From UT News: Active Minds, a national nonprofit group with 400 campus chapters advocating for young-adult mental health, named UT Austin a winner of the inaugural 2015 Active Minds Health Campus Award.
Master in Professional Accounting Admissions Blog
Insider Information for Prospective Texas McCombs MPA Students
Page 22 of 27
WalletHub recently ranked Austin as the #1 large city with the fastest growing economy. The study compared 515 cities on 10 key metrics (such as population growth, median household income growth, growth in the number of businesses, and unemployment rate decrease) and identified those with the greatest socioeconomic expansion between 2008 and 2014. Other large cities in Texas that were ranked in the top 20:
#3 – Fort Worth, TX
#5 – Corpus Christi, TX
#10 – Houston, TX
#11 – San Antonio, TX (tied with Seattle, WA)
#14 – El Paso, TX
#20 – Dallas, TX
Students from the MPA Class of 2015 are already demonstrating great success! At the time of graduation:
- 97% accepted offers of employment. 1% opted to continue their education post-MPA.
- 94% of our international MPA graduates accepted offers of employment.
Our MPA graduates secured full-time employment in a variety of geographical areas throughout Texas, the Northeast, West, South and Midwest and with a wide variety of employers:
- 4% consulting
- 5% industry
- 5% investment banking and other financial services
- 86% public accounting
Congratulations!
Originally published by Matt Turner in McCombs Today:
For the sixth consecutive year, the McCombs School of Business took the ranking trifecta in accounting, earning the No. 1 spots for its undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. programs, according to the Public Accounting Report (PAR) Annual Professors Survey.
This marks the 11th time in 14 years that McCombs took first place across all three of the PAR categories.
Michael Granof, EY Distinguished Centennial Professor at McCombs, was re-appointed by the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) to a second term on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Dr. Granof is also currently serving his second term on the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB), making him the second person to ever serve on both boards concurrently.
Read more in MPA Weekly and the Department of Accounting faculty news…
Originally published by April Stockwell in McCombs Today and MPA Weekly.
The University of Texas at Austin’s graduate accounting program consistently ranks #1 across the nation for its top notch faculty as well as the high quality accounting education it offers students. Once again the Texas MPA Program has topped the nation with four students, Taylor Atsalis (BBA ‘13, MPA ‘14), Scott Huff (BBA/MPA ‘14), Chongho Kim (MPA ‘14), and Michael Kovacich (MPA ‘13), earning the prestigious 2014 Elijah Watt Sells Award. The American Institute of CPAs bestowed the prestigious award on candidates who obtained a cumulative average score above 95.50 across all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination, passed all four sections of the Examination on their first attempt, and completed testing in 2014.
To put this in perspective, 91,384 individuals sat for the Examination in 2014 and only 60 candidates met the criteria to receive the award. This year, only three U.S. graduate programs had more than one Elijah Watt Sells winner and the Texas MPA program had as many winners as the other two combined.
All four award winners are now making their mark at their respective workplaces: Taylor is currently employed with EY in Houston, Scott works for Dell in Austin, Chongho is employed with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston, and Michael is employed with BDO in Houston.
Originally published by Matt Turner in McCombs Today:
For the second year in a row, McCombs School of Business faculty were rated the fifth most powerful in the world in terms of research prowess.
Ranked among public schools, McCombs is No. 1.
The University of Texas at Austin’s accounting program is No. 1 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report‘s 2016 edition of “Best Graduate Schools.”
If you are seeking scholarship opportunities for the Texas MPA program, be sure to check your eligibility to apply for an AICPA scholarship. The majority of the scholarships have an April 1 application deadline. Scholarships include (but are not limited to):
- The John L. Carey Scholarship: provides financial assistance to liberal arts and other non-business related degree holders who are pursuing graduate studies in accounting and the CPA designation. Amount: $5,000/year
- The AICPA Minority Scholarship: provides awards to outstanding undergraduate and graduate minority students who plan to pursue the CPA licensure. Amount: $5,000/year
- The AICPA/Accountemps Student Scholarship: provides financial assistance to undergraduate & graduate-level students who are seeking the CPA license. Amount: $10,000/year
Many of our students have received these awards in the past. I would strongly encourage you to apply!
The Department of Accounting faculty recently approved a new course waiver policy for the traditional MPA curriculum starting in Fall 2015.
The MPA degree requires the completion of 43 semester hours of coursework, as outlined in the degree requirement summary, unless a student qualifies for core course waivers. Our recently-approved policy will grant up to 4 course waivers (12 hours), rather than two course waivers, based on equivalent coursework completed. As a result, a student who qualifies for 4 waivers will complete a 31-hour program, the minimum requirement for the MPA degree.
- Students with an undergraduate degree in accounting typically qualify for the maximum course waivers and complete a 31-hour program. A 31-hour program can be completed in the fall and spring or in the fall, spring, and summer. Students who participate in employment recruiting in the fall are encouraged to balance their schedule by completing fewer courses in the fall and extending graduation to early summer.
- Students with an undergraduate degree in non-accounting business typically qualify for one to four waivers based on previous coursework and complete between a 31- to 40-hour program. Students must begin in the summer if they do not qualify for the ACC 381-financial accounting waiver and can graduate by spring or summer, depending on the required credit hours.
- Students with an undergraduate degree in an area outside of accounting or business typically complete a maximum 43-hour program. A 43-hour program can be completed in the summer, fall, spring, and following summer. However, students who opt to complete an internship often graduate in the fall. Internships are not required but can be counted as 3 hours of credit toward the MPA degree.
Our Estimated Program Costs web page has been updated to reflect the reduced minimum program hours.
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