Education and Experience Requirements to Become a CPA
Education and Experience Requirements to Become a CPA
This article goes over the requirements to become a CPA. There are many different opinions on what the experience and education requirements should be, so the authors researched the opinions of many accounting professionals to see what the overall consensus is. In the United States, many of the licensing jurisdictions require students to complete 150 semester credit hours before being able to sit for the CPA Exam, as well as to become licensed. Other jurisdictions only require 120 semester credit hours to sit for the exam, but still require 150 hours to become licensed. Yet another requirement that varies is the experience requirement. Some jurisdictions require 2 years of accounting experience before granting the CPA license, while others require less. In general, professionals have been wary about the lower amount of 120 hours to sit for the test, because they feel that many people who pass the test do not take the time to finish the additional 30 hours required for the license. Those in favor of the lower amount of hours claim that it allows people to sit for the exam at the same time that they are taking the classes that pertain to the different sections. The results of the research studies showed that the majority of professionals believe that the education requirement should be 120 hours to take the exam, because they feel that earning a Bachelor’s degree in accounting should qualify you to sit for the exam. However, they believe that there should be 150 hours in order to qualify for the license. The results of the experience portion of the survey closely corresponded with the UAA rules. Most respondents agreed that there should be some experience requirement to earn the CPA license. One of the questions that was most interesting was whether or not it should be allowed to substitute having a master’s degree for experience. The majority of professionals disagreed with this stated that
This article goes over the requirements to become a CPA. There are many different opinions on what the experience and education requirements should be, so the authors researched the opinions of many accounting professionals to see what the overall consensus is. In the United States, many of the licensing jurisdictions require students to complete 150 semester credit hours before being able to sit for the CPA Exam, as well as to become licensed. Other jurisdictions only require 120 semester credit hours to sit for the exam, but still require 150 hours to become licensed. Yet another requirement that varies is the experience requirement. Some jurisdictions require 2 years of accounting experience before granting the CPA license, while others require less. In general, professionals have been wary about the lower amount of 120 hours to sit for the test, because they feel that many people who pass the test do not take the time to finish the additional 30 hours required for the license. Those in favor of the lower amount of hours claim that it allows people to sit for the exam at the same time that they are taking the classes that pertain to the different sections. The results of the research studies showed that the majority of professionals believe that the education requirement should be 120 hours to take the exam, because they feel that earning a Bachelor’s degree in accounting should qualify you to sit for the exam. However, they believe that there should be 150 hours in order to qualify for the license. The results of the experience portion of the survey closely corresponded with the UAA rules. Most respondents agreed that there should be some experience requirement to earn the CPA license. One of the questions that was most interesting was whether or not it should be allowed to substitute having a master’s degree for experience. The majority of professionals disagreed with this stated that