openedskittles

^ Harvard and Yale graduates who are exceptionally talented go into the business field through more prestigious jobs than big 4, especially since neither offer accounting undergrad and if anyone wants to be a CPA, they'll probably have to go to a MAcc program before they would go on to big 4, making them grads of Texas, BYU, Illinois and other top accounting grad schools which feed into the big 4.

The question isn't if you need to go to a big 4 to be a successful businessperson, it's about just how many doors the big 4 open for accounting grads. The answer is: a whole lot!



As for the GPA calculations: sp1212; unless every class curves around a 1.0, you guys must have absolutely rampant grade inflation. taxguy's numbers were accurate for my school and curving around a 2.0 is normal here.

AnyColour

lol sp1212, what school do you go to?

Dawgie

I thought I was crazy, like I said all 3 colleges I've been to do not have that crazy grading scheme.

tbradford

Big 4 experience can make it easier to get a foot in the door but it's not that important. How you perform makes a much bigger difference with regards to promotions than prior experience.

jonahrubin

openedskittles, I didn't say Yale and Harvard students go to the Big Four. I was trying to make this analogy:

Harvard takes great students and makes great graduates. Harvard students are highly successful.

The Big Four take great graduates and they go on to have great careers.


The issue is how much of Harvard alums or Big Four alums success is due to their initial quality and how much is value-added. If you were dictator for a year, and took all of the Big Fours new hires and stuffed them into mid-tier firms and put all the mid-tier into the Big Four...who is to say who is going to end up where 20 years later?