Master of Science in Accounting - Virtual Information Session

All right, welcome folks. We'll give it about 15 seconds to let folks populate and join. So hang tight and we'll get started shortly.

Thank you, Neva. As Dr. Hall said, my name is Carla Cabarli. I am the chair of this program. This program launched in fall of 25, so it's very, very new, although we have had five students already graduate from the program, so that's very exciting, and I'll talk a little bit about that as we go through. If you are here because you are interested in the dual degree pathway, I will talk about that, and that would mean that you are a current Stockton student pursuing a BS in accounting, and we are, as I said, going to address some of that, and then we can make alternate arrangements to discuss it further outside of the session if need be.

Sorry. The first slide here just shows our Atlantic City campus. Our master's programs in the School of Business are currently housed in Atlantic City. A lot of our master's classes are online synchronous, however, and so if we do have a face-to-face class, then we meet in person one night a week from 6:30 to 8:30, and you would then have additional work outside of the class to make up the hour that the three credits require as class time. So it's really a hybrid model.

This program was particularly designed, specifically designed to help students enter the profession as CPAs. So, of course, you could be an accountant without having the credential, the CPA, Certified Public Accountant credential. But the CPA credential really opens a lot of doors, doors that you don't know are closed. And I can really attest to that because I didn't even pursue my license right away. And when I finally did get licensed, many doors opened that I didn't know were closed. So it is a very important credential for the profession. It is highly recognized in society globally. And even if you don't want to stay in public accounting, which is where the CPA designation is required if you are an auditor signing off on audits, even if that is not your pathway or your career trajectory, it's still a very, very great way to let people know what your level of expertise is. So people do recognize the CPA designation, and so we wanted to make sure that we have a master's program that really hones in on those skills and knowledge necessary to pass the CPA exam and then to enter the workforce as a CPA candidate, sometimes even as a CPA. Through this program, you can even become licensed as you're finishing up the program.

