Master of Science in Accounting - Virtual Information Session

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll get started in just a moment. We're going to give everybody a second to get logged in. Make sure that you can hear us. And if you're joining us, umm live again, make sure you can hear us. If you are joining us pre recorded. Give us just a moment to get our live folks settled.

All right.

Great. It looks like we've got folks in. So hello everyone. My name is Jen Radwanski. I'm the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton University. And we are here to tell you a little bit more about our brand new Masters of Science in Accounting program. And I am joined by our amazing program chair who is about to tell you a little bit more about this this wonderful opportunity. Just a couple of housekeeping items I would like to share with you.

First, there is a chat feature for those of you who are joining us live.

Please feel free to put questions in the chat, but I would suggest that you wait until the end of the session to put those questions in the chat because more than likely we're going to cover all the things you have questions about. But if we don't, we'll take those questions at the end. If you are joining us prerecorded, we will have our contact information at the end for you as well. And so you can reach out with us with any questions that you have too. So without further ado, Doctor Kabarle, take it away.

Hi everybody, I'm so happy to, uh, to, to meet with you today. Umm, there are some uh, students in or prospective students in here that, that may be umm, looking for the dual degree program or information about that. Umm, So just be aware that, that this, this webinar covers both pathways. We have a standalone pathway for those who've already completed their bachelors and are looking to come back to school for their masters umm, and also.

Uh, to pursue the dual degree pathway as uh, a Stockton undergrad, accounting undergrad.

So I welcome both, you know, both types of students to, to our session today and, and to apply to the program. And either way, I would I will be your advisor when you are, you know, in, in either pathway. So the the masters program, we call it the MSAC, the Ms. in accounting and.

We launched or we are launching our our our full launch is.

This coming fall, we have a soft launch this this particular semester. And so we're very excited to to bring this program to you. We have a very unique program. We're the only program in the state that has this kind of program design and we think that it's it's really special. So let's progress to the next slide if we can.

Jen, can you progress to the next slide? There we go. Thank you.

So our our courses are delivered on our Atlantic City campus. We have Our classes are only offered in the evenings from 6:30 to 8:30. Some classes some courses are live face to face and then others are online. Most of the classes are face to face. Umm, the courses meet just one night a week. So we have.

Courses to take if you wanted to go four nights a week you could, just depending on what your interest is.

Umm, we, our focus of the program is to prepare you to become professionals in the field. And with that, we really encourage you to pursue the CPA licensure. So, umm, we also as, as, uh, I think our, our notes here say we also have a beachfront living. So if you want to live on campus, umm, we have dorms in Atlantic City that are right on the beach. And then we also have other on campus housing in Galloway.

Of course there's there's off campus housing and so we can progress to the next slide.

So, umm, as I had just said, the, the program is really designed to prepare students for the profession and the Gold Star standard in our profession is the CPA license. There are other licensures that you can pursue, but we, uh, as a faculty and as professionals, we believe that the CPA licensure is the, the top notch licensure. So, umm, we take it very seriously and the way that we design our programs.

And we want to make sure that you're prepared to join the profession, but also to pass the CPA exam, which can be a rigorous exam.

So as you can see, one of the prongs of licensure is to pass the exam and the little.

Visual on the left shows you what the exam, uh, com is comprised of. So we have it has three core parts, accounting, auditing and tax. And then each of those three parts have data analytics and technology concepts related to those, umm, those core core topics built in. And then the candidate can choose one of the outer circle.

Areas. So either tax compliance and planning, which is just mostly advanced tax concepts.

Business analysis and reporting and also information systems and controls. So as a CPA candidate, you can pick any of those 4 outer rings or sorry, any of the three outer rings, and everyone takes the inner core regardless of which outer they call it discipline specific, umm, topics at whichever 1 you take, you're still fully licensed like anyone else. So it's just a matter of what your interest is in. It's a little bit more flexibility.

So, umm, the exams are taken, uh, at a testing center.

And you can take the parts at different times and as soon as you pass a part, then your clock starts and you have about 30-6 months. I want to say they just recently changed that to to pass the others. And so if you don't, then you time out and you have to start over. But, but typically students will or prospects typically be able to, to pass within the time frame.

So that's the exam requirement. We have our education. Oops. If you could go back one more.

The education requirement in New Jersey is that you need 150 credits and a bachelor's degree in order to to become licensed. You will need 120 to sit for the exam, but even if you pass, you can't become licensed until you're you have 150 credits. So umm, at Stockton, our undergrad is 128 credits. A lot of other schools are 120 UMM, so the additional credits can be taken.

