ksllaw wrote:Striderite3 wrote:
That being said, I'm still heavily considering law school. The idea of giving up a steady job at a great accounting firm is pretty nerve wracking; but there's also a part of me that's always wanted to give law school a go. I would only go to law school if I got into a specific school that is very strong in the region I want to practice in. Also, I know having a CPA/work experience at a Big Four firm won't carry much weight when I apply to law school; but I am hopeful it will carry some weight when I go through recruiting as a 1L/2L.
All that to say. Yes accounting is a great degree and great career prospects. Not to mention it's very inelastic and will be around in the good times and bad times. It would have to be a pretty good situation for me to leave my accounting firm and go to law school. Butttt there's still a part of me that wants to take the LSAT and see where I shake out.
Thanks for sharing, STrid.
Very interesting background. Any possibility you might field a few questions?
Sure thing. Sorry- I'm just now checking back in this thread.[/quote]
Thanks so much, Striderite3:
I'll see if I can generate a list of questions (that may be helpful to others too). But a couple that occur to me off the top of my head are:
a.) Must one have to have a BS in Accounting to do the MSA? I know some graduate programs (in other fields) don't always require a bachelor's in the same field. I wonder if accounting has that possibility?
b.) As someone with a bachelor's degree already and thinking of doing a second/post-bac degree in accounting, how quickly do you think a person could finish (if full-time)?
Not to worry if you're not sure about either of the above questions! I'm aware they're not technically accounting specific, but more like curriculum/program sorts of questions, but thought I'd just ask anyways since I'm here. lol.
I'll see what I can come up with, but thanks so much again in advance.
(p.s. Would it be possible for you to work a few years prior to law school? Your situation sounds pretty good at the moment. I was thinking that a big advantage would be you'd have some money saved up and could possibly greatly reduce any costs associated with LS that sometimes becomes a problem for those going straight into LS. I guess for me, I'm always thinking of reducing risk associated with LS, so that's why that came to mind when looking at your situation. ...Of course, if you landed a full-ride, then that's totally different!)[/quote]
A) I don't believe you HAVE to have a BS in accounting before pursuing your MAcc. However, at my school and most of our peer schools, they require you to have your BS in accounting. It just removes a lot of the hassle associated with prereqs and whatnot. I would think you can do your MAcc as other schools and not have a BS in accounting but I may be mistaken. However, most people in my program are in the program purely because they need 150 hours to sit for the CPA. So if you can get the 150 hour requirement without getting a MAcc then that's a very possible option. Just depends.
B) I went the traditional route: BS degree in 4 years, internship with Big Four, MAcc program. So all in all 5 years. If you are starting from scratch (zero college coursework)then I think 5 years is abut the minimum. If you already have a degree in something else then you most likely have several general prereqs knocked out already. There were people in my undegrad who had already graduated with a "flexible" degree (i.e. finance, management, poly sci, etc.), and couldn't find work so they came back for their accounting degree. These students only needed the 8 required accounting classes because they already had all the general ed prereqs taken care of. Once you get into the MAcc program stage it's more dependent in your situation and what you're looking for. There are tons of programs whose bread and butter is students who work during the day and go to class at night.
Yeah my plan would be to work for at least one year before entering law school. I have passed the four parts of the CPA but I still need to work for a year to meet the experience requirement to get my license. And yes, I would only go to law school if I felt the risk of finishing below median was too big of a financial risk to take on.
He/she looksl like a white Garfield. 
It happened to be conveniently on Yahoo!'s frontpage this week. I thought of removing the link above, but think what I'll do instead is to simply make a starred note pointing to these comments here below for a cautioned view.
But actually posts from anyone would be great. If time permits, I'll continue to post back with acct. info I come across for those interested. Thanks for the note of caution, however!
