{"id":1570,"date":"2013-05-14T11:35:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T15:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2013-05-14T11:35:44","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T15:35:44","slug":"to-emu-as-undergrad-to-jmu-as-grad-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2013\/05\/14\/to-emu-as-undergrad-to-jmu-as-grad-student\/","title":{"rendered":"To EMU as Undergrad To JMU as Grad Student"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jonathan

Jonathan Beckler \u201907 \/\/ Audit senior, Cherry Bekaert LLP, Atlanta \/\/ Primarily works with healthcare clients to monitor their accounting and financial reporting practices. \/\/ When a client calls for advice, feels as if he\u2019s broken a barrier, from disliked auditor to trusted partner.<\/p><\/div>\n

“get best of both worlds”<\/h3>\n

One thing EMU recent accounting graduates often mention about the university\u2019s accounting program is how they benefitted from its small size.<\/p>\n

Ashley Hevener \u201910<\/strong> said the close, first-name relationship with her professors was a key part of the education that serves her well in her job as an auditor in Alexandria, Virginia, with Kearney & Company, a firm that focuses on federal agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEMU is doing a great job of preparing students to get the CPA certification,\u201d said Jonathan Beckler \u201907<\/strong>, now a senior accountant with Cherry Bekaert LLP in Atlanta, Georgia, echoing a sentiment expressed by many of his peers.<\/p>\n

In nearly every state, though, the boards that regulate the accounting profession have adopted policies requiring CPA aspirants to have completed 150 collegiate credit hours \u2013 basically a year of academic credit beyond the usual four undergraduate years \u2013 before they can be licensed as a CPA, even if they pass the CPA exam.<\/p>\n

Virginia adopted such a policy in 2005, meaning that accounting majors in the years since who want to become CPAs in Virginia \u2013 and pretty much any other state \u2013 have needed to continue their education at the graduate level.<\/p>\n

Enter the master\u2019s of accounting program at James Madison University (JMU), just across town from EMU. JMU has a 30-hour master\u2019s program in accounting. EMU and JMU have formed a strong partnership in recent years, giving EMU accounting majors ready access to a one-year graduate program in Harrisonburg that gives them enough credit to sit for the CPA exam.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our students go to \u2018finishing school\u2019 at JMU,\u201d says Ronald L. Stoltzfus \u201975<\/strong>, PhD, head of the accounting program in EMU\u2019s business and economics department. \u201cWe give them a good foundation, but our offerings are limited. JMU has the resources to offer graduate-level training in taxes, auditing and other aspects of accounting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoltzfus does recall one honors student, Eric Yoder \u201811<\/strong>, who chose not to enter graduate school and is now a CPA employed by Brown, Shultz, Sheridan and Fritz in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Yoder, however, came to EMU with 20 hours of college credit earned while in high school. This allowed him to take a few extra college courses and continue on to the CPA exam and licensing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the EMU students we have had in our program have been successes,\u201d said Paul Copley, PhD, director of JMU\u2019s School of Accounting. \u201cThey have been great in the classroom, have all found jobs, and have all passed the CPA exam. This is a testament to the quality of the undergraduate program at EMU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides his own JMU undergraduate pool, Copley says EMU is the only university from which his master\u2019s program actively recruits candidates; each year one or two EMU graduates typically enroll. The master\u2019s program at JMU allows students to specialize in taxation, audition or information systems.<\/p>\n

While EMU\u2019s small program size allows students to develop close, beneficial relationships with professors, being small also keeps it off the recruiting radars of large accounting firms. The fact that dozens of employers recruit from the graduate program at JMU \u2013 a public university with an enrollment of nearly 20,000 students \u2013\u00a0makes it an even more attractive option for EMU graduates looking for a first job opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cJMU has superior recruiting power for business and accounting students,\u201d said Monte Glanzer \u201907<\/strong>, who connected with his current employer, the accounting firm Hantzmon Wiebel in Charlottesville, Virginia, through one of his graduate professors at JMU.<\/p>\n

As Copley puts it, the presence of JMU\u2019s master\u2019s program in Harrisonburg gives EMU accounting students access to the \u201cbest of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckler agreed, describing his undergraduate study at EMU as a great foundation on which the master\u2019s program at JMU laid the finishing touches that prepared him for a career in accounting.\u00a0 \u2014 Andrew Jenner ’04<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“get best of both worlds” One thing EMU recent accounting graduates often mention about the university\u2019s accounting program is how they benefitted from its small size. Ashley Hevener \u201910 said the close, first-name relationship with her professors was a key part of the education that serves her well in her job as an auditor in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":1571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[324,364,362,365,363],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-ashley-heavener","tag-eric-yoder","tag-jonathan-beckler","tag-monte-glanzer","tag-ronald-l-stoltzfus","issues-spring-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}