Classes are ending this week.  In four days’ time I will retreat to my cave and start cramming for my four final exams.  This is going to be a tough week. Unlike last semester, where the bulk of my schoolwork was completed long before the end of classes, this time around I will be completing projects, assignments and presentations right up to the bitter end. This will leave me precious little time, just a few days, to finish my readings and start preparing for finals.

The spring is nearly over, but I am a long way away from being finished. This June, the first summer session, my last semester at UT, will begin. It will be only five weeks of classes, but if last summer was any indication, it will feel much longer. But, even when I finish my summer classes in July, I will be done with the MPA program but not done with school. To meet the requirements  for the CPA exam in Texas, I am still on the hook for six to nine business-related credits.  

Texas is one of strictest states in terms of CPA exam requirements. I came into the MPA program having taken no business classes outside of the MPA pre-enrollment requirements. This year, my schedule has been completely jammed with core accounting courses, and I never had the chance to mop up the rest of the business classes I needed to meet Texas’s 24 credit hour requirement. So, after my classes at UT are done this summer, I’ll be on the computer completing my last couple of business classes by correspondence. 

When that’s over, the CPA exam will be up next. I am planning to have all of my classes done and my paperwork completed by August so that I can sneak in one section of the exam before by job begins. After that, I will try to have two more sections done by the end of October, my first month of work. Here is a list of CPA exam dates. As you can see, the exam is offered on a two-months-on, one-month-off schedule.  Unfortunately, the best month for me, September, is an off month for the exam. When the CPA exam is completely done–by December perhaps–I may try my luck with one more certification before I allow myself to pop the champagne cork. 

Clearly, I have a lot to look forward to. When I finish my master’s degree this summer, it will be just one more leap forward on my way to the finish line. 

Wish me luck!

When I arrived in Texas last summer, I was a bit anxious about how I would make my way in the program.  I skew a little bit far from the previous class’s profile.  I’m older. I have more work experience, but no business background. Many of my classmates came out of school with degrees in business, finance, accounting and economics. Much of my undergraduate time was spent studying post-colonial literature and literary theory. But, I’m not the only odd ball here.  The program boasts a handful of wacky folks, including a philosopher from Hampshire College, a gourmet chef, a musician or two, a couple of lawyers and a few political science-types.

Over the last couple of months, I have received a few inquiries about how, as a humanities guy, I was able to manage my transition to accounting. What was it like to go from zero to MPA? I have collected a few of the more significant questions and pasted them and my responses below:

How did you prepare for the accounting program?  Did you feel ready?

It took me about a year to knock out the program’s four required preenrollment classes and prepare for and take the GMAT. It was not fun. I did most of my coursework at night, at the tail end of 10-hour work days, and on the weekends. When classes began, I did not feel as if I was in over my head. The Intro to Accounting class that I had taken several months before got me up to speed on the basics of financial accounting.  The program’s first summer session is designed to help non-accounting majors bridge the gap from introductory Financial Accounting to Intermediate Financial Accounting in the fall.  It did its job pretty well.

Can you keep up with the business, accounting, and finance students?

Overall, I think I have not had too much trouble keeping up.  There was a major adjustment process that I went through during my first summer session, but that had less to do with the actual course material than with learning to be a modern student.  For example, the Internet was still a novelty when I was in college, and I was not at all used to logging into online bulletin boards and downloading class notes. In the beginning, I resisted printing anything out. I preferred to rely on my own handwritten notes.  However, I have since learned from the errors of my ways.

That being said, there was one class in this program in which I felt as if I was consistently outgunned.  Continue reading You have a liberal arts degree. What should you expect from the MPA program? →