Business Major Questions (Accounting concentration)

scout59
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:36:57 +0000

Parent of a CPA here. I really can’t add much to the excellent advice/perspective from ChicagoBear and happy1 except for a few illustrations from my daughter’s story and those of her accountant friends.

D works for a Big 4 now. In her office, it doesn’t matter where you got your degree - everyone starts at the same salary and gets the same bonus, etc when they pass their CPA exam. No one gets hired unless they can already sit (or will soon be able to sit) for the CPA exam. I did look it up - all of the big 4 have offices in Honolulu, if your daughter determines that she wants to work in such an environment.

The CPA exam is really pretty grueling. My D (and many of her friends) studied a LOT for the exam (say 8 hours or so a day) and/or took a CPA prep course right after they graduated and then took the exams right before starting work. My D figured that this would be the only time in her life (…maybe…) when she could devote herself solely to studying and passing; she didn’t want to be studying and working at the same time. The intense studying may have been overkill, but the strategy worked for her. Now she says that she can’t imagine studying and working full-time at the same time.

Whatever course your D chooses, good luck! I wouldn’t want to leave Hawaii either.