• Find a bachelor's degree




    Bachelors Degree Center is an advertising-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate us. This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site.

If you are won­der­ing about how to become an accoun­tant, you have come to the right place. While there are a vari­ety of routes to becom­ing an accoun­tant, the most typ­i­cal is by becom­ing a Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant (CPA). In order to become qual­i­fied as a CPA in most states, you will have to earn a bach­e­lor’s degree in account­ing, and then pass the CPA exam­i­na­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, there are many great account­ing schools that will give stu­dents an under­stand­ing of account­ing the­o­ry and prac­tices while prepar­ing them to pass the CPA exam. The CPA exam is bro­ken down into four dif­fer­ent sections:

  • Audit­ing and Attes­ta­tion: Tests stu­dents on their knowl­edge of ethics, risk assess­ment, and fil­ing finan­cial records.
  • Finan­cial Account­ing and Report­ing: Tests stu­dents on their knowl­edge of how to report finan­cial state­ments, includ­ing bal­ance sheets, income state­ments, cash flow state­ments, and trans­ac­tion statements.
  • Reg­u­la­tion: Tests stu­dents on their knowl­edge of Busi­ness Law and Fed­er­al Tax Pro­ce­dures includ­ing prop­er­ty trans­ac­tion tax­a­tion, indi­vid­ual tax­a­tion, and fed­er­al enti­ty taxation.
  • Busi­ness Envi­ron­ment and Con­cepts: Tests stu­dents on their knowl­edge of finan­cial mod­el­ing, eco­nom­ic con­cepts, and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy affluence.

Any account­ing major pro­gram from an accred­it­ed insti­tu­tion will help train your under­stand­ing of these four areas of account­ing. If you want to begin your jour­ney towards becom­ing a CPA while mak­ing a min­i­mal finan­cial invest­ment, you should check out some of these account­ing schools. Our method­ol­o­gy for select­ing the top pro­grams was based on the fol­low­ing methodology:

  • Total tuition: None of the pro­grams on our list have an aver­age annu­al tuition of over $10,000.
  • Accred­i­ta­tion: Accred­i­ta­tion from asso­ci­a­tions like the AACSB, ACBSP, or IACBE ensure that the pro­grams meet indus­try edu­ca­tion­al standards.
  • Edu­ca­tion­al Qual­i­ty: We pri­or­i­tized schools that appear on nation­al rank­ings, and have great reten­tion rates, stu­dent-fac­ul­ty ratios, and expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing opportunities.

Find­ing a good deal on your Account­ing degree will go a long way to ensur­ing that you can achieve a great return on invest­ment for your time and mon­ey. Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, Accoun­tants and Audi­tors make an aver­age annu­al salary of $69,350. As a prospec­tive account­ing major, it would be a good exer­cise to cal­cu­late A Cost/Benefit Analy­sis of a Bach­e­lor’s Degree. Some of the pro­grams that ranked high­ly based on our method­ol­o­gy include:

  • Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty: Their Mar­riott School of Man­age­ment offers a BS in Account­ing that offers their stu­dents great intern­ship opportunities.
  • Har­ris-Stowe State Uni­ver­si­ty: Con­sis­tent­ly ranks as one of the most afford­able HBCUs in the nation, while keep­ing stu­dents and alum­ni con­nect­ed through their Account­ing Stu­dents Association.
  • Delta State Uni­ver­si­ty: Offers stu­dents the abil­i­ty to earn their Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion with an Accoun­tan­cy Major through flex­i­ble online or evening courses.

For the full list of schools that offer afford­able rates on tuition for your bach­e­lor’s degree in account­ing, check this rank­ing of Top 15 Cheap­est Bach­e­lor Degrees in Account­ing. If you feel like any of the schools might be the best fit for you, be sure to fol­low the links to their web­site and request more information.

RELATED LINKS:

25 Best Bachelor’s in Accounting

15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

10 Most Afford­able Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

Top 15 Online Bach­e­lor of Account­ing Degree Programs

The Top 15 Cheap­est Bach­e­lor Degrees in Accounting