New Jersey's requirements say they can be taken in anything.

If you have an undergrad in accounting, you likely have fulfilled the 24 accounting credit requirement and the 24 business credit requirement. But if you didn't go to Stockton, you you should check on those. And so that's the education requirement. Now there is a proposal underway in New Jersey and some and also in some other states that.

They're going to They're proposing to allow students or prospects to become licensed with 120 credits.

But you have to have two years of work experience under a CPA, substantive work experience after you graduate. So even with 150 credit requirement, you still have an experience requirement which is one year. So if the state does UMM does implement the proposal, they do enact it.

Then umm the the candidate can choose between the 120 and two years or the 150 and one year experience requirement that either way you have to have experience to become licensed.

So you can go to the next slide please.

Umm, so our, our courses are designed around as as, as you can maybe see here around the topics that are on the CPA exam. So umm, we have an accounting information systems, which is a technology based course, the cost accounting and analytics course, which is it's umm, accounting, but also the analytics piece. Umm, we have advanced tax, advanced auditing, advanced financial accounting and reporting and then a required internship. So every.

One takes those courses, except those that have that are coming in with a bachelor's degree into the stand alone masters, uh, post baccalaureate masters. Umm, if you've taken a, an analytics course, umm, that 5420 is not required, you know, or could, could possibly be waived. Umm, and if you've already taken an information systems course in the undergrad, then that 5405 course can be waived. So if.

That applies to you and you've been issued a waiver on those two. Then you actually can graduate instead of 36 credits at the masters level with 30 credits. So, umm, the, uh, the internship is a three credit required internship. The student does have to acquire that internship on their own. Umm, we do have a great career education and development center that umm, really helps guide students, but it is up to the student to obtain.

Internship.

And that internship can be become an expanded or extended internship that can fulfill some of the electives for the course, which I believe is the next. Yeah, the next slide talks about those. So we do have courses that you can choose as electives and we have them bundled in certain ways, but there is flexibility built in. So I'll explain the flexibility of that in a second. But the extended internships can.

Can can be applied to either one of these options in any way. So if you umm, have an internship that will allow you to work additional hours to fulfill the extra internship hour requirement, then you can fulfill up to 18 credits in that company. Umm, if you only want to have 9 credits more in that company, then you can pick 9 credits in coursework.

Umm, so. Or you can do a combination of those things.

So the one correspondent we have is forensic accounting. We have three courses there. We can talk about those courses here in a second. In the next slide. We also have a concentration in Business analytics, 3 courses there. And then as I said, you, you might decide to prolong your required internship or even maybe go for another internship to get the additional 9 credits. There's also a combination thereof. And then.

We have some MBA courses that you might be interested in and we would allow, it doesn't say this here, but we on a case by case basis would allow you to.

Take up to 9 credits from another set. Let's say you really love marketing and you want it to pursue, you know, an option in marketing, then we might be able to, to accommodate that. We also have option 2, which is our CPA firm cooperative that we have an agreement with with them, which is it's the top 25th firm in the, in the world.

And so it's not a BIG4 firm, but they do have multiple offices in New Jersey and and.

In some other states where and they do audit and tax and consulting and they have a program that our students have to apply to. It's very competitive. But if you get accepted, we call it, they call it the CPA pathways. If you get accepted for that, then you work for them for.

A fall and spring semester, part time in the fall, more full time in the spring, and then if you've done well, then it turns into, you know, a full time offer hopefully turns into a full time offer for the following November.

Umm, the, the great thing about the Witham Co-op is, uh, they pay a very competitive rate and they also give some tuition assistance. They also provide you training and umm, and some CPA review, umm, freebies and sitting for the exam, umm, uh, reimbursements and things like that. So it's a great firm to work for and they do have this special agreement with us, so.

Umm, but there are other firms that you know if you have a connection with.

As a new program, we're trying to develop other partnerships with other firms as well that are sort of like the width of 1. And so if you have a relationship with someone, then we can always be open to talking with that firm as well to see if we can have a Co-op agreement with them.

Next slide is our course concentrations, just a little bit more information about those. So the the first one is the forensic accounting concentration or financial forensics.

And so we have a course in that really prepares you for the like a certification in in forensics. We also have a course. So that would be the financial forensic investigation course. Then we have a course where it's more of a case study based analysis of different corporate frauds. So that's the understanding corporate fraud class. And then the fraud analytics class is applying data analytics to uncover fraud, which is a very interesting class.

