It’s finally the time of year when you leave your apartment around eight in the evening or so and can still see a few shades of orange and red peeping from behind the tower and surrounding foliage. Clouds of purple come down to bid farewell to the sun for the day’s work and the dark, blue night creeps behind you.
I always try to look at Austin as if I’m looking at it for the first time all over again. I remember driving up Mopac with my family for the first time and noting how great the rolling hills looked. And yet, it barely sank in today while at work that I really am leaving. As much as I planned for it and knew it was going to happen, the finality of it never really occurred to me.
Sometimes, it is hard to put into words everything one feels (no matter what the articles my psychology friends send me say). Fortunately, while the English language fails me, I still have music that is able to convey how I feel when words cannot. So, Austin, Texas MPA, here we go: Continue reading MPA is a Mixtape→
With midterms swamping me, I just now had the opportunity to read the case that flooded people’s Facebook feeds everywhere. It is an interesting case, to say the least. However, the implications are quite ambiguous, and the outcome will more than likely depend on the temperament of the Supreme Court when they review it.
Anyway, here’s the way I see this case:
What didn’t happen
With all due respect toward Ms. Fisher, let me be very clear that the University of Texas did not, in any way, shape, or form, discriminate against you. Texas is one of the original eight “Public Ivy League Schools,” and if you were not able to gain admittance to Texas by being in the top ten percent of your high school class, then you certainly would not have gained admittance to the actual Ivy League schools to which we compare ourselves. (That is, I’m not sure Harvard accepts many people who graduate outside the top ten percent of their class either.) Furthermore, if you had put in a comparable good faith effort into trying to get into the top ten percent of your high school class, then I am sure your Personal Achievement Index, which is very clearly outlined in the case, would have reflected that. Therefore, as hurtful as it may sound, you were not accepted into the University of Texas because you did not meet the admission standards, not because you were discriminated against in any way.
What may happen
What may happen is very tricky because most of the laws that we are dealing with were intended to be temporary. In Grutter, the case that Fisher’s case relies very heavily upon, Sandra Day O’Connor writes that she hopes many of the affirmative action-type laws will be temporary and unnecessary a generation from now. The idea is that the discriminatory way of thinking would disappear by then. That being said, the Top Ten Percent Rule will go away at some point in the future. The question is when and whether we expected this day to come so soon. Continue reading The Fisher Case→
Did anyone else see the PwC partners walking the Academy’s votes down the red carpet at the Oscars? There are a lot of things in the popular media that are actually done by accounting firms. The accounting nerd in me was really excited to see “PricewaterhouseCoopers” on the screen of the Oscars. So of course I snapped a quick iPhone photo, as displayed on the left. This spun me into some web research (Googling) about accounting firms in popular culture and I want to share it with you all.
PwC has been in charge of counting the ballots for the Academy Awards for 78 years, and the accountants in charge actually know the winners 48 hours ahead of the public. But even crazier is that, for all eternity, these partners know who came in second place, and are sworn to secrecy- probably because sometimes, the runner-up misses the Oscar by one vote. In the 78 years of counting ballots, there has been no security issues, leaked winners or miscounts. On the day of the awards, the two partners in charge take separate routes to Kodak Theater, with LAPD officers in tow. They both hold identical briefcases with one whole set of the winning envelopes. Also, they MEMORIZE the winners in case something happens to these briefcases. At the show, they stand in the wings and hand the envelopes to the presenters before they walk on stage. Sounds like a job I would LOVE to have!
It is interesting to note that after all the accounting scandals in the early 2000s, when the world looked down on the accounting industry, there were critics who actually raised suspicions that PwC was not to be trusted with the counting of the Academy Awards ballots. Of course, as I stated before, PwC has always handled the task with the upmost professionalism and accuracy, however, this was a reflection of the times.
Other instances of public accounting firms in popular culture:
Growing up, my “dream job” changed weekly. Like most kids, I fluctuated between the typical dream professions (as well as some atypical ones): princess, astronaut, lawyer, doctor, marine biologist, plumber, etc. The bottom line of all my decisions was that I wanted to make a difference in someone’s life.
Funnily enough, the one thing I did not want to be was an accountant. I come from a family of government accountants, and I remember seeing the look on people’s faces when I told them what my family did for a living and who they worked for. It was not a look that indicated they thought my family was making a positive difference in the world.
