Public Accounting
Public Accountants are generally thought of as CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants. CPAs make up the mainstay of personal accounting services in the United States, preparing millions of tax statements each year. Public Accountants can also find themselves working for a firm that provides accounting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Public Accountants perform numerous tasks, including reviewing financial statements, assessing risk, testing system reliability, evaluating business assets, tax planning and consulting, measuring performance, analyzing operations, financial planning, and benchmarking against competition.
Associate’s programs in Public Accounting study the basic principles of accounting, including debits, credits, balance sheets, and income statements. The Bachelor in Accounting curriculums dive deeper into the subject and include professional, ethical, and technical aspects of accounting in a variety of corporate and governmental settings. The Master in Accounting degree offers students advanced accounting courses that are necessary in order to apply for permission to take the Certified Public Accountant exam. For those students who which to teach accounting, become experts in the field, or consult, the PhD degree explores why we use accounting the way we do and provides the chance to conduct original research.
