College Transfer student looking for the right degree?

Unless your community college has a degree program tied into a local university, you may be at risk losing a number of hours of credit.

I knew a very smart student who went to a community college getting the 60 plus hours required for her degree program, but she was upset that only something like 32 hours of them transferred to a university in a different city. She was upset that she spent two full years at a community college and only got credit for basically one year of school.

Years ago before my day, there were business schools (one level lower than a community college) where my grandfather went to a business school to get his basics for a job which after 40 years with the same bank, he had a pretty good job but that was mainly from on the job training rather than from the old concept, and they are still around, of “business schools” which did not offer college degrees.

You mention Devry which used to be one of these business/technical schools, but DeVry calls itself DeVry University now with campuses throughout the U.S. I don’t even know if DeVry University is an accredited university, but as earlier comments have indicated you may have a hard time getting a job or a decent job from DeVry; although, DeVry University (used to be something like DeVry business school) really did not give you a good foundation in, say, accounting, and just because of the name “DeVry” it would be difficult to get a job.

Now you say you are interested in after community college to possible go to Robert Morris.

Is this Robert Morris College?

Or, is this Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh?

Either way, I am confused about Robert Morris University as they offer less than one year accounting certificates, less than two year accounting certificate, associates degrees all the way up to Ph.D.s, so I do not know whether this is one of those colleges which used to be a “business school”.

You also mention DePaul which I assume is the DePaul University in or around Chicago University.

I know nothing specifically about these schools; however, I would imagine DePaul University in Chicago would be an excellent academic school

If you are talking about Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania or DePaul University in Illinois, then plan ahead as the tuition is extremely high at either of these schools.

I am just trying to make sure that you don’t get stuck at what was called a “business school” [less than a community college] and is now calling intelf a “university” like DeVry.

My degree is called just a BBA, a Bachelor’s of Business Adminstration, from a major university with a well respected business school (the University of Texas which is the single largest single campus currently in the U.S. with like 52,000 students, but when I went there, there were only 40 some odd thousand as I would imagine a big part of the increase is night school and all day Saturday degree programs designed for the working professional). No where on my BBA does it say accounting; however when interviewing, your transcript will show whether you have the accounting hours to be an accounting major when interviewing for a job.

I think that it was the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) which has required a minimum of 33 hours of accounting to get a Bachelor’s degree with an accounting major which to me is just busy work as 27 hours of accounting gives you more than enough basic accounting knowledge. I think the 27 to 33 hour difference is made up by an extra tax course (which I think is a waste as you learn taxes by preparing the tax return) and a government accounting course (which I think is a waste unless you are going to work for the government and usually government accounting jobs are hard to get).

I think, and, I could be wrong that the BBA accounting degree has gone from a total of four years of college to five years.

There are specific graduate degrees called the MPA and PPA which are accounting related which I will not be discussing here.

You will be hired off of your transcript and particularly your grades in accounting no matter what the degree is called as I have mentioned that my accounting degree is just called a BBA degree. You will not see that I majored in accounting until you look at my transcript.

The important thing is to go to a University that is a real University and not an “online” university or a university which really is a business school just calling itself a “university”.

Go to a university which you can afford which has a recognizeable name as far as being a traditional university as DeVry in not a traditional university just as Robert Morris College appears not to be either.

The meat of all accounting, maybe 90% of what you need to know are in the two intermediate accounting classes that you take your junior year along with other accounting and business clesses. So study intermediate accounting real hard your junior year and go to a legitimate accredited University which has a name for itself and is affordable, or at least something you can afford unlike a DeVry University or a Robert Morris College (now, Robert Morris University is good) where you will get a diploma, but no response for decent accounting positions. I hope this helps. If you have more questions, just ask.

After getting your associates degree, the only way to get an announting job or at least a good accounting job is to go to a regular accredited university with at least an average accounting program. Technical college, Internet online, and correspondence accounting degrees do have some merit, and will get you foot in the door say like a degree from DeVry but at a much lower level of professional work and will continue to hold you back as they will appear on your resume for decades to come where the person interviewing you is going to discount your education.

Personally, I feel that someone’s accounting education is how much that person has put into the accounting degree rather than the name of the institution from where you got that accounting degree.

As a prospective employee if two candidates interview for the same job, maybe the only difference might be in the name of the institutions where you got your accounting degree. A degree from DeVry or from online will be seen as inferior to the local four year college; although, many/most bachelor’s degree programs are no longer four year, but five year programs. And, in your case if you lose too many college credits from your community college, you might be looking at 4 more years of college.

The other thing that you should consider is the tuition in getting your bachelor’s degree as there are many ways to finance college and many scholarships available. You will just have to do a lot of homework.

Not that I am suggesting it; however if money is a problem, I have been hearing advertisements for like the Air Guard and something called the Montgomery bill which will pay your tuition, but not your room and board I would imagine. If you are interested in that route. If interested and you qualify, I would just check into local Air Guard openings in your state particularly if it would be with a unit that does not have to deploy overseas. Yeah, you might have to go through some basic training and advanced training and can sign up now and put that off for the future like next summer. But, I am sure all kinds of programs are available to finance your accounting degree.

I don’t have a lot of details on your situation, so I don’t know what to say.

If after completing your associates, and you feel that you will have problems getting into a regular 4 year university or if the academics at a 4 year university are not for you, rhen, we can discuss alternatives in future communications.

Thanks for asking my advice as I don’t know how much it has done for you. I have found counselors at community colleges to be very helpful in planning your future education. Many for year universities do not have counsellors as interested in your future as you will find at a 4 year college if you can even find a counellor at a 4 year college who takes half an interest in you.

Just remember that grades are important in getting the job that you want particularly the grade in intermediate accountint which is about 90% of the accounting knowledge you will ever need and about 95% or accounting theory hidh is important to know.

Accounting coursess are not heavy on the math.

And you only need to know the basics, add, subtract., multiplication, and division for accounting in over 99% of the real world accountint that you will need to know.

As you search for universities beyond the communiry college level, you may want to inquire to compare the success rate in taking the CPA exam of that college’s graduate to compare college and universities.

Remember it is not how big the name of a 4 year college is, rather it is the effort you put into you college work which will get you the best jobs particuarly the grades you make in intermediate accounting.

Good luck! I hope I answered some of your questions. If not, contact me again. Mike

Bellevue.edu