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BA/BS in Accounting Advice please.
#11
Freeloader did an excellent write-up about the experience at UMPI.

I vote for UMPI as well and agree that the 2 terms are realistic.
Degrees: BA Computer Science, BS Business Administration with a concentration in CIS, AS Natural Science & Math, TESU. 4.0 GPA 2022.
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#12
@hongnguyen - Chào bạn, Cảm ơn. Thanks for providing us more details in regards to having a goal of being an Accountant but not a CPA. What are the regulations/rules of being an accountant in Texas? Is an Associates enough? My friend was an accountant, he never had a degree, just a diploma in accounting from a private college, he upgraded to an advanced diploma in accounting from the same college. After a few years, he decided it wasn't right for him, so he did X years of stock market investing...

Anyways, how young are your kids? What is your back up plan? How much does your household make a year? Did you research requirements for becoming an accountant in your state? Have you consulted your hubby and does he support you in this journey? Most advice you're going to get will vary, you'll be pulled in all sorts of directions, it all lies on you to make a decision to see which option is best for you, as the options provided is just advice, you may or not agree with.

Depending on your answers, we'll try to get you there on the cheap, easy, fast route, having said that, I wanted to be a bit more personal to see if you can get a better ROI/Value and future proof your degree. For example, if an Associates is all you need, then get yourself the Pierpont BOG AAS with an Accounting emphasis, ladder that up to the TAMUC BAAS Organizational Leadership. At the end of the day you get an Associates with an Accounting emphasis and a Bachelors to check the box, but that's not the main reason...

Here's an example, you're not "fully" into Accounting and may want to jump into something different, say Finance. Having a BA Accounting or BABA Accounting is great to get you into the door, but if you're going to jump into another field say Finance, or you're going to want to be the Head of the Department or Division, you may want to get a Leadership degree. Now get this, a BABA is a Business Admin degree with a Concentration of Accounting, it's like having a minor. I mentioned the TAMUC has 48 credits, you can have 24 in Accounting, 24 in Finance, and 30 in the Organizational Leadership.

Essentially, it boils down to what you want in the future and what can help you bridge that gap now. I would want 3 different areas I can go into versus the two you'll be with the BABA Accounting or one if you're going the BA Accounting route. If you look at the concentrations or minors, they're just 18-24 credits, thus it's equivalent to the TAMUC option, it won't be listed on the diploma, but everything will be on the most important paper, the transcripts! TAMUC should be your second option, another option not provided yet should be your first, let's see what your answers are before I disclose that...
In Progress: Walden MBA | TESU BA Biology & Computer Science
Graduate Certificate: Global Management & Entrepreneurship, ASU (Freebie)

Completed: TESU ASNSM Biology, BSBA (ACBSP Accredited 2017)
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#13
(08-04-2022, 11:43 AM)freeloader Wrote: I say this with the proviso that programs and classes can and do change: I took a number of accounting courses at UMPI and earned my BA in accounting from that school. There was some writing in my accounting classes, but I don’t think it was too burdensome. There was a lot of “doing accounting” with spreadsheets, computations, filling out tax returns, etc. As I recall, most of the writing was relatively short (1-2 paragraphs) though I remember one exam where I think I had a 2-3 page written response.

This writing was mostly descriptive/explanatory in nature and typically wasn’t exactly an essay.  I transferred in financial accounting and tax I, so I didn’t have questions like this, but the writing might be something like “explain the difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit” or “list the major financial statements and explain the flow of information between these statements”.  The questions seemed much more to be testing your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, by way of explanation, rather than your ability to make an argument about a topic, the way you might find in an English or history class, for instance.

My vote would be for UMPI. I looked at WGU, but the fact that you could only transfer in 2 of the accounting classes was a deal breaker. I had already taken additional accounting classes and didn’t want to lose them. For OP, I understand that isn’t the case. I also liked that this was a B&M school associated with a state university system. I don’t think there is a thing wrong with WGU, considering it for a graduate degree, but there are likely some people who do have judgments about it and my UMPI degree avoids that. 

If you are able to get it so that you only have around 10 classes to complete at UMPI, I think 2 terms is totally realistic. I took more terms than that, but I double majored in business administration (management and leadership concentration) and chose not to maximize my transfer/to take more than the smallest possible number at UMPI. I think it took me 5 terms, including my first term where I really didn’t like my classes and only finished 2.  I did that while working a full time job, wife with full time job, and two young children at home, BTW.

Thank you all for taking the time to inform me of what different career paths entail. 


@freeloader: thank you for sharing your experience at UMPI. After reading your post, UMPI seems like a good option too. I will look more into the degree plan. What would the course’s structure at UMPI be like? I know at WGU you either take the proctored test or write a paper, there’s no group project, and you don’t have to write a response to your classmate. Is it the same at UMPI?

(08-04-2022, 01:05 PM)bjcheung77 Wrote: @hongnguyen - Chào bạn, Cảm ơn.  Thanks for providing us more details in regards to having a goal of being an Accountant but not a CPA.  What are the regulations/rules of being an accountant in Texas?  Is an Associates enough?  My friend was an accountant, he never had a degree, just a diploma in accounting from a private college, he upgraded to an advanced diploma in accounting from the same college.  After a few years, he decided it wasn't right for him, so he did X years of stock market investing...
@bjcheung77: Xin chào! Smile I don’t think there are any rules for being an accountant in TX. I guess you can still be an accountant with an AS degree, but after searching for accounting jobs, I saw that most companies require you to have a BS degree even just for entry-level positions. The community college near me offers an Accounting program and I can get a certificate within a few months, but there will be no credits for whatever course I take. I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot that is why I would like to get a BS degree.


