Accountancy
In your world, accountants will elevate value creation beyond financial performance to measure environmental impacts and risks, and community empowerment, shifting shareholder returns to broad stakeholder equity.
In the past, people assumed that accountants played mainly reactionary and reporting roles as financial historians and tax return preparers. Like everything, the role of the accountant is changing.
Today, Boler accountancy graduates stand at the center of global business disruption and change. Going forward, at every stage of your career, you will have the chance to play a strategic, proactive role — mining and developing information to harness forces — technology, data, globalization — to realize the holy grail of sustainable value creation.
What You Will Do
Most Boler graduates become Certified Public Accountants and serve within public accounting firms, public and private corporations, and government bodies and municipalities. Over the past decade, Boler accountancy graduates have been among the nation’s top performers on CPA exam pass rates. Boler is proud of its near 100% job placement for all Accountancy graduates.
The largest and most well-known firms (Big Four Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG) comprise the four largest professional services networks in the world, offering audit, assurance services, taxation, management consulting, advisory, actuarial, corporate finance and legal services. The Big Four handle most audits for public companies as well as many private companies. This group was once known as the "Big Eight", and was reduced to the "Big Six" and then "Big Five" by a series of mergers. The Big Five became the Big Four after the fall of Arthur Andersen in 2002, following its involvement in the Enron scandal.
What You Will Learn
As a Boler accounting student, you will gain a distinct balance of Ignation values, broad knowledge and specific skills/tools needed to flourish in a changing profession.
Your broad core and business knowledge will help you to:
- Balance sometimes competing customer/stakeholder/sustainability priorities
- Advocate for long-term and ethical leadership and strategy
- Anticipate and adapt to changing market conditions
- Communicate with the clarity needed to build investor and stakeholder confidence
- Inform and model fair-minded management that attracts and retains critical talent
Hands-on experience and exposure to emerging trends will set you apart in the job market.
Internships
Boler accountancy graduates pursue and secure top internships at large and mid-sized firms across Northeast Ohio and nationally. This early professional experience empowers Boler graduates to perform among the nation’s best on CPA exam pass rates, and underscores Boler’s near 100% job placement for all Accountancy graduates.
Short Term Study Abroad
Boler accountancy students can experience globalization, and its impact on markets and constantly adapting accounting and finance regulations, through a distinct Short Term Study Abroad trip. The trip brings together working professionals from the MBA program and accountancy students, and is led by faculty member Jerry Weinstein.
Your advanced technical accounting skills will enable you to:
- Guide organizations on how best to integrate governance, risk management, and control systems
- Exceed compliance requirements and empower entrepreneurial and prudent management
- Ensure that financial strategy and navigation look beyond short-term earnings to support long-term economic viability
- Apply operations discipline to ensure that resource allocation aligns with strategic goals and objectives.
Job Outlook
Hiring rates for new accountants remain strong, especially at the graduate degree level. A long track record of success — on the job, on the CPA Exam and as senior managers — means that Boler graduates attract strong interest and very good initial job offers.
Recent Job Placements
Accountancy Program Requirements
Bachelor of Accountancy: 65 credit hours as described below.
Business Core: 41 credit hours, including MHR 463.
Major Courses: 24 credit hours (a minimum of 15 hours must be in residence), including AC 303, 304, 305, 312, 321, 341, 431, and one elective.
Elective Courses in Accountancy (AC 405, 422, 462, 483, 484) enable majors to increase their expertise in several career paths.
Comprehensive Examination: Majors must pass a comprehensive examination before graduating. Seniors take this examination in the semester they intend to complete the undergraduate accountancy curriculum. Those who fail the first written comprehensive will normally be given a second examination. Students who fail both examinations will be required to show evidence of further study in accounting and will subsequently be retested.
Boler Accountancy Curriculum
Post-Baccalaureate Accountancy Credits
Students from any college who have earned a bachelor’s degree and desire the necessary course work to be eligible to sit for the CPA examination in Ohio must complete a minimum of 30 semester hours in Accountancy and 24 hours in other business subjects. It is recommended that students accomplish the primary sequence indicated below, two accounting electives, and other business courses as required (e.g., business law, economics, finance, marketing, management). Students may discuss the various options with a member of the Department of Accountancy.
For complete information, visit the website of the Ohio Accountancy Board at http://acc.ohio.gov/.