Then we have three courses in business analytics, which these are not taught by our accounting faculty. The business analytics faculty, we have a BUSA program and they teach these courses, but they're very much related to what we do in accounting. So we bundle those together, Business analytics for managers, big data and machine learning and advanced business data management. And as I said before, you can mix and match. You don't have to have, you know, all three.

And and you know, in order to have a concentration, you can, you don't have to have a concentration. You can pick and choose between these six classes, which ones are best fitting your schedule and which ones suit your interest and.

And then mix and match with some other things. So the.

Electives, the 18 credits of electives, there's a lot of different choices and different paths.

The next slide talks about the the a little bit more about the Co-op, the Co-op. Another great thing about the the internships and co-ops that you'll do it while you're a graduate student in graduate status. And so if you're a dual degree student, you wouldn't take your internship until you become.

Until you graduated with the BS uh, and you're in graduate status so that you can have your work hours count towards the New Jersey work experience requirement. So New Jersey's, uh, one year requirement is 17150 hours of auditing or accounting work under an active licensed uh, CPA and umm, so in order to, to sort of chip away at that while you're in school.

Uh, while you're in our masters program, the internship that you work or any, any extended internships that you work?

Those hours can count towards that 1750. You won't get the full 1750 during the internships, but you'll get, you know, some good progress towards that.

Umm, if you already have a job that you don't want to leave and you think, well, how can I, how can I navigate this internship if it's required? We do have an option for service learning project where, uh, you would work with me and I would help you identify what your interest is and we would try to make a connection with that nonprofit. And then you would do some kind of project for them, some accounting related project for them with under my supervision and hopefully under, you know, someone.

Someone else in the organization that their treasurer or accounting person. And if that's not interesting to you, you could write a paper and do some research with one of the faculty. So there are some other options there for the internship if that doesn't suit you or you can't find one or whatever that case may be.

Those hours don't count, though, towards the work experience requirement for the New Jersey license.

And then we'll take it to the next slide and Jen can talk to you about some funding opportunities and the admissions criteria.

All right. Can you hear me?

It's OK. Go ahead.

Oh, I forgot to talk about that one. I don't have that one. Sorry about that. Umm, OK, so the dual degree pathway, as I was saying, uh, before you may be that, you know, here for that reason, uh, the dual degree pathway is for accounting majors at Stockton that, umm, want to, they know they want to pursue the masters program. And so in your senior year, you'll take 4 graduate courses that substitute for four.

Sorry, 3 undergrad courses because our undergrad courses credits are 4 credits each and our grad credits or courses are three credits each. So it's 12 for 12. They just we just plop in the graduate courses instead of the undergrad. So you would just want to make sure that if you are applying for dual degree that you do so before your senior year because you might take courses that would otherwise be taken out.

And so those 12 credits, when you're taking them as an undergrad, there's a couple of benefits to that.

Per course.

It shortens the masters a lot by 12 credits. Umm and you also are charged undergraduate tuition plus a small fee. I think it's around 100 ish dollars per. Is it per credit Jen or is it per course? Per course. So it's really almost undergraduate tuition for those four graduate courses, which is huge. That's a huge benefit. Umm so besides being able to finish the masters faster, you're also.

Uh, you know, able to save some tuition dollars, which is very nice.

When you complete those 12 credits, those grad credits in your senior year, even if you decide we wouldn't want you to do this, but even if you did decide that you didn't want to finish the masters, you still have a full bachelor's degree and you've had four graduate courses. So, umm, it's still a great, a great path. Even if you, something happens and you decide, you know, you can't finish right now or you have to go part time or you want to hold off, whatever it is. So, so you still finish up. That's a lot.

Times a frequently asked question I get is well, what happens if some you know, I can't I can't finish the masters. Will you still finish the bachelors? You will graduate after you know, like normal So and then the stand alone pathway is you have a bachelor's degree before entering the program.

And the dual degree option for our Stockton students is, is there's nothing to lose. Umm, so by becoming a part of that program, you know, whatever.

Wherever life takes you, there's no, nothing to lose as a student. Umm, so it's really a great opportunity, umm, for a number of different programs that we have here, including accounting, which is our newest 1. So umm, which leads us right into the funding opportunities because as you all know, Graduate School is a lot of time and it's a lot of money. And so if there's ways that you can eliminate any part of that, umm, we will try and help you to figure that out. Umm, and, and like I said, Stockton dual degree options are, are definitely one of those.

