Accounting, M.S.

Minimum number of credits required to complete the program:  32

Minimum cumulative GPA required to graduate:  3.0

 

School: Girard School of Business

Learn more about the program

 

The M.S. in Accounting (M.S.A.) Program provides a pathway for students who wish to acquire the skillsets necessary to pursue and advance in a career in accounting and business and is open to those with an accounting, business, or non-business undergraduate degree. The flexible M.S.A. curriculum allows accounting majors and business majors to integrate a variety of elective courses including new tracks in Fraud and Forensic Accounting, Taxation, or Business Analytics. A non-accounting/non-business major will integrate core accounting courses and electives in a variety of management concentrations. No prerequisites are necessary to enter the program. 

The degree incorporates a powerful combination of accounting, analytical and strategic management skills. It meets the 150-hour requirement for the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) designation, the curriculum is updated regularly to accommodate any changes to the uniform CPA exam, and it meets the licensing requirements for the state of Massachusetts. If you are planning to license in another state, visit NASBA.org for specific information regarding your state of interest. While enrolled in the program, you will be exposed to faculty members who are industry experts and leaders in the various accounting fields and disciplines they are teaching. The overall goal of the program is to equip students with the content and expertise essential for personal and professional success. 

Core Accounting Skills

• Tools and emerging technologies
• Accounting data interpretation
• Strategic planning skills
• Financial budgeting and modeling
• CPA examination core concepts and competencies

Learning Goals and Objectives

1. Technical Skills

• 1.1 Communication - The ability to articulate and deliver financial information and recommendations in both written and oral presentation format.
• 1.2 Tools - The ability to create, use, understand, and interpret the results of computerized databases and spreadsheet analyses (including tax software for tax courses).

2. Environment

• 2.1 Ethics - The ability to recognize an ethical issue and analyze the potential outcomes for the relevant constituencies and make a reasoned judgment.
• 2.2 Law - The ability to understand statutory provisions governing business processes and to understand laws governing auditor conduct.
• 2.3 Client - The ability to understand varying client environments and identify inherent risks, appropriate controls, and control risks including risks from industry, regulatory, and environmental sources.

3. Knowledge Application

• 3.1 Problem Definition - The ability to identify a key problem in an accounting context (or tax context, for tax courses; or accounting and tax context, for ethics courses).
• 3.2 Analysis - The ability to interpret accounting standards (or tax laws, for tax courses) and analyze information to draw reasoned, ethical conclusions.
• 3.3 Decision-Making - The ability to make ethical choices among one or more alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs in an accounting context (or tax context, for tax courses).