Accountancy Sequence applicants should contact the assistant dean for graduate business programs at 216-397-1970. Official transcripts of all previous college work should be sent to the assistant dean’s office in the Boler School.
Primary Sequence
AC 201-202 Accounting Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 cr.
AC 303-304-305 Intermediate Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 cr.
AC 312 Cost Analysis and Budgetary Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 321 Federal Taxes I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 341 Accounting Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 431 Auditing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
Electives Select at least two of the following:
AC 405 Seminar in Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 422 Federal Taxes II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 462 Global Business and Accounting Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 483 Advanced Managerial Accounting and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
AC 484 Accounting Theory and Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cr.
Business Community Engagement
CPA ranked #1 in Ohio
John Carroll University accountancy graduates ranked #1 in Ohio for overall pass rate for First Time takers for both the Auditing & Attestation (AUD) and the Financial Accounting & Reporting (FAR) sections (for institutions with at least 10 takers).
JCU ranked 23rd nationally in 2016 CPA exam pass rate for First-Time takers from institutions with 21 to 65 reported candidates. This grouping includes over 300 institutions. The JCU pass percentage was 67.1% compared to the national average of 54.4%.
This information is from the Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination, the NASBA Report on the CPA Exam - 2016 University Edition.
Top 1% of Business Programs Worldwide
Boler College of Business holds Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as the independent accountancy accreditation, a distinction held by only one percent of business programs worldwide.
Read An Alumni Success Story
Practice Sessions in Boler Give MBA Grad a Real-World Advantage
Molly Cheraso was passionate about her job as an accountant at KeyBank. She wanted to pursue an MBA program that would allow her to grow in her position faster.
Read Full Story
Bloomberg Certified
We encourage every Boler student to earn Bloomberg Certification. By completing the (free) self-paced Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) e-learning course, you gain a credential that tells employers you have a firm grasp of the gold standard financial markets data platform.
Learn MoreIndustry Statistics
Why Accounting
-
Albert Nagy, Ph.D., CPA
Department Chair, KPMG Professor of Accountancy
Learn More
Department of Accountancy
Albert Nagy, Ph.D., CPA
Department Chair, KPMG Professor of Accountancy
Department of Accountancy
Ph.D. The University of Tennessee
M.A. The University of Tennessee
B.B.A. Bowling Green State UniversityWhy Department of Accountancy?
I was looking for a challenging degree that provided many career opportunities in business. Accounting fits the bill.
What's new?
More and more assets and liabilities are required to be measured at fair value. The subjective nature of fair value measures increases the complexity of the accountant’s role of interpreting business transactions.
When I'm not teaching...
I enjoy chasing a ball around a golf course and steelhead trout around the Lake Erie tributaries.
I tell my students...
Enjoy the journey. Take some time to enjoy the flowers and trees on the mountain’s side in your journey to the top.
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Mark Sheldon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Accountancy, Sullens Professorship of Accountancy
Learn More
Department of Accountancy
Mark Sheldon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Accountancy, Sullens Professorship of Accountancy
Department of Accountancy
Ph.D. Virginia Tech
M.Acc. Miami University
B.S. Miami UniversityWhy Department of Accountancy?
If you want to understand how a business works, you need to know the numbers. There is also a huge demand for accountants, so you’ll have plenty of options on the job market!
What's new?
Many companies now report on their environmental impact, so the accounting profession is developing ways to standardize the underlying measurements and related disclosures (i.e. of carbon emissions).
When I'm not teaching...
I am doing research in accounting, travelling, reading, exercising, hanging out with friends/family or adjusting my pocket protector ☺
I tell my students...
Accounting is not an easy major. However, there are clear rewards for those that accept the challenge (i.e., high job demand, good raises/bonuses, fast career progression). Accounting is also much more social than people give it credit for! If I had to start my career over again, I wouldn’t change a thing!
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Gerald Weinstein, Ph.D., CPA
Professor Emeritus of Accountancy
Department of Accountancy
Ph.D. Kent State University
M. Acc. Bowling Green State University
B.S.B.A. Bowling Green State UniversityWhy Department of Accountancy?
Doing an income tax return is like putting together a puzzle where sometimes the pieces don’t quite fit and judgement is required.
What's new?
The new administration has promised legislation providing significant tax reform. We are waiting...
When I'm not teaching...
I play softball. I don’t hit well but I run like the wind. And in the winter, I work out to stay in shape for softball.
I tell my students...
The easiest way to predict the future is to create it (Peter Diamonds said that).
