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Earn a degree that makes you a valuable addition to any business.
Major Roadmap
Explore your options — classes, internships, research and study abroad. Find what interests you, discover what you love, and create a major experience that jumpstarts your future.
An Accounting major gives you the technical expertise and ethical foundation for one of the fastest-growing career opportunities. Prepare to become a fraud examiner, business development consultant or corporate accountant in classes taught by faculty with years of real-life experience. You’ll learn critical thinking and communication skills to apply in a challenging profession that needs values-based leaders.
Get hands-on practice in an internship that immerses you in the professional world. Prepare to sit for the CPA exam or earn a credential as a Certified Management Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor or Certified Fraud Examiner. You can also go all-in and earn your undergraduate degree and a Master of Accounting degree from St. Edward’s in just five years.
As an Accounting major, you’ll have the chance to conduct research into accounting topics and present your work at professional conferences. And, with your fellow students, you’ll give back to the community by helping low-income Austinites prepare their tax returns.
Accounting graduates discover job opportunities in every industry, in nearly every location across the globe. You might follow in the footsteps of the many St. Edward’s students who’ve interned, then been hired, at Big Four accounting firms. Or work for a smaller firm, a local business or in a government department. Companies frequently look for CEOs with a strong foundation in accounting because these candidates understand the financial consequences of business decisions.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the employment of accountants and auditors will grow 11 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations. You’ll leave St. Edward’s well prepared for a job that’s in high demand.
What do our graduates do?
Accounting majors go on to a variety of careers and graduate schools from St. Edward’s. Here’s a sample.
- Senior audit associate at KPMG
- Audit and assurance accountant at Deloitte
- Accounting team leader at Whole Foods
- Analyst in Accounting and Finance at ConocoPhillps
- Accountant at Texas Mutual Insurance Company
- Accountant at St. David’s HealthCare
- Recipient of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship
Creating International Connections
Zachary Riola ’17 participated in KPMG’s highly competitive Global Internship Program and spent a month in Christchurch, New Zealand, working with international teams on major client accounts.
The Classroom and Beyond
The St. Edward’s Accounting program will prepare you to become an ethical, detail-oriented professional. You’ll develop your skills in volunteer and internship settings like the following.
Service Experiences
Accounting majors help residents of an Austin affordable housing community complete their tax returns. This is a good opportunity to give back to the community while learning what tax preparation looks like in practice.
Student Organizations
Get to know your fellow students and learn about career options in the Accounting Club and the annual Accounting Student Retreat.
Internships
In the spring, Accounting students can complete a full-time, “busy season” internship during either the audit busy season (January to mid-March) or the tax busy season (January to mid-April). Your Accounting courses will begin in a compressed semester after the busy season, allowing you to be fully immersed in the professional world for this important time. Students have recently interned with KPMG and Deloitte as part of this program and have been extended full-time offers after the internship.
Additional Accounting internships include the following:
- The “Big Four” firms: KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY
- Audit, tax and consulting firm RSM
- Salling Madeley, PLLC
- WP Engine in Austin
- Disney College Program
- New York Mets
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Degree Requirements
Major Requirements: The BBA in Accounting requires 66 hours of major coursework.
General Education Requirements: All majors require 44 hours of general education that students complete over the course of four years, in addition to their major courses.
A few examples of the Accounting courses students take:
- Federal Tax – Learn to identify tax issues, understand and apply tax law, prepare tax filings and conduct professional research.
- Audit – Get introduced to the theory, concepts and principles of auditing. The course will emphasize audit evidence, audit risk, ethical conduct and legal restrictions, professional standards, audit planning, data analytics and audit reports.
- Accounting Internship – Gain course credit and accounting experience, and make connections between classroom theory and its application in professional practice.
Take advantage of a mini-mester option, allowing you to work full-time in an internship, stay on track for your degree and complete additional courses in a compressed time-frame.
The mini-mester option includes a co-requisite of a six-credit hour internship (at least 240 hours of work in a public accounting environment), followed by two three-credit hour courses in a compressed mini-mester. These three-credit hour courses include Legal Environment of Business for Accountants and Accounting Ethics and are offered from mid-April until the end of the spring semester.
View the full degree plan for our Accounting major (Option 1 – Traditional course sequencing).
View the full degree plan for our Accounting major (Option 2 – Full-time internship and mini-mester sequencing).
Speak with your advisor to determine which of these options is a better fit for your academic and career objectives.
Credentials and Advanced Degrees
Companies frequently look for CEOs with a strong foundation in accounting because these candidates understand the financial consequences of business decisions.
Career advancement generally requires attaining professional credentials such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) or Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
To earn a CPA credential, students must:
- Meet with an Accounting faculty advisor early on to make sure their degree plan will satisfy CPA requirements.
- Complete 150 semester credit hours in specific, approved academic courses (the minimum required to sit for the Texas CPA exam). All Accounting courses meet the requirements of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.
St. Edward’s University undergraduate Accounting majors can seamlessly transition to the 30-hour Master of Accounting program after their junior year.
Apply for the five-year integrated BBA/Master of Accounting (MACT) program.
Our Faculty and Student Support Services
Our Accounting faculty members bring experience in the accounting profession – as auditors, tax practitioners, business consultants and government administrators – to their instruction and research. They teach students a combination of qualitative, quantitative and ethical reasoning skills that prepare them for the global economy.
In addition to holding the CPA license, many of the faculty members hold credentials such as Certified Fraud Examiner and Chartered Global Management Accountant.
"Our goal is to help students develop into accounting professionals. In addition to teaching them the curriculum necessary to succeed on the CPA exam, we emphasize ethical practice and strong professional communication skills."
– Louise Single, chair of the Accounting Department
Student Support Services
Along with personal attention and mentorship from their professors, our students have access to offices and programs outside of the classroom that support their success. We encourage students to take advantage of these resources that help them excel:
- Academic counseling and advising
- Supplemental instruction and tutoring
- Career preparation and advising
- Writing Center consultation
- Health and wellness counseling
- Student disability support
Accounting Minor
A minor in Accounting can be useful for students in almost any discipline because accounting plays a role in nearly every type of organization.
Required Courses:
- ACCT 2301 – Principles of Accounting I
- ACCT 2303 – Principles of Accounting II
- ACCT 3331 – Intermediate Accounting I
- ACCT 3332 – Intermediate Accounting II
- ACCT 3333 – Cost Accounting
- ACCT 3334 – Federal Taxation
- ACCT 4346 – Accounting Information Systems
Total Hours: 21
Are you a current student? Contact your advisor for next steps on declaring your major or minor.