MS in Accounting (MSA)

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National Recognition for SMU Cox MSA Program

The word is getting out that SMU Cox Accounting is on the rise! We were recently ranked #8 for undergraduate accounting by Businessweek Bloomberg. Recognition of our top ten status is very exciting.

We also want to announce the addition of two new graduate faculty this fall:

• Dr. Tom Selling is a former Academic Fellow, Office of the Chief Accountant, US Securities and ExchangeCommission, served on the faculty of Thunderbird (emeritis status), Dartmouth College, MIT and Wake Forest University, and serves as a speaker, consultant and expert witness. You may know him as author of the accountingonion.com blog.
   
• Dr. Stan Markov is an outstanding accounting researcher addressing how information, accounting and non-accounting, is produced and used by information intermediaries and the capital market. His research is empirical and economic-based, and published in premier academic journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, and the Review of Accounting Studies. Previously, he served on the faculty at Emory University and the Univerity of Texas-Dallas.

Additionally, last fall was been filled with case competitions showcasing the amazing students we have.  Congratulations to:

• Coming off winning the 2012 national case competition conducted by the public accounting firm of Rothstein Kass, we are pleased to announce another student team from SMU Cox will be competing in New York in 2013 national finals. Last year, among the finalists for the national competition were the teams from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, USC, UT-Austin, Lehigh University, Rutgers University, and the University of Notre Dame.
   
• A student team of graduate and undergraduate students from SMU Cox has been named a national finalist in the PwC xACT case competition.  Quoting PwC, "We were extremely impressed with not only the content, but also the quality of the campus winning presentations.  Our national review committee indicated that this year's solutions were very diverse, supported through in depth research and overall, very well done. You have really raised the bar for future competitions and you should all be proud of the effort you put forth, as well as the overall teamwork demonstrated." The PwC competition is one of the oldest and most prestigious of all the firm competitions. For our students, to be able to present in front of firm leadership in the national office is the "opportunity of a lifetime" for the students.
  
   
• A student team of two juniors and three sophomores from SMU Cox has won the Ernst & Young Beam Abroad Case Competition.  The team defeated teams from Texas A&M, UT-Austin, Baylor, Texas Tech, Arizona State, and the University of Oklahoma to win a $5,000 prize and a trip to London over Spring Break. While in London there will be a lot of sight seeing, but also a trip to the EY London office. The students will also share a meal with EY Global leadership and hear more about their business.

Other recent accolades include:

• One of our Masters in Accounting students has just been selected to serve in The Accounting Researcher Program for Ernst & Young.  This program provides a one-year rotation to first year staff who stand out in the crowd. The Researcher Program enables staff to network with partners and senior managers in the firm’s Professional Practice — Accounting Department in New York, develop their skills in accounting research and improve their oral and written communication abilities.  After the completion of her rotation, she will return to the Dallas office with enhanced knowledge and experience that will benefit engagement teams.
   
• SMU Cox students had the highest CPA Exam pass rate in the state of Texas during the summer 2011 and 2010 testing windows amongst schools with at least 10 students (summer testing window has highest number of candidates).  This reflects the quality of our undergraduate and MSA students as well as our faculty's commitment to their success.  We believe that the great strides being taken by the accounting program at SMU Cox are a direct result of our continuing efforts at undergraduate and graduate level to offer leadership and quality of instruction in all phases of our program.  SMU Cox is the training ground for future accounting leaders.
   
• The SMU Cox MSA Program is ranked #13 and our undergraduate program is ranked #22 among mid-size schools by Public Accounting Report.  This recognition was the result of over 1,700 accounting educator survey responses answering the question "Which programs consistently turn out students capable of some day attaining partner status?"

• SMU Cox was named by Parade Magazine as one of seven schools on its College A-List for Business and Accounting.
   
• SMU Cox is named one of the 15 best business schools nationwide in accounting, as part of The Princeton Review Annual Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools as reported in Entrepreneur magazine.

We are excited to see national recognition of our rigorous program as we seek to build both our quality and enrollments. Learn more about why students and recruiters are choosing the SMU Cox MSA Program!

MS in Accounting - Program Overview

The SMU Cox Master of Science in Accounting (MSA) Program, a stand-alone graduate program, is designed not just to be exam preparation but career preparation. The program provides students with the courses required to qualify for the Certified Public Accountancy (CPA) license while gaining a graduate degree from the prestigious SMU Cox School of Business.

SMU Cox is highly regarded for its commitment to excellence in education, and our MSA Program has received great national and regional interest from a vast array of firms in Dallas and across the nation. The SMU Cox School is AACSB-accredited and fully embraces SMU's philosophy that learning is a lifelong process. We will challenge you with SMU Cox's competitive standard in graduate level courses, taught by distinguished PhD faculty. We will encourage you to succeed in our personalized class environment-one of the hallmarks of SMU Cox. We will help you to achieve your goals by offering you a graduate program that provides outstanding long-term benefits to your academic and professional career.

Build on your undergraduate education by equipping yourself for your career while preparing for your CPA. Come discover why ambitious individuals unafraid to challenge themselves choose an SMU Cox MSA.

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