My son is currently a junior and we are looking for suggestions for colleges to apply to that would be a good fit for his academic goals. hoping he can find one that has a good program that will help him get to his goal of being a CPA and a lawyer. Not limited by tuition costs but looking for something considered more reasonable and he would prefer to some scholarship money. We are in Texas but willing to go out of state. Size of school is not a deciding factor but he is looking for a school with kids that take school seriously and has lots of activities other than partying.
Intended Major(s)
Business - Accounting with the intention of Getting CPA and Law degree
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted - 3.92
Weighted - 5.19 (out of 6.0)
Rank - 7/767
Sat: 1270 (retaking to try to improve, not the best test taker. And taking ACT)
List your HS coursework
Business/ Accounting Pathway
*(Indicate advanced level)
AP Hunan Geography
AP Physics 1
AP Physics 2
AP World History
AP us history
AP precal
AP statistics
AP biology
AP environmental science
AP English - lang and comp
AP English - lit
AP comparative government
Honors Accounting 2
Noctic Accounting certification
Activities:
BPA - VP of Recruiting (3 years)
State Qualifier in Accounting
UIL accounting team (2 years)
3rd place at regionals
Mock Trial - Appellate Court (1 year)
State Qualifer
Math club 1 year
Basketball 2 years
YMSL (young Mens service league) 20 service hours a year
Vice President
Philanthropy Chair
Slating Chair
Honestly the answer is anyone who offers an accounting program - so you should narrow in on budget - you can’t say no limit but looking for something reasonable. What is reasonable? And you need an 8 year budget -5 years undergrad cpa + law.
Is he open to Oregon or Maine or North Dakota or is there a distance limit ?
Weather ?
Rural, urban, etc
There’s a zillion schools and where you go undergrad is mostly not relevant to a law school but an LSAT is so a 1270 SAT may end up if he’s not better keeping him from a top law school.
But bottom line - you are asking for a wide list and it’s anyone with an accounting major so time to narrow down.
Point taken. Just was seeing if there was a program at a school that I maybe didn’t know about that would make a difference in pursing the combo of CPA and law.
Agree that hundreds of fine schools can get a student what is needed to become a CPA. Perhaps start with your excellent in-state options.
What budget would you like to stay within? What type of school (size, location, Greek Life, big time sports, etc.) is preferable to the student?
A CPA/JD is a great combination but please note that to become a CPA it is necessary to have 150 college credits. A typical bachelor’s degree is about 120 credits. While some can get to the 150 credit threshold with AP credits, summer classes, overloading schedules, etc. many do go on for a one year MS in accounting. Perhaps a year of law school could get a student to the 150 credits – that should be researched. Also many states requires a year of work experience to become CPA.
So I believe most, or perhaps all, of the prominent Texas public colleges have Accounting majors, and they are all going to be pretty competitive on cost in-state. There are definitely serious students at all those colleges, lots of choice of activities, and so on.
So sometimes the obvious solution is in fact a good solution, and I am thinking just choosing his favorite in-state offer might be the way to go.
If you wanted to have some very different options, to me that implies looking at smaller private colleges (you could do OOS publics, but is there really enough difference there to warrant likely higher costs?).
One immediate suggestion would be to check out Jesuit colleges. They all take undergraduate education very seriously, they tend to have good locations in or near major cities, and yet they also tend to have robust versions of more practical majors like Accounting. They also tend to send a lot of kids to law schools, and importantly those kids are often well-prepared for law schools due to a strong background in reading and writing. And some also have merit.
It kinda depends were you want to look, but colleges like Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, or San Francisco in California, Seattle, Fordham in NYC, Fairfield in CT, Marquette in Milwaukee, Loyola Chicago, Saint Louis . . . all these could be excellent choices given your stated criteria, at least if you wanted something very different from a big public college experience.
Your schools are all very different and in different parts of Texas.
I would suggest that he start by looking in state. He can visit some out of school programs and compare. If he wants to get away from Texas he can look at Northeast school. The environment is very different.
In Texas the 4 schools that come to mind are UT, A&M, Baylor, and SMU. He will get in to all of them and they all have strong B Schools and the 2 private schools will likely throw scholarship money at him, UT and A&M less likely so I would have him apply for outside scholarships. Rice is great of course but they are known more for their MBA than Undergrad Business/Accounting.
Generally state Flagship schools are the best option for Business with the hope for JD imo if you are looking outside. UGA and UF are really good as are most of the SEC schools in terms of Business. LSU for instance has their Accounting Dept as one of their main jewels even if the overall school isn’t highly rated.
A big thing to consider is where does he want to live after school and what does he want to do. Does he want to live in Texas? Does he want to live in a big Metro? Does he want to live elsewhere? Does he want to be a practicing attorney or a corporate lawyer? My guess is he doesn’t know but has some ideas. So do all you can to expose him to the above. Take him on a few OOS visits to schools and cities to see if it fits. Find an attorney who does what he thinks he might want to do and have him talk to him. Being an Accountant/Lawyer pays really well but it definitely takes the right personality. That’s a career with a lot of time spent going over meticulous details and fairly monotonous work looking for errors and he will be working 70 plus hour weeks for a long time and in more formal environments. Does that fit him? Networking also matters for career growth.
I would generally recommend a strong B School/Flagship that gives him the opportunity to change his mind as well. That’s a long and specific path.