education question from worried dad

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I am the proud dad of a daughter who is graduating from the University of South Alabama this weekend with a degree in accounting (and on deans list all 5 years).
She has taken enough courses where she only needs to take one more course to sit for her C.P.A. exam. (almost 160 hours)
Due to the high cost of college (she has paid for it all working with NO student loans) she has decided NOT to continue on and get her master's degree, and instead take the CPA exams and then try and get a job at a small accounting firm (with an eye to starting her own firm later on).
I always though in this days economy, a Masters degree is almost a requirement to success, but she disagrees and says her profs at the university say she only needs the CPA to reach her goals (60k a year)...so what do you guys think?
Is she right? or does she need to continue on after she gets her CPA and get her masters degree???
thanks!
 

kirby

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Great question. With the way the economy has been it is true that may who would have wanted to join the workforce in past few years HAD to go to masters as there was no other choice. Seems things are about to improve at least somewhat -depends on your local economy. For CPA firms THAT ARE HIRING they just need a body ( a trained one but at the beginning level the firm is not going to assign them to do rocket science - there is a lot ot "ticking and tying" at the beginning level - your daughter can explain). So I agree with her strategy : IF she can land a job THEN take it. IF not OK then Masters.
 
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A hearty congrats and tip o' the cap to your daughter for an admirable accomplishment.

Given the path she's charted, as you've described (small firm, eventually her own firm) I'd tend to agree with her academic advisors.

This is because a grad degree in accounting tends to pick out some of the more complex areas of fundamental accounting (e.g., multi-national accounting and currency exchange issues; accounting for parent-subsidiary corporate groups; etc.) and spends time drilling down into the deeper aspects of these issues. Great if you're going to work for one of the major firms with multi-national clients; not so useful if your client base is dominated by SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises, mom-and-pops, restaurants, and so on).

The proprietor of Joe's Garage would be unlikely to be impressed by your daughter's expertise in cross-border merger and acquisition accounting, but nearly every business owner knows and respects the CPA designation. When she hangs out her shingle, landing new clients is the name of the game.

As with Baskin-Robbins and most everything else, there are various flavors and shades. I'm sure there are grad acctg programs which try to give the student a more broad-based exposure to topics that'd be of value in your daughter's plans (although that'd be a bit more likely to come instead from some MBA-with-acctg-concentration program), but what I've said above tends in general to apply, more or less.

What she might want to consider instead, after knocking out the CPA exam, is developing her expertise in one or more areas which are more of value to small- and mid-sized companies, but outside the scope of the accounting degree / CPA realm. For instance: small business finance and banking relationships; specialization with accounting and tax software programs; tax planning for specific industries, such as restaurants and hospitality, medical groups, etc.; small-company valuation; and so on. As an example, I know a couple of CPAs who've built an entire career on being the go-to guys when it comes to tax planning and tax strategies for self-employed doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals.

Those kinds of "add-on" expertise are obtainable from a variety of sources, of which she'd naturally become aware in due course as she proceeded with her career.
 

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