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Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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Schools:Yale SOM 2011 Alum, Kellogg, Booth, Tuck
Q44 V50
WE 1: IB - Restructuring & Distressed M&A
Re: Need Help from all the great people on this forum
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06 Dec 2010, 20:31
Hard to tell.
What are your reasons for going back to school for MS Accounting degree? Depending on the purpose of the degree, it may impact your chances at some of these schools. A lot of these schools have the MS Accounting program for their own undergraduate accounting students.
Some schools like to accept students who are coming straight from undergraduate school, and recommend "experienced" applicants towards their MBA program. Some schools won't accept undergraduate accounting majors, etc.
Anyway, based on the little information that you posted:
660 GMAT and 3.4 GPA combo should give you more than fair shot at programs like Boston College, Baruch, Michigan State, Texas A&M, and U of Florida.
For programs like UIUC, and Notre Dame, it is going to be tougher because you will be competing with cream of the crop (in terms of applicant quality). You have a decent chance at those programs, but it would be much tougher compared to the schools listed above (Baruch, etc).
Your work experience is not going to make much impact for MS Accounting degree because the program is mainly targeted towards 5th yr accounting majors. Your work experience might work in your favor during recruiting.
Hopefully, your goal is to get into public accounting. For a lot of these programs, that has to be the goal because the school work closely with Big 4 (and other public accounting firms) recruiters. They wine and dine these Big 4 recruiters and adjust their program based on the feedback from the recruiters. (After all, their program won't be popular if they can't get these firms to come to campus for OCR, etc).
If you don't have a preference (other than UIUC), I would recommend you to apply to Baruch, Boston College, Bentley, and etc. Barring another recession, the number of application to MS Accounting programs should fall compared to past 2-3 years. I think you have a pretty good shot at these schools.
Apply to Notre Dame and UIUC (and apply as early as possible. At some of these programs, they fill seats on first come basis). I am optimistic that you might get into one of these two, but every top undergraduate student without a job offer is applying to one of these programs. Competition will be fierce.