My kids are still young, they’re both in elementary school. My husband is the one that pushes me to go back to school, so I got his 100% support. There is no backup plan at the moment. To make it simply: I’m not happy with my job now, I make minimum wage so I would like a career change. I’m good at math, I like to solve problems. I have been doing my tax return for the past few years (never took a class, just learned it from my dad-in-law) so an accounting degree seems like a good fit for me. The problem is that I hate writing with passion, as you can see English is my second langue, it’ll be so much easy for me to explain how to fill out your tax return form in person, but if you ask me to write a paper about it then my brain shut down and I cry for days (hope it makes sense to you). And nope, I don’t want to be the Head of the Department or Manager or anything like that, absolutely not, sounds stressful to me, I don’t handle stress very well. Honestly, if a  BA/ BSBA Accounting is enough for me to get a job that makes $25/hour, I’m happy with that (sorry, after 2 kids, I set my expectation very low Big Grin ).
Hope I have answered all your questions, and from that, you able to help me to lay out the simplest, easiest (jk Big Grin ) path to get my degree.
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#14
@hongnguyen, you're a year older than my wife and your English is much better.  It'll be easier for you to do the Pierpont BOG AAS with Accounting emphasis and work on either a BABA Accounting at UMPI or do the TAMUC BAAS Organizational Leadership with Accounting & whatever your second choice in line of work is... such as Finance.  

Your initial response is that you're interested in Accounting because of those reasons you mentioned, but that just seems you're wanting to upgrade your skills to get into that field.  It doesn't really indicate you are interested in Accounting and want to be in there for a lengthy time, I sense this is a temporary thing for you.  So, get a backup subject matter.

I'm not sure what your household income is, judging from your answer, your hubby is the breadwinner of the household.  Does the household generate 100K or more in income?  If so, my next suggestion would not work... if you're under 100K, then you're eligible for a Bachelors degree FREE here, and they have Accounting as one of the majors!

Since you mentioned you're not in a rush to complete the degree, there really isn't a need to "rush" things.  Choices need to be researched and decisions should be made.  This should be your first choice, TAMUC and UMPI should be the second and third choices, again, I suggest a local state school first! Link: https://online.utpb.edu/falcon-free/
In Progress: Walden MBA | TESU BA Biology & Computer Science
Graduate Certificate: Global Management & Entrepreneurship, ASU (Freebie)

Completed: TESU ASNSM Biology, BSBA (ACBSP Accredited 2017)
Universidad Isabel I: ENEB MBA, Big Data & BI, Digital Marketing & E-Commerce
Certs: 6Sigma/Lean/Scrum, ITIL | Cisco/CompTIA/MTA | Coursera/Edx/Udacity

The Basic Approach | Plans | DegreeForum Community Supported Wiki
~Note~ Read/Review forum posts & Wiki Links to Sample Degree Plans
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#15
Hi hongnguyen

I would try TESU but I'm saying this from the perspective of CPA candidate too because their degree meets the requirements for the CPA board for nearly all the North/East states. 

I don't know if thats what you're interested in for the long-run, but if you are then think about the credits. 

Also one little twist, to call yourself an accountant in Texas you need to be a CPA. 

Its a unique thing in Texas. Anyone can still work there as an accountant but you could not call yourself that in an official job title or business card. No other state has that ridiculous rule.

Now that being said Texas CPA board doesn't recognize remote learning or CLEPS for qualifications either, so its a bit crap.

In itself that's not a problem because you could do the CPA exam and qualify in another state.

But you'd have to then check the process for reciprocal licensing between Tx and that state.

All of this isn't to be a downer on the path you're going down and I am doing exactly that, its just to give you some extra perspective.
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#16
@hongnguyen

I will provide my two cents of insight.

1. Have you ever considered becoming an IRS Enrolled Agent (EA)? The pay is similar to most accounting jobs and more if you take on clients yourself. It's three tests to become an EA, and you would have the same privileges as an attorney and CPA in representing clients with the IRS. Also, it's a national license, not a state.

2. An Enrolled Agent's salary in Texas averages around $25/hour, or $50K annual.

3. Have you looked into different jobs' financial and tax accounting titles? The TITLE of a job makes all the difference between someone making $30K/annual or a very similar position making $70K/annual. I am not referring to supervisor and manager roles.

I would suggest looking into TITLES such as Tax Analyst, Financial Reporting Analyst, etc. Those titles typically pay more than a standard accounting position.

4. You mentioned being good with math. Have you looked into a degree in analytics? You might look into data learning providers such as DataCamp (I have no affiliation with that company). DATA jobs will pay a lot more than standard accounting jobs.

5. Before diving into an accounting degree, at least explore your options. Accounting degrees have a horrible return on investment unless you go the entire CPA route.

btw: I have multiple accounting degrees (BA and MS).
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