2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Nov 21, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Accounting, MSA

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Overview

Graduate Program

Clark University’s Master’s in Accounting program readies you for a career in public accounting and financial management. You will be able to develop and analyze accounting information, provide assurances of financial control and accuracy, develop investment and tax strategies, and advise top-level managers as they make important decisions with this STEM-designated program.

Graduate Program Requirements

The MSA program consists of 10-12 units. Students without previous accounting and quantitative coursework are required to take two units of foundations coursework in their first semester. One or both of the foundation courses may be waived based on prior coursework or waiver exams. Students who can waive both foundations requirements can complete the program in 10 units.

Completion of a graduate internship or experiential learning requirement is required for all full-time students in this program. This is an additional requirement and is not for course credit. There are several options available for students to complete this requirement. It may also be possible to waive this requirement if students have 3+ years of professional business work experience related to their field of study; for details contact a member of the Stevenish Career Management Center for more information.

Students must achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.0 to be in good academic standing at the end of each semester (a ‘B’ in each of their classes). The lowest grade a student can get in a course is a ‘C.’

Full-time students typically complete the program in four or fewer semesters. Part-time students typically complete the programs in eight semesters or fewer.

Students can only begin this program at the start of the fall semester.

Foundation Courses

Students may satisfy one or both of the foundation course requirements (ACCT 4101 Foundations of Accounting and STAT 4300 Data Driven Decision Making) through prior undergraduate or graduate coursework or by passing a waiver exam. Waivers and eligibility for waiver exams are only considered and finalized at the time of admission into the program.

• Waiver of the financial accounting requirement is based on successful completion (‘B’ or better within 6 years) of an undergraduate or graduate financial accounting course for credit, or a passing grade on the accounting waiver exam. If not waived, students will take ACCT 4101 Foundations of Financial Accounting to meet the foundation requirement.

• Waiver of the quantitative requirement is based on successful completion (‘B’ or better within 6 years) of an undergraduate or graduate course for credit in statistics, operations management, or economics; or a passing grade on the statistics waiver exam. If not waived, students will take STAT 4300 Data Driven Decision Making to meet the foundation requirement.

Required Courses

Fall Semester 1
ACCT 4101 - Foundations of Financial Accounting
STAT 4300 - Data Driven Decision Making
ACCT 5103 - Management Accounting with Data Analytics
MGMT 4708 - Business Law I (.5 credit elective)
MGMT 4713 - Business Law II (.5 credit elective)
*MSA students who plan to sit for the Uniform CPA Examination in Massachusetts are advised to take Business Law I and II as their elective. Otherwise, the elective course can be any School of Business courses that are available to MSA students (please see below for listed options).
Spring Semester 2
ACCT 5100 - Accounting Analytics
ACCT 5101 - Financial Analysis and Reporting I
ACCT 5104 - Accounting Information Systems
ACCT 5105 - Financial Auditing with Data Analytics
Fall Semester 3
ACCT 5102 - Financial Analysis and Reporting II
ACCT 5109 - Government and Nonprofit Accounting
ACCT 5206 - Federal Taxation
ACCT 5200 - Advanced Accounting Analytics

Elective Courses

If students intend on pursuing their CPA, they should take MGMT 4708 and MGMT 4713 for 1 unit of their required elective coursework.

Program Faculty

Program Director

Zhihong Wang, Ph.D.

Program Faculty

Zhihong Wang, Ph.D.

Da Wu, Ph.D.

Kyunghee Yoon, Ph.D.