Overview & Information for Juniors

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The New Accounting Career

The accounting profession has historically held a position of great public trust.  The complexity of business and the pressures on business to perform have raised questions about the accounting function and the auditing profession.  However, while questions arise, the clear message is there:  accounting is extremely important to businesses, government, and the capital markets. 

More is going to be expected of accounting professionals as we move forward.  Accountants need to understand complex business activities, measure and codify complex business transactions and contracts, and then communicate the economic status and performance of a company or other organization in a clear and unequivocal fashion.

Accountants will always be trusted business advisors.  Accountants, internal to a organization  measure and benchmark the success an organization’s  strategic initiatives. External auditors must cope with an ever-changing complex economic environment where more is expected of them.  We think of accountants as “numbers people”, but all successful accountants have strong business, interpersonal, and computer skills.  Increasingly, our graduates are called upon to have expertise in enterprise risk management and controls. 

 Tomorrow’s accountant is required to use information technology to communicate and share data on a global “anytime, any place” basis.  The expanded skill set led the AICPA and the State of Wisconsin to require a 150 credit hour program for CPA certification after the year 2000.

 The accounting profession is more than accounting.  It is also more than public accounting, or auditing.  Our students take a wide variety of positions ranging from tax or audit positions at public accounting firms, governmental positions, investment banking positions as analysts, industry positions as either internal auditors or managerial accountants, and a host of other positions.  Our accounting graduates build on strong fundamentals obtained in their undergraduate program with a broader masters program to position themselves for a wide variety of positions in their second jobs in their career.  Thus, the graduate school experience should not be viewed as one focusing only on accounting, but one meant to broaden the skill set needed to succeed in business.

Skills Needed

 We developed our five-year professional program with the help of major industrial and professional service firms as well as our Accounting Department Advisory Board.  The program was designed to enhance your abilities in areas identified as vital to successful careers.  Recruiters at the University of Wisconsin look for students who exhibit:

• solid interpersonal skills including teamwork, listening, and effective written and oral communication

• strong intellectual ability and critical thinking skills

• creative thinking, initiative and a problem-solving attitude

• the ability to manage time, to be self-disciplined, and exhibit a  strong work ethic,

• a sense of ownership and accountability for actions, and

• the willingness to tackle ambiguous problems

 

Undoubtedly these are skills that future business leaders must have.   If you are willing to enhance your skills, you will have unprecedented opportunities in the accounting and information systems areas.

Wisconsin Response to These Career Challenges

In concert with our Accounting Advisory Board and career counselors, we specified four major criteria to ensure that the program was value-added to you.  These criteria include:

• a guaranteed internship (for pay) during the senior year,

• the attainment of both an undergraduate and graduate degree

• financial support in the fifth year for most students and

• specially designed courses to enhance your critical thinking skills and deepen your business acumen.

 

Students enrolled in the program have many options to pursue personal interests.  However, you must start planning now to ensure that you fulfill needed undergraduate prerequisites for your Masters program.  The program allows you to complement your accounting background with an outside emphasis in a number of different areas, including, but not limited to:

• Finance

• Information Systems

• Audit and Assurance Services

• Operations and Business Processes

• Real Estate

• Insurance and Risk Management

• Tax

 We expect students returning from their internship to have a greater awareness of businesses,  e.g. retailing, manufacturing, financial institutions, insurance, and so forth in which they may want to build further expertise.  We work with each of you to tailor a master’s program to further develop your interests as they fit your career objectives.

IMAcc Time Table for Admission and Acceptance

Applications are taken during January of your junior year.  The applications are available in the accounting department office.  Once applications are received, you will be scheduled for a half-hour interview with a faculty member.  The timetable is as follows:

Event	Date
Applications due to Departmental Office	Late January*
Admission Interviews with Faculty	February
Notification of Admittance	Early March
Interviews for Internship	Monday/Tuesday following finals
Notification of Internship Placement	Early June

 *If you plan on studying abroad, you need to contact the department early in the fall of your junior year and adhere to an alternate time table.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is available from three major sources:

• Paid internship

• Teaching assistant appointments or

• Project assistant appointments

All students admitted to the program will receive a paid internship of $8,000 to $10,000.  The competitive teaching assistantship and project assistantship appointments waive tuition and are made for either one semester or one academic year.  We anticipate at least 60 students or more will receive financial support each year to defray graduate tuition and other expenses.

 

About the Accounting Program at UW-Madison

The Accounting Program at UW-Madison has long been recognized as one of the top programs in the nation.  During the past decade the accounting program has been second among all schools in the country in the percentage of students passing the CPA Exam and first in students passing the CMA Exam.  Wisconsin students have won gold and silver medals as first and second place finishers in the nation, beating out literally tens of thousands of students from other programs. 

 

• Accounting faculty are leaders in their fields.  In recent years accounting faculty have:
• served as President of the prestigious American Accounting Association
• chaired the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations
• served as the Academic Fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission
• authored leading college textbooks in the field of accounting
• service on national committees for financial accounting standards
• authored articles in leading accounting research journals
• won numerous awards for excellence in teaching, not only from the School of Business, but from UW-Madison, the Wisconsin Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the American Accounting Association

Nearly 100 percent of accounting students are placed at graduation.  That’s not surprising since the Accounting Department is a “primary recruiting school” for the world’s four largest public accounting firms.  Average starting salaries vary by location.   

 

More Information

Applications for the IMAcc program are available in the accounting departmental office - 4122 Grainger or online.

While all members of our faculty are willing to talk with you about planning your career,  advisors and faculty members of the professional programs are listed below.  You are also welcome to contact Professor Jon Davis for IMAcc tax advisement at Room 4104 / 263-4264 / jdavis@bus.wisc.edu

	Grainger Office		Email
Mark Covaleski	4133C	263-4239	mcovaleski@bus.wisc.edu
Karla Johnstone	4289	262-354	kjohnstone@bus.wisc.edu
Ella Mae Matsumura	4250C	262-9731	ematsumura@bus.wisc.edu
Brian Mayhew (advisor)	4297	262-2714	bmayhew@bus.wisc.edu
Lynette Stolarzyk, Director, Professional Programs in Accounting (advisor)	4273	262-0316	lstolarzyk@bus.wisc.edu
Al Talarczyk (tax advisor)	4121	265-5033	atalarczyk@bus.wisc.edu
Terry Warfield, Chair (advisor)	4133C	262-1028	twarfield@facstaff.wisc.edu