Tag Archives: accounting

Career, Melissa, Recruiting, Student Life

You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Leave a comment

Visiting Abbey Road in England

This week marks the 31st anniversary of the unspeakable tragedy when John Lennon was killed in New York City.  John Lennon was an integral member of the popular musical group, The Beatles. How does this relate to MPA, you might ask? Regardless of one’s personal opinion of John Lennon, there is a lot we can learn from him and the Beatles.

1. Teamwork. Steve Jobs said this about the Beatles and teamwork: “My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each others’ negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of its parts. And that’s how I see business. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.” Continue reading You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. →

Academics, Student Life, Valerie

Thankful for Home

Leave a comment

Thanksgiving brought a busy half week of engaging with family and avoiding anything explicitly school related. I returned to Austin late Saturday night, woke up Sunday and went to Starbucks to begin my last tax research memo!! As I turned on my computer and logged onto the Starbucks page, I found a fascinating video entitled Ripe for Change.

Since I am an expert procrastinator, the topic of anything but tax research caught my eye. Since I am from California, this topic of food production hits close to home. And as we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, food seemed to be an appropriate topic. Watching the video, I found that the issues it addresses within the food industry are highly relevant to us as accountants.

One such issue is regulation. The tensions between the need for regulation and its burden have been prevalent recently, and are particularly relevant in the financial industry that many of us will enter from the MPA program.

In the documentary as multiple farmers comment on the same trend, for example mechanical picking, we see that there is not always a clear cut way to respond to the availability of new technology or situations; we even see that sometimes the alleged problem is not as obvious as it seems. Continue reading Thankful for Home →

Alexandria, Austin, Events, Student Life

How to bleed burnt orange

Leave a comment

Being part of the MPA has many amazing benefits; one of the greatest is being a part of the larger UT community. The University of Texas at Austin is a place of tradition. Our traditions date back the university’s founding in 1883. I feel it is to every student’s benefit to know all the wonderful traditions our university has. Getting caught up in the spirit of the school is one of the best parts of the experience at UT.

How the tower is lit after winning a national championship game

The Tower

The first thing any prospective UT student needs to know about is the tower. The tower is campus’ best known landmark and symbol. It can be seen from almost anywhere in Austin, and as cheesy as this sounds, I get a swell of happiness in my stomach every time I see it.  It is usually lit up in white at night, except on special occasions. We light it up in orange for academic and athletic achievements and it even has a special configuration of lights for when UT wins a national championship.

The tower also has a clock on all four sides and chimes every fifteen minutes. At 12:50 three times a week, Tom Anderson (the university’s carilloneur) plays songs using the bells. He has even taken requests before.  One time I heard him play Katy Perry’s teenage dream and just this week he was playing “Deck the Halls”. Continue reading How to bleed burnt orange →

Academics, Melissa, Student Life

Gratitude

Leave a comment
I am thankful for my younger brother, Stephen.

As Thanksgiving rolls around, I think we all need to take some time out of our busy/stressful lives and remember what we are grateful for. You should think about what you are thankful for every day, but sometimes we get caught up in the shuffle and forget to do so.

In the spirit of the holiday, I will tell you five (of many) things that I am thankful for.

1. Family and Friends: The clichéd response, however, an important thing to be thankful for. I don’t know where I would be without my wonderful family and friends. I am loving all of my new (and old) MPA friends and I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

2. McCombs: Did anyone see the tower in orange last week and wonder why? It was in honor of the Princeton Review’s Best Business Schools: 2012 edition. McCombs ranked No. 1 for “Best Professors!” Next class, tell a business Professor “Thank you.”

3. Laughter: Considering I have mentioned laughter in 2 of my 2 blog posts thus far, it is probably clear that it is one of my favorite things. Never discount the importance of laughing everyday. Continue reading Gratitude →

Academics, Admissions, Melissa, Uncategorized

Why MPA?

1 Comment
Rishnie (another MPA) and I at a football game

Hi everyone!

As the holidays roll around (best time of the year!), I am certain I will be asked my family and friends “Why MPA?” (The switch from MIS was a little bit of a surprise to everyone.) This sounds like a simple question, and I’m sure some of you already have an answer prepared, perhaps in preparation for interviews. But, for me, it took a lot of thought.  I figured I would share my thoughts on this because some of you may be prospective MPAs who are actually asking YOURSELF the question, “Why MPA?” Or you might be current MPAs who have been giving this some thought recently.

My experiences in MPA thus far have led me to believe that there are infinite reasons to join the MPA program, but there are two extremes that you will find are pretty common:

First, is the student that has known for years (might I even say their whole life) that they wanted to be an accountant (or maybe they even knew they wanted to be in the MPA program at UT.) If this is you, congratulations! You did it! Or if you are a prospective MPA then definitely apply- make your dreams come true! Continue reading Why MPA? →