2010 Master of Accounting applicants UNITE!

Cyan, have you visited UT or Chapel Hill? If so, what's your take on either or both programs?

Here's my field report for UT-Austin and Chapel Hill (I'm so torn between both programs. I feel like a guy who's madly but equally in love with two wonderful women):

Chapel Hill:

Pros: Exactly 12 months and geared toward non-accounting majors so everyone will be in the same boat. The program is very clear and laid out, you already know in advance what courses to take. After finishing in May, you can immediately sit for the CPA exam (including the 150 hour states). The program is just the right size at 110 students or so, and the facilities are excellent. The McColl Bldg. looks brand new, students get assigned lockers, and the space is just aesthetically pleasing. Chapel Hill is also an excellent choice if you're looking at North Carolina or the east coast.

Cons: Chapel Hill is a quaint but sleepy college town, and Kenan-Flagler is slightly isolated from the rest of campus so it makes it hard to interact with students from other schools (I presume?). As mentioned, the program is 12 months, which is great as far as letting you get out soon to start working, but looking at the curriculum, it seems a little too crammed. If your goal is to get a job west of the Mississippi, it will be harder unless you have a connection with the particular city (i.e. significant other, family members, you grew up in said city, etc.).

UT-Austin:

Pros: Considered # 1 by various publications, but as I said in another thread, this is partly due to the ranking surveys being filled out by professors with connections to UT-Austin. UT has a large ph.d accounting program. It would be interesting to survey Big 4 partners instead, but the problem with this approach is that accounting seems to be too geographically-based of a profession. In other words, how's a firm in San Francisco going to know about the quality of programs in the southeast? For all the partners at said firm know, Stanford and Berkeley are it.

The program also offers plenty of flexibility. You have four tracks to choose from and you can combine/customize them to fit your particular goals/needs.

The McCombs School is set right in the heart of campus, and it feels like you'll have more opportunities to have a broad social life outside of the business school peeps.

Austin's also alot more fun than Chapel Hill.

Cons: For all the program's flexibility, it can seem pretty disorganized. For instance, if you want to sit for the 150 hour state CPA exams and you don't have an accounting undergrad. background, you may have to take more courses and thus stay longer (which also means paying more $$$). Also, the internship opportunities are harder to come by for someone without an accounting background in order to graduate on time.

So this is just my two cents. I don't know where I'd want to live yet, definitely a major city with a warmer climate where the cost of living is cheaper (not Houston or Dallas though), the crime rate is low, and there are plenty of young professionals.

No i havent had time to visit.

Hi ... I was admitted to USC and will accept. Still wondering if I dreamed up the bit where they told me I got in. Such a short period of time until summer intensive begins! Hi to belle, cyan, and puckman - are you decided or still deciding? best of luck to everyone...

Congrats soniam!

I'm still deciding. I think USC has a slight lead over UT-Austin right now, but I haven't visited the campus yet (going to LA next weekend).

We'll see how it goes...

I also applied to most of schools mentioned here such as UT-Austin, BC, UVA and so on.

Since I am an international I have to factor in $$$. It looks like I wont get as much scholarship as I expected and dreamed of. Most schools that gave me admissions offered me 4k-6k range and we all know that out-of-state or private college tuition is about 35k +-5k.

My gmat is 700 and 3.97 GPA and I am currently completing my senior year in the US.

I was thinking that 4-6k scholarship is somewhat low compared to what my friend received last year. Hes also an international with lower test scores and GMAT than mine but got WAY more scholarship than mine.

Anyone with scholarhsip care to share their shcolarship amount?

Anybody get a package or $$$ from USC after their admissions interview said they were in? Mine was two weeks ago and I havent gotten anything. UNC give anything out any $$, my deadline for UNC is coming up.

Ya I got a package and scholarship offer last week from USC. Deadline of March 15.

I also received my package and my scholarship offer last week.

Hey everyone, I decided on USC over UT-Austin. Tough choice but USC was a better fit in the end.

Good luck to everyone and hope to see a few of you in LA this summer!

Belle and soniam I PM'ed you as well.

Can I ask you why you chose USC over UTA? I did not apply to USC but am just wondering as to what made you pick USC. (Maybe because I did not read your previous postings).

Sure. I was going to post something on my UT visit, but I've been busy.

Well for starters, they doubled the scholarship UT offered, so that made a big difference. A lot of people advised me to try to "haggle" with the scholarship offers, and it can definitely be done. I shared the UT offer with USC and they came back with double the amount.

Another big factor was the summer intensive program at USC. It's a full two months and five classes I believe (you do one class at a time for about two weeks each). Everyone mentioned that they had a great time and made really good friends during that time. They did a beach trip one day and a Dodgers game another, among other things. The summer program at UT is only 2 classes and starts later (July I believe).

USC offers a free online course of basic accounting (a standard course offered to undergraduate students). I wanted to take a review anyway, so having this offered for free is a big plus for me. I believe it starts in March if I remember correctly.

USC ends in May, and UT ends in July or August I believe. It's 11 months start to finish including summer intensive at USC.

I like LA and Southern California in general much better than Texas. I've lived all over Texas and really don't want to work in Houston or Dallas, which is where many end up from UT.

Both programs are excellent and the students are really sharp. I just liked some of the details of the USC program and if felt like a better fit. I could've been happy at UT too, but in the end I just went with USC. If you're deciding between different programs, I'd recommend taking a campus visit if you can, even if it's just a day or two. Meeting students/advisers and sitting in on classes was a huge help. It gives you a good feel for what it would be like to be a student.

Good luck and let me know if you have questions about anything else about either program.

Hey Puckman, congratulations on your decision!

If you don't mind me asking, how did you go about bringing up your UT scholarship at USC. I ask because I feel like I may try doing the same thing at a couple of my schools. I'm just not sure how to actually drive the conversation to that point where they'd be in a position to match/exceed another school's offer.

Thanks again.

Thanks Vic. Regarding the scholarship, I didn't really bring it up if I remember correctly. I mentioned that I was going to Austin to visit UT and I believe the conversation progressed to deadlines, and I mentioned something about a scholarship deadline at UT. They then asked me directly how much it was. Sorry I don't have a more detailed answer.

But I guess if you have several good options and a scholarship would make you pick one over the other, you could directly ask one or more schools if they'd be able to offer X amount. If you have other good options it can't hurt right? I probably would've picked USC without the extra scholarship, but it's definitely a big plus.

Pretty confident I'm going to BC, I've got a visit planned for mid March. Definitely looking forward to it...anybody else taking the BC route?

Hi everyone! *waves* Finally decided to stop hijacking my BF's account to keep up with you all, and made my own.

Background Info:
GMAT: 680
GPA (Undergrad/Major): 3.64 / 3.94 (still in progress!)
Concentration: Accounting
Work Experience: Two 6-month internships with top financial firm
Not too much in the means of extracurriculars

Admissions Statuses so far:
UVA: Accepted, waiting to hear about whether or not I get $$$
BC: Accepted, with $$$
Vandy: Rejected
WUSTL: Accepted, but declined
USC: Accepted, with $$$
UT-Austin: Waiting

Still have to finish apps for ND, Baruch, OSU, and UMinn... I'm a really bad procrastinator Might even add more schools later... my process is a little more complicated because I'm planning it with my BF and trying to go to same area together. These short deadlines are driving me nuts!

Just found out I was rejected by UTA today. Sad.....

Aww, that sucks. You had really good stats too

Do you mind if I ask when you applied? I just submitted my application a few weeks ago...