But a few other things that we can talk about, and we have an entire other session devoted just to this that we'll be posting on our website. We hosted it two weeks ago.

And, and that will be on our Financing Your Education website link on our graduate admissions website. But under that tab we'll have a full, full webinar on this. But a few items just to take note of. So there are graduate assistantships that are awarded on a semester by semester basis. They're very competitive and they do not cover full tuition for any one of our programs.

Usually covers 1 to 2 credits, but every little bit helps. And these are research opportunities that you can do within the program. So it not only helps you, uh, to enhance your resume, it also helps again, to pay for part of your tuition, umm, but gives you that, that, you know, experience. Uh, on top of everything else, there are also graduate student scholarships available, umm, for Stockton students. If you are going straight through, again, an opportunity for our dual degree students that if you are enrolled.

In the spring semester and attending courses in the fall, you have an opportunity to apply for the foundation scholarships at Stockton. If you are coming from outside of Stockton, then you would do this in your second year and you could apply scholarships to your second year here at the institution. Umm, and there are various, you would, it's one application for all graduate scholarships that you would be eligible for. Uh, financial aid is also available. This is umm, you know, in the form of student loans predominantly, there are not as many.

Umm aid options for graduate students nationally as there are.

For undergraduate students, unfortunately, what I do want to clarify is that financial aid is specifically for domestic students. It is not a process eligible for our international students. So international students would need to be applying for the assistantships and then also for the student scholarships through our foundation program after their first year.

And then as Carla mentioned, there's some tuition assistance that may be available from some of the co-ops that are participating within this program. So those are good opportunities that are very unique to this program in particular.

There's also, umm, obviously you know, scholarships outside of Stockton, umm, the AICPA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and also the New Jersey Society of Cpas, umm, have, uh, pretty competitive scholarships, but we just had, uh, one of our, one of our dual degree students just received the New Jersey's CPA exam or CPA, sorry, the New Jersey CPA, umm, societies.

Umm scholarship for as a graduate student and then.

Another got chosen from our school for the for an undergrad 1 so so it all it takes is an application. So it is you know it is anything helps so.

It sure does. And, and in addition to the ones that are maybe specific to the program, there are also private scholarships in a variety of areas that you can apply to no matter what school you go to, what program you apply to. Umm, so for example, umm, maybe place of employment or, umm, a, uh, service organization that you may be involved in. So for example, you know, I, we've been known to Chick-fil-A has been known to give very large scholarships to some of their employees and.

Private organizations like Kiwanis and things of that nature do give out scholarships. So definitely check into additional things even outside of higher education and the program of study you're looking at. Because if you're willing to take the time to, to research some of those and, and apply for them, they can be very profitable as well. And, and again, those are outside of the institution. So, so thanks for mentioning that too, Karla, And that's very exciting for our, some of our new students.

So next, let's talk a little bit more about how to apply. We've shared with you, you know, information about what the program looks like.

But how do you actually apply for this program? So on our website, and we'll drop that in the chat in just a moment for you all. But for the Master of Science and Accounting program, there's a couple of items that you'll need to apply. So first of all, you do have to complete your bachelor's degree in order to be eligible. And due to the number of prerequisites that are part of this, usually it would pertain to accounting majors. However, if you're interested in doing the.

MSN accounting program and were not previously an accounting major.

We can talk through ways that you can receive those credits and doing those prerequisites at the undergraduate level prior to applying, because you will have to have those all completed at the at the time of application or be in progress at the time of application, uh.

No, you're fine.

Say too, they're sorry to interrupt, but we didn't add this to our sides because this was a very recent.

Update we had if you are a dual degree finance or if you're if you're an undergrad finance major at Stockton, then there's a quicker path for you to and you want to switch over to accounting and and pursue the Ms. in accounting. You can use your finance electives 3 out of the four.

In the accounting.

Prereqs. So then you really only have one additional class to take everything else it will fall into place. So umm, so for finance majors, this is, this is a great pathway to, to become ACPA. So umm, and then if you're a finance major from another school, you likely took this, you know most of the prerequisites except for those additional four classes. So you would have to then finish those four classes before being admitted.

Yep, great. Thank you. Thank you for adding that. That's super helpful. So as far as the application process, if you're eligible for a fee waiver though, that would be sent to you. Otherwise, there's a $50 application fee for this program to, to start your application. Umm, once you have either put in your waiver code or put in your $50.00 deposit, your essay prompt will show after that fact. You have to give it a couple of minutes. Some people call us right away and they're like, it's not showing. You have to give it about 5 minutes.

