when you can get the degree for no extra money?

It depends on how much money the OP wants to spend. CSU Global has ACBSP accreditation, and their SSAs are $250. For 21 credits, that would be a total of $1750.

That's a good option, assuming the OP didn't already take some of those courses, and there might not be enough new non-duplicating courses to put on a transcript.