The Best Courses to Learn Accounting in the U.S.

How to choose an accounting course

Since it’s virtually impossible to list all of the colleges and universities where aspiring accountants can acquire the necessary degree, the only way to ensure that you do actually enroll in the best course is to think about what’s important to you. Granted, googling “best accounting courses USA” is a good start since it’ll most likely bring up lists of the universities with the best accounting programs. If that’s your main strategy, then look up more of these lists and make a comparison of the available courses with special attention to what the programs offer. Although it’s tempting to just go with the top pick – which for many years has been the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business – the best thing to do is to look into the first ten candidates in each of the lists you find and weigh them up individually.

When it comes to making a decision, however, there are some particular criteria that you’ll need to consider:

Degree

Acceptance and graduation rates

Admittedly, the percentage of students accepted and those who successfully graduate from any given college or university can be an important factor in the selection process, but those numbers can be tricky. For instance, the acceptance and graduation rates of the University of Texas are below 40% and 60% respectively, but that doesn’t necessarily question the institution’s leading place in accounting education. However, if either of these numbers is close or over 80%, you should be suspicious and look into ratings and reviews about the courses.

Tuition fees

The high cost of educational fees is a problem that many Americans have to face with and it isn’t any different for those that want to become accountants either. In that regard, colleges and universities apply two approaches: there are those that give discounts to in-state students and those that don’t. If the former option is available, then the annual tuition fee is usually between $5,000-$11,000 a year, whereas in other cases the fees can be anything between $25,000 to $60,000 per year.

It’s important to note that international students are welcome to enroll in accounting degree programs in the U.S. but they will still be obliged to pay the full annual tuition fee.

Live and Learn

Thankfully, there are plenty of methods to further delve into the world of accounting. The internet is full of different online courses that are easy to digest, refreshing your memory and perhaps even revealing something new. But to really make yourself stand out, the best thing to do is to take the certification course of certain online accounting software providers since accountants who possess proven experience in one or more accounting apps are more valuable to clients that utilize these tools and are likely to be better prepared for any changes in the industry.