The 30-credit-hour Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program was created in 2009 to provide students with a high-quality graduate education that allows them to meet the 150-credit-hour requirement for CPA certification.

The curriculum includes 6 accounting courses, 2 business electives, and 1 course each in professional communications and CPA law. Over the past few years the program has added new courses in corporate taxation, tax research, business entity taxation, current topics in international accounting, forensic accounting and auditing, government and not-for-profit accounting, and financial markets and interest rates. Data analytics/big data will be offered for the first time in spring 2017.

Consistent with the Grossman School of Business mission statement, the program focuses on developing "graduates who are professional, technically competent, and entrepreneurial. Our faculty create impact through teaching, research, and scholarship." To date, 115 students have graduated from the program.

The program attracts traditional students who are admitted on an accelerated basis during the senior year at UVM as well as those students who enter the program immediately following their undergraduate graduation at UVM or other universities and colleges, second career students, and international students.

Students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills; professional research ability in accounting, auditing and taxation; effective communication skills; and appropriate knowledge of regulatory issues. Students engage in a variety of classroom activities that include conventional lectures, group assignments, presentations, speakers, and written output that includes memos, executive summaries and short research reports.

Passing the CPA Exam

Success passing the rigorous four-part CPA exam is one way we assess the program's quality. In 2015, UVM's pass rate of 75% ranked 40th of the 821 colleges and universities with more than 10 exam candidates. This places us in the top 4.9% of schools nationwide. Within medium-sized programs (21 – 60 candidates), UVM ranks 9th of 266. For 2015, the average overall (US and International) pass rate is 49.8%.

We attribute some of this success to the high quality of the faculty involved in the program. In 2016, Professor Stephen Dempsey received the University-wide Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Teaching Excellence. Professor Glenn Walberg has received the Outstanding MAcc Teaching Award for three of the past four years.

This semester we are delighted to welcome Dr. Suzanne L. Lowensohn to the MAcc faculty. Her primary area of research interest is governmental accounting and auditing. She has published articles in many well-recognized accounting journals, is a coauthor of the textbook, Accounting for Governmental and Nonprofit Entities and serves on the editorial board for several academic journals. Professor Lowensohn spent a sabbatical acting as a Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) research fellow. She currently teaches Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting.

The real credit for this success goes to the many hard working alumni who not only studied to pass the CPA exam, but studied to the extent that they surpassed the 75% required on each of the four parts. In the past few years at least one student reported a 99% score on an exam part, the highest score possible. A member of the Class of 2016 achieved the amazing average score on all four parts of 97.75%.

Landing a Job

Most MAcc students focus on landing entry-level positions with public accounting firms. Firms that recruit and hire our students include the large international and national firms with offices in big cities, as well as smaller firms with one to ten offices in Vermont and other states.

Interview readiness skills are incorporated into the four-day August orientation program, the Mock Open House conducted as part of the Professional Communications course, and the Accounting and Finance Career Fair jointly sponsored by the Grossman School and the UVM Career Center.

The fair held on September 15 included 22 employers. Many MAcc alumni were on hand to promote their firms. The average annual placement rate for domestic MAcc graduates is 100%.