The University of Vermont is listed among the top 40 institutions in the U.S. for its pass rate on the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) exam in the latest rankings from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.

The university’s 75 percent pass rate, based on the scores of 37 graduates of UVM’s Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program in the Grossman School of Business, is among the top 4.9 percent nationwide and well above the U.S. and international pass rate of 49.8 percent. UVM’s overall pass rate of was better than all but 39 of more than 1,000 institutions with 10 or more candidates included in the rankings. 

“I attribute the high ranking to our dedicated accounting faculty and MAcc Director Susan Hughes, who have very high standards and expectations for our students,” said Sanjay Sharma, dean of the Grossman School of Business. "Our students are getting multiple job offers before they graduate and are going into the top accounting firms."

UVM was also ranked ninth out of 266 medium-sized programs with 21-60 CPA exam candidates for an improvement of 11 places over last year’s 20th-place ranking. The overall ranking marked the first time in school history that UVM cracked the top 40, which also placed it ahead of all other New England institutions except for Boston College.

“I definitely feel as though my undergraduate and graduate experiences helped me with the CPA exam,” said Lauren Graves ’14, G’15, who passed the exam in 2015. “My undergraduate classes helped me build my overall business knowledge, which was integral in my success on the BEC (Business Environment and Concepts) exam. The MAcc program really filled in all of the remaining gaps for the other three exams.” 

Hughes, who has been working with Associate Professor Barbara Arel to increase the quality and size of the MAcc program, credits the hard work of students and hiring of key faculty to the increase in CPA scores. Of the four sections on the exam, UVM students did especially well in the Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) section with a 100 percent pass rate and in Regulation (92.3 percent), which focuses on tax and law. Tom Orner '14, G15, for example, scored a 96 percent on the REG section and no less than a 94 percent on any of the four sections. "It is definitely a reflection of how great the faculty in the program are and all the hard work they have put in," he said.  

Hughes points to the efforts of Lecturer Keith Casper, president of the law firm of McCormick, Fitzpatrick, Kasper & Burchard in Burlington, and Assistant Professor Glen Walberg, who went from teaching the program’s sole introductory tax course to a full slate of tax courses.

“We managed to change Glen’s entire teaching schedule to tax, and it has a made a huge difference,” Hughes says. “He’s a tax scholar and an award-winning teacher, and students have changed their professional preferences after being in his classes. Our improved Regulation score says to me that between our tax and law offerings we’re doing an amazing job. The content and quality of the courses and hard work of our students prepares them well for the exam.”