CPA License

CPA License and the Accounting Major at Quincy University

A CPA may become licensed to practice in one of the 55 jurisdictions (states or territories of the U.S.) The requirements to become a licensed CPA vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and include educational and experience requirements and may include other requirements such as the successful completion of an ethics component.

In order to become a licensed CPA, an applicant must successfully complete the educational requirements which are also determined by each of the 55 jurisdictions.  All jurisdictions require a bachelor’s degree with at least 150 credit hours of coursework, although some states will allow you to sit for the exam after completing 120 hours (the additional 30 hours would have to be completed before you could obtain a license).

Each jurisdiction also specifies how many accounting and business hours you must have before you can sit for the CPA Exam.  Some states specify that these hours must include specific courses.  For example, Illinois requires 24 hours in business and 30 hours in accounting subjects, which must include audit, financial and managerial accounting and taxes (all of these courses are part of the Quincy University Accounting degree).

Prior to completing your accounting degree, a student should consult their state board of accountancy to design their degree program to include the required courses.  Faculty within the accounting department are happy to assist with this if help is needed.  A link to the individual state boards can be located at the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).

NASBA state board (http://nasba.org/stateboards/)

Since all states require the completion of 150 credit hours of coursework, the Quincy University Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting (requiring 120 hours) does not meet the 150-hour educational requirement for sitting for the CPA exam.  However, students can obtain the additional hours needed though additional coursework or a MBA degree, which are offered by Quincy University.