It wasn’t until I attended the Accounting Career Awareness Program (ACAP- now called DYNAMC) here at McCombs, that I began to rethink my views. It was at this camp that I realized accounting was a field that actually interested me. What especially intrigued me was a small tax seminar on filing 1040’s led by Professor Kristina Zvinakis. It was at this camp that I realized that accounting, specifically tax, was exactly the career I was looking for as it satisfied all of the qualities I wanted out of a career:
To have work that I find truly challenging and rewarding
To be held to a higher ethical standards than most professionals are
To help people by saving them money that they can use to improve their own lives or others’ lives
To save people time so they can use it to do things they truly love
This here explains my reason for deciding Texas MPA: the people are awesome!
Why Texas MPA?
It was at ACAP that I was first introduced to the integrated MPA program. It seemed too good to be true: a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting in five years!
To be completely honest (and my family and high-school friends can attest to this), I never saw myself attending UT until I attended ACAP. My family is from Washington, and I was always planning on out-of-state in order to escape the heat of Texas.
But when it came time to sit down and think about where I wanted to go to school, all roads lead to Austin. Where else could I get a top-rate education in the number one accounting program at in-state tuition rates? Nowhere, that’s where.
Texas MPA was a logical choice for me. I feel it’s the logical choice for everyone when deciding on where to pursue an accounting or business education. McCombs provides so much for its students: incredible faculty, knowledgeable academic advisors, and wonderful career advisors and services. On top of McCombs’ resources, every student has the resources of the entire university and city of Austin at their disposal.
In conclusion –it’s a splendid time to be a Texas MPA!
…I was studying with Becker. It seems that the relaxed semester is impossible under my terms and lifestyle. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and explains my hiatus from the blogging world for the past two weeks.
There is no shortage of stories though. Here is some recent Conversationalia from the past couple of weeks:
Texas to Host 2014 Menuhin Competition
The University of Texas will host the 2014 Menuhin Competition for violinists. It will be the first time the competition will be held in the North American continent. Read more about this in the Daily Texan’s article.
Yehudi Menuhin was born in America, but he spent most of his professional music career in the United Kingdom. He was a popular violinist during the 20th century, during which time recordings were available. My mom used to play a CD of Menuhin playing the Mozart violin concertos in the car. When you’re nine years’ old, you don’t particularly listen that closely. However, there was something about the last movement of Mozart’s fifth violin concerto that I just loved. I’m not sure if it was the sweet innocent opening theme or the somewhat raucous “Turkish” section in the middle, but this piece was my motivation for continuing to study the instrument throughout elementary school and high school, since it was only five Suzuki books away. (Otherwise, I’m not sure how much longer I would have lasted at the time…) Anyways, here’s Menuhin’s performance of that piece:
PitaLicious!
What I love about Austin is its entrepreneurial spirit. It’s awesome, and one of the great ways it’s exemplified is through the Trailer model. Here you save on fixed costs and experiment with your product in a small food trailer instead of a brick-and-mortar restaurant. One of my new favorites is PitaLicious on South Congress.
Why do I love it so much? Two reasons: the first is that the owner is Lebanese (where my great-grandparents emigrated from, thus earning extra points in my book) and serves kafta (which is a dish my siti loves to prepare for my brother and me when I visit El Paso). Second, and more substantially, is that the owner and his girlfriend have full-time jobs. (He’s an engineer, and she’s a nurse.)That’s right—they operate this food stand for fun. When talking to him, he told me that this was one of his passions and always wanted to do it. And that is what I love about Austin—the culture of doing things because you want to and taking some chances with life! PitaLicious is open on Thursday and Friday nights as well as the weekends. Follow your dreams.
Final Thoughts
Speaking of music, the University Orchestra—of which I have been a member of for my entire five years at Texas—is performing Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, “Pastorale,” on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. The piece is awesome, invoking a lot of imagery of nature and minimalism. This is, to me, one of the best pieces ever written—a true work of art—and a great piece to listen to even if you are not a hardcore classical music person. This is simply a must-hear.
It’s finally the time of year when you leave your apartment around eight in the evening or so and can still see a few shades of orange and red peeping from behind the tower and surrounding foliage. Clouds of purple come down to bid farewell to the sun for the day’s work and the dark, blue night creeps behind you.
