<p>With that type of debt you will be poor for decades. The repayment on that will be almost equivalent to a mortgage. It will eat up over 20% of your take home pay even if you land a very good job. The masters only bumps up your pay a few thousand immediately. If you have a reasonable level of financial literacy you will not take out 70k. That is way too much money.</p>
<p>If I was an employer I wouldn’t want to hire someone who took out that amount of loans. I would view them as being a risk taker and irresponsible.</p>
<p>bato, don’t be so surprised that all the risk-averse accountants here base their decisions solely on the price tag of the education. if you went to a bad undergrad, it makes sense to spend big money IF you network and try to make every penny of it count. try to nail the interviews and you’ll probably end up with a much better job which leads to a better career. big schools charge big money because they can. it’s really supply and demand.</p>
<p>Now the issue is what school is worth 70k debt? Also even if you have a masters in accountancy from a top school that doesn’t mean you will demand a starting salary much higher than your peers from a state school. A friend of mine graduated from USC with an MSA he makes around a total of 70k per year in an area with a sky high cost of living. In my area with a BA you start around 40-50k. I had a job offer in his area for around 60k. The starting salary isn’t that much different check out the statistics. Loyola is not worth it. University of Chicago or Northwestern is worth that much total debt. USC would be worth that much debt in my state. Accountants aren’t risk averse they are just risk wise. </p>
<p>The average starting salary of those superior jobs is 54k. That doesn’t sound superior to me and you will be living in inferior situations if you have >60k of debt. A masters degree from a top school does nothing more than get your foot in the door. If they don’t like you (socially) or you don’t perform well your ass will get fired. Honestly it isn’t that hard to get your foot in the door as long as you go to a AACSB accredited school and you have top grades and some leadership experience. Like I said before I got an offer from a big 4 and I got a 1620 on the new SAT and spent most of my academic career partying. I am not that smart. However I tend to get into good social circles, I look good on paper, and I interview well. Clients that I have attended dinners with love me. </p>
<p>Some of the things I have seen you do on here dawgie would get your ass fired. Insulting the CMA designation and spouting all kinds of random crap. I know several CFO’s that love their CMA designation and would drop you as their auditor for that kind of comment.</p>
<p>You don’t know what you are talking about about superior jobs. CMA is a crap certification and it is easy. What is your point? Many peoples opinions could get them fired or dropped. That’s why you don’t tell them to their face. Valley if you think you will last just from being likable, you have another thing coming.</p>
<p>valley, you keep focusing way too much on debt vs. entry level salary. both of these things are temporary. on the other hand, the alumni connections and the network that you build tend to last way longer. education is for life!</p>
<p>look, in 10 to 20 years, most people would laugh at their own starting salary regardless of what school they went to. what matters is the business relationships and career opportunities they get out of their network in that timeframe. sometime those that go to cheap schools don’t even realize what they are missing. </p>
<p>trying to save a buck by attending a sub-par school at the expense of forgoing better career opportunities is not “risk wise.” it’s penny wise but dollar dumb. like i said, the top schools know exactly what they offer, and they charge that much to reflect demand.</p>
<p>That is the equation for a CPA firm partner. I have all of those attributes except the license and I cannot attain that until next year. Prestigious schools mean almost nothing in accounting after the first initial hire. After that it is all performance based and being likable. I am of course talking about tax and auditing not advisory or consulting since I don’t know about those fields. </p>
<p>Shoot in California the school that probably has the largest number of CPA firm partners at mid to large firms as alumni is Golden Gate University. It isn’t even AACSB accredited and you don’t even have to take the GMAT to get admitted. I may do my MST online at the school.</p>
<p>Networks extend way outside of alumni networks. Most partners I know could give a crap if you went to northwestern or csu bakersfield. They want someone they like working with for 12 hours at a time. I actually met some firm partners at a gym recently. How about that for a social network?</p>
<p>gobluecpa- “try to nail the interviews and you’ll probably end up with a much better job which leads to a better career.” </p>
<p>Everyone tries to do this. Everyone I know, practiced their buts off for their interviews. </p>
<p>“valley, you keep focusing way too much on debt vs. entry level salary. both of these things are temporary. on the other hand, the alumni connections and the network that you build tend to last way longer. education is for life!”</p>
<p>it is good to focus on debt vs. entry level salaries. That and recruiting is what counts. hehe, debt and entry level salary are not “temporary” problems. They can have huge effects on your career and quality of living.