This slide talks about the requirements to become a CPA. The states set the standards and the requirements, but all states have three levels of requirements in order to become licensed. There's an education requirement, an exam requirement, and an experience requirement. And states have different education and experience requirements, but they all require that you pass the exam. So the exam was revamped, and I want to say January of '25, and it now has a core where it has three distinct parts, three distinct exams. There's an accounting exam, an auditing exam, and a tax exam. And so there's three parts here, and then there's one part that is an elective. You have to pick one that you can choose from in order to then complete four of the six available parts of the exam. The tax compliance and planning. I feel like a lot of our students in the MS program are very prepared in order to do this one because we cover a lot of information that is in the core and the core part of the exam and the TCP in our undergrad course. But then also we revisit and then enhance skills and test taking and things like that in the grad class. We also have business analysis and reporting, and so we call that BAR, and information systems and controls. We are right now in the process of reviewing a proposal for a master's in cybersecurity, and I believe that there will be an additional concentration when that program, if and when that program launches, that we can capture a concentration to help students be able to pass this particular section if that's where their interest is. I should note, too, that whatever discipline-specific elective, basically, part of the exam that you take, it does not change your license. So your license, if you passed TCP in the core or if you passed BAR in the core, your license is the same as everyone else's, and it doesn't limit your practice. So even if you took the discipline-specific TCP, you don't have to work in tax. It's just whichever part of the exam you think you can pass, right? So that's sort of what we talk about in classes. And as I said, this program is very focused on getting you ready for the CPA exam. So we do a lot of discussions about what that actually looks like and the logistics of that. So that's the exam. It's a unified CPA exam, so it's across all states in the United States, and you have to pass it in order to at least check that box to become licensed. You can start taking the exam in New Jersey when you have a baccalaureate degree and at least 120 credits. Along with, in that 120 minimum, you have 24 accounting credits and 24 business credits. So our undergrad prepares you for that, and most, I would say, most undergrads would as well. So wherever you're coming from, if you want to be licensed in New Jersey, you need to make sure that you have 24 accounting credits. They don't have to be undergrad credits. They can be grad credits and 24 other business credits. The education requirements have recently changed. Back in the '90s when I was a student, the state boards decided that it was better preparation for new staff if they had a master's degree. That was really where it started from. And so the states pushed back, the schools pushed back a little bit about that, and they decided that 150 credits was the minimum that you needed in order to be able to become licensed. And so that was in place in all the states for many, many, many years from the '90s until just this last year, where states decided because of the, like we have the enrollment cliff with students, we also have sort of a new staff cliff in the CPA profession where we have a lot of retirements happening and not enough people filling in the spots. So CPA firms were starting to get very concerned that they were going to be short-staffed and not be able to serve the clients as they wish to and maybe even have to downsize. So a lot of states early on, especially on the East Coast, decided that they were going to allow 120 credits for education. So our master's program still is relevant because the 150 pathway is still a pathway. So if you have 150, 150 credits, which you would have through this master's program and your undergrad, you would meet the 150, and then you only need one year of experience in New Jersey. If you do the 120 pathway, then you need two years of work experience, and the work experience has to be supervised by an active CPA, and it has to be intensive and substantial work. It has to be in auditing or accounting. And accounting is broad. It's tax, it's consulting, it's all kinds of things like that, but it has to be accounting-related. And then the states do have different experience timeframes and different hours that mean a year of experience. But basically all of the states have at this point adopted the 120 pathway along with the 150. We still feel, as I said, that the 150 with the one-year experience is the better pathway, and I'll explain a little bit more about that through our extended internships, that you can actually chip away most of the one-year experience while you're still in the master's program if you do an extended internship and you're working towards the 150. So by the time you finish the master's program, if you are highly motivated, you can start taking the exam while you're in it and then be licensed and be very, very marketable by the time you graduate, or shortly thereafter. So here is a list of our core courses. We have accounting information systems, advanced cost accounting and analytics, data analytics, advanced federal income tax, advanced auditing, advanced financial accounting and reporting, and then we have a required three-credit accounting internship. If someone is currently working outside of the accounting field and, let's say, they have a family to support and they can't take time away from that job right now to pursue a three-credit internship, which is 112. 5 hours of work, then we have some other alternatives too. So don't be shy about asking about those alternatives. But basically you could do a service learning project with me, or you can do a research project with me or one of the other accounting professors. So we do have some options there. So don't let that scare you. Or if you can't get an internship, which we haven't had that problem. We've had 100% of our students be able to get their accounting internship, and 100% of our students have then been offered full-time jobs from those internships. So we have a really good success rate so far. And as I said, we're brand new, so I'm going to brag a little bit, but keeping that in mind. We also then have electives. We have 18 credits of electives, and we have different combinations that you could choose from in order to achieve those 18 credits. So the one that I was just mentioning is this 18-credit firm cooperative. So if you get an internship with a CPA firm and they want to keep you for the semester and you're working full-time, you're basically earning the time that you're working goes towards the 18 credits. So it's 112. 5 hours times six courses. You could almost finish all of the work, those electives, in one semester. I did have one student that did that. It was hard, but he did. He had a few credits in the fall semester and then finished in the spring semester. And so he was able to graduate in a semester, which is not usual. It's usually one year or it spills over into summer. So there is a way to get the MS if you have everything lined up correctly to get it in a very short period of time, a year or even maybe a spring and a summer or just a fall and a spring or maybe a fall, spring, summer. If you are not interested in working at a CPA firm or you don't have the opportunity to get this extended, we call this the extended internship, then you can choose from these other options. And you can also, there is another one in here, is that you could choose nine credits of MBA classes. So they have HR, they have marketing, they have sustainability, things like that where you can choose from and sort of make up your own idea of what you want to focus on. But we also bundle forensic accounting courses. There's three courses there. We have a business analytics concentration from our BUSA master's program that you can, we have specific BUSA classes that you can take to get a concentration there. You also could do, let's say you weren't interested in BUSA and you wanted to do forensics and a nine-credit additional internship instead of the 18, you could do that. And you could also take one forensics, one business analytics, an MBA class. You can mix it up. So it just requires that we have close communication, and we are really proud of our model here at Stockton with our advising and precepting. So you would have that built into the program. So here's the courses that are in the two concentrations that we have right now. So you can see those. And then as I mentioned earlier, we do have a proposal for an MS in cybersecurity through our computer information systems technology, CIST department and our programs. And so we haven't designed the concentration for that yet because the program hasn't launched, but we are definitely interested in adding that here. And I do think that that'll help students with the discipline-specific ISC part of the exam.

As I said earlier, the internship is required. The three-credit internship is required for everyone. We want you to take that when you are in graduate status. So if you are a dual degree student, you wouldn't take that in your senior year. You would wait until you graduate with the BS, and that way your hours count towards the work experience requirement for the state. And of course, we have a swap that we do undergrad credits with grad credits, and some of the core classes are the ones that we swap. So as I said earlier, if you're dual degree, we can talk more about that outside of this session. Optional extended internship up to nine credits, and that's if it's in or out of a CPA firm. If you have a CPA firm opportunity, then you can get that up to 18 credits, and we only do that for CPA firms. We don't necessarily do that for, you know, like an industry-type accounting position. So right now, the 18 credits is if you're working at a CPA firm and you want to just pursue the 18-credit electives that way. So your internship hours that you earn, whether it's just the three credits required and/or additional credits in your electives, those hours, as I said, count towards your work experience requirement. In New Jersey, your work experience requirement is 1,750 hours, and three internship credits is 112 and a half hours of substantive work. So as I said earlier, you can really knock out a lot of these hours before you even graduate with the MS.