Or log out and log back in again and it will show and so you'll be able to upload your essay. Please make sure that you're not utilizing any kind of AI to write your essay. You need to write that yourself, but you do want to make sure that it is proofread and that you answer the prompt appropriately.

The other items that you'll be asked to upload are two letters of recommendation that gets done electronically as well. The way that you'll start your application is by putting in your recommender's e-mail addresses.

And their name and their title. We suggest that you have a conversation with your recommenders prior to starting your application. Make sure they know that this is coming because as soon as you put their emails in, they're going to be sent an e-mail to complete the electronic recommendation file. And so let them know it's coming. Let them know what you're applying for, send them a copy of your resume. Those are all just good protocol as far as recommenders go.

Let's get permission. Don't forget to ask their permission.

Yes, acid, like let them, yes, make sure that they are willing and able, that they're available, that they know the deadline.

That they want to do it, yeah.

And they wanted to do it and, and clearly we want to make sure that they're writing a good letter of recommendation for you. You'd be surprised how many people, umm, reach out to us and they're like, uh-huh, my recommenders out of town. And I'm like, oh, you have to talk to them first. Umm, so that's really important. Your recommenders also need to be able to speak to your academic or professional, uh, ability within the program. So it needs to be former faculty members or people who have supervised you in a leadership position or a work position, umm, that is related to accounting, uh, even though you have a next door.

That you might have known for 20 years and you helped to take in their trash cans and you have a great, you know, rapport with them. They may not know how you will do academically within this program. And so again, you want somebody who can speak to your academic and professional abilities within the program. And then lastly, you know, it's just keeping in mind the GPA. There is direct entry and direct entry option if you were not a part of the dual degree program and you meet the requirements as an undergraduate accounting.

Student here at Stockton, umm, and then, uh, you will also as part of this need to send us any of your transcripts. So any of the institutions that you attended, uh oh. And I also forgot your resume. You need to upload a copy of PDF of your resume. Umm, and you can do that yourself, but the transcripts you're gonna have to have sent to us, we recommend doing that electronically. It gets to us very quickly. And then you also get a receipt stating that it's been sent to us, but that'll be from any institution that you attended. Umm, if assuming that you have.

Attended Stockton, we can load Stockton transcripts for you, but all others would need to be sent to us if you're not a Stockton student. So all of this can be found on our website. And so we would encourage you to take a peek at that site and we'll drop the link in the chat for you as well. But at this time, if you have any other questions for us, we'd love for you to drop those in the chat feature for us and we will answer those for you. Carla, anything that I missed?

I don't think so. I think that you're pretty thorough.

All right, so let's get you that link so you have it.

And that's going to take you to our page. On this page, you will notice that there are a number of tabs. It's much easier to look at this website from an actual computer than it is to do it from, you know, your phone. But there are a number of different tabs. One is the about program, which we reviewed the the requirements for the program. The curriculum is the next tab, which we also reviewed showing you what the curriculum overview is, the courses that you would be taking. The admission criteria is also on there more information about dual degree as well as the internships and even some career information about.

What you can do with this, this career? Umm, so I am not seeing any questions in the chat. Umm, so I will share for anyone that's joining us virtually and uh, uh, and a pre recorded manner. If you do have any questions for us, please don't hesitate to reach out. This is a contact information for graduate admissions here. We're happy to take any calls. You can schedule a virtual one-on-one appointment with us to learn more about the program.

Umm, but with that being said, anything else you want to share?

As we wrap up.

If if you have a particular questions or you know, some guidance that you need that you think that would be more appropriately asked, you know of me, then please feel free to send me an e-mail and I can, I'll respond to you and, and we can even, you know, schedule a zoom or even a face to face meeting if you're local to, to talk further.

Awesome. I get the frequent question. People say, well, why should I come to Graduate School at Stockton? And without hesitation, I would always share it's because of our faculty, you know, and this program is definitely one of the top ones when we when it comes to that as far as faculty who care about you as a student who are looking out for you and want to see you be successful. And our School of Business is exceptional at this as well. So if you're considering Stockton, that's definitely a reason to do so because of our amazing faculty faculty. So doctor.

You so much for joining us. Thank you all for watching and we look forward to talking with you more if you choose to apply. Have a great day everyone, take care. Bye bye.

Bye bye.