Large state schools often have excellent alumni networks/connection opportunities. Your wrong to dismiss them like you are doing. </p>
<p>“trying to save a buck by attending a sub-par school at the expense of forgoing better career opportunities is not “risk wise.” it’s penny wise but dollar dumb. like i said, the top schools know exactly what they offer, and they charge that much to reflect demand.”</p>
<p>More $$$$ =/= More Opportunities. Even when they do, the increased opportunities are not always worth the heavy chain on your neck that will be dragging you down for the rest of your career. Especially, if the starting salary and promotion speed is comparable to a graduate at a less expensive or “sub-par” school, which, like ValleyAccountant points out, is quite often the case for accounting majors. You shouldnt bleed yourself and your parents dry for an accounting degree.</p>
<p>Is it your observation or from a source? You mean at graduate level, right? Or near SF? Not many acct. majors with an undergrad degree from Golden Gate.</p>
<p>Dawgie - I’m glad your amused. so your saying that most MAcc programs between 30-50 K (there are ALOT of them) give you those opportunities, outside of public accounting, that your alluding to? I am saying, not in most cases. ALot of those programs send alot of their students into public acctg and not into the jobs you are thinking of. Also bato was discussing going to a private college’s MAcc whose name I havent heard of b4…Sounds like a rip off to me. </p>
<p>If you are spending between 30-50K on a MAcc program, chances are you can go to a great program w/ the same opportunities for 15-20K less. </p>
<p>Whatdidyou - don’t get me wrong. there are so many for-profit bs schools that are out there to get people. it would be foolish to spend 50k to go there. by top schools i mean mostly top 10 in USNWR. not only will you be ALMOST guaranteed employment by graduation, you will also have a shot at ibanking and other sectors outside of public accounting. </p>
<p>by the way, you just proved my point again. just like valley, most people who are content with going to an unranked school use only cost as the only justification. what you don’t realize about attending top business schools is the lifetime potential to leverage the connections as an alum. </p>
<p>as an accounting student with no experience, i understand why you are only focused on tax/audit. but what if you want to switch into a completely different sector in a few years? i can guarantee you there are many companies that only fill their positions with applicants out of top schools. is it fair? of course not. are those that attend inferior schools necessarily inferior candidates? of course not. however, the competitive edge is so important when looking for better positions, especially in this economy. graduates from superior universities do have superior opportunities.</p>
<p>This is based on the number of partners with a degree from Golden Gate University undergraduate or graduate. Although most the partners I know have the Masters of Tax from GGU. This is throughout California. Their alumni network is just especially strong in the bay area. The alumni network is large and extends from california to washington.</p>
<p>^ I’m just curious how do you access information like this. There is a report/stats existing or you have to go to each public firms to look up all partners’ bio.</p>
<p>Both USC and SDSU in S. Cal have big accounting programs. So I do feel surprised that GGU would have the most partners in the whole California.</p>
<p>Dawgie:
"Texas MPA can you get superior jobs than your typical Big 4 audit/tax. "</p>
<p>Whatdidyou:
"Dawgie - I’m glad your amused. so your saying that most MAcc programs between 30-50 K (there are ALOT of them) give you those opportunities, outside of public accounting, that your alluding to? "</p>
<p>The college has campuses everywhere that cater to working adults so many mid career types get their MST or MSA there. There is no such survey that indicates that they have the most cpa firm partners. Based one what I have seen I come to the conclusion that at the very least they have one of the largest numbers of big 4 partner alumni particularly on the west coast. If you doubt how many alumni they have just google the name of any national accounting firm and golden gate university and see how many hits you get. A professor of mine that was a partner at a regional firm first told me about how extensive their alumni network is. Some big 4 partners even teach as adjunct instructors at golden gate.</p>
<p>if you already have a decent job lined up and want to settle in the same town as where you get your education, it makes more sense to go to a regional school. on the other hand, if you want to make it in chicago/ny and are willing to take some risks, go to a nationally recognized top 10 school.</p>