So here's a slide that talks about the two different pathways to achieve and obtain this MS in Accounting here at Stockton. The first listed here is the dual degree pathway. So again, it's for current Stockton undergrad accounting majors. It also is possible if you are a current Stockton undergrad finance major, and so that would be something we can talk about outside of this session as well. So if you are a finance major and you're interested in becoming a CPA and preparing for the exam, then definitely give this a thought and get in touch with me. So you take, as a dual degree student, you swap out 12 credits of your undergrad in your undergrad program for 12 credits of graduate courses. And since Stockton has four-credit undergrad classes, it's three undergrad for four grad. You take those grad classes in your senior year, and then you're able to graduate with the bachelor's. It fulfills the program requirements for the BS, graduate with the bachelor's, and then once you've gotten your application materials in, you apply through direct entry, and there you become a graduate student. And then you finish out the core classes that you hadn't taken, which is likely one plus the internship, the required internship, and then your 18 credits of electives. There's also the standalone pathway, which is really what this session is mostly about, and that's after you've achieved your baccalaureate. You can come on into the master's program without having to take undergrad classes, provided that you've taken the appropriate undergrad classes. So if you are interested in the MS in Accounting because you want to become a CPA, but you have a degree in nursing, let's say, that means that you didn't take the 24 business credits, and you probably don't have the 24 accounting credits. You might have some, maybe you took some electives or something that you're interested in, but likely you haven't met those requirements. And so as it stands right now, we don't have a pathway for you to achieve those while you are a graduate student. There are other ways that we are working out that is possible, that you can, you know, join Stockton and sort of be on the path to get into the master's. So again, that's something that we can talk about outside of the session.

Um.

So we do have graduate assistantships that we award on a semester-by-semester basis. They're basically, this semester I believe I have four credits, and so the student has to be in graduate status. So for dual degree students, it's not available until you have graduated with the bachelor's. Another funding opportunity is that we have some scholarships, and there are scholarships outside of the university, like through the New Jersey Society of CPAs, that graduate students are eligible to apply for and receive, and we have had many of our students receive those. Of course, you can take student loans and apply for other financial aid, and sometimes your elective co-op might even give you some tuition assistance, just depending on where you are and how you're classified in their firm. So you might be classified as a full-time staff. Maybe you're not even classified by them as an intern. That work experience still counts for us as internship for the credits. But if you're full-time there, after a waiting period, you may be able to get some tuition assistance. They also provide the CPA review course materials for free. A lot of the firms do. But we have in our courses, we have them embedded. We have the best one, I think, Becker. That's my opinion. We have those embedded into our core courses, and they're at a very, very reduced price. So you do get the full CPA review for tax, for auditing, for financial accounting and reporting, and then you get to choose whichever discipline-specific one that you want, whether it's TCB, BAR, or ISC. You do that review course while you're doing your three-credit internship. So you actually get all four review courses as part of course materials for each of those required courses. You do only get access to those materials for the semester that you're taking those courses, however.

So criteria to be admitted. You have to, for the standalone program, you have to successfully complete an undergrad in accounting, and you have to have the business prerequisites. You complete the application and submit your fee, your non-refundable fee. You submit an essay. There's two letters of recommendation required, and if you graduated within the last two years from Stockton's accounting program with a 3.2 or above and a B minus or higher in all accounting courses and Introduction to Business Analytics, you might qualify for direct entry, which makes the process a little bit simpler. And then we have the link here to apply to the program. If you are applying for dual degree, then you need to reach out to me via email, and I will send you the application for that. It's a separate application, so you wouldn't go to this website to apply.

And I believe that's it. If anybody has any questions, you can put those in the chat. Also, you could reach out to me directly. My email is Carla, C-A-R-L-A dot Cabarle, C-A-B-A-R-L-E, at Stockton dot edu.

All right, thank you, Dr. Cavarly. We will open it up for questions. If you have questions, please utilize the chat. And again, a reminder to not put any personal information in the chat. We can have individual conversations, and we're here to help answer your questions around transitioning into this program, admissions criteria, or anything that was not covered, although it was a very informative session. So this is the time now to ask any questions that you have, and we'll have a few seconds here to allow folks to populate those in the chat.

And if you are watching this as a replay, then please feel free, by all means, to send me an email directly.

Yes, good idea.

Maybe you can put your email in the chat, able to take.

Oh, there we go. There's a question. So we have a question from one of our attendees. What does the process look like for international students who have a graduate degree in finance, accounting, and auditing from France? So we do have international recruitment that sits in our Office of Graduate Admissions. So what I would ask you to do is to email gradschool@stockton.edu, so you still will be held to the same admissions criteria as the program, but we will walk you through the international admissions piece, and our office will help support your onboarding for that. So email us at gradschool@stockton.edu so that we can set up an appointment to kind of walk you through that process, okay?

Any other questions?

Oh, email in the chat. Sure.

Grad school.

It's stuck in EDU.

So at any given time, feel free to reach out to us. We are here to support you. We look forward to supporting you and your academic career here at Stockton University. We're always available. There's no question that's too small or too big, so always feel free to reach out to us, or feel free to reach out to the program chair as well. She'll be more than happy to help walk you through the process. So thank you all for attending today. We are so appreciative that you took time out of your day to learn about our program, and hopefully we'll see you soon. So stay in touch. All right. Bye-bye.