North Dakota State University

Program Description

The Master of Accountancy (M.Acc.) program at North Dakota State University is a non-thesis, professional program structured to advance the knowledge of qualified students with an undergraduate accounting degree. Students without an undergraduate accounting degree may be conditionally admitted to the program and will be required to take a core of undergraduate accounting courses in addition to the graduate courses.

The Master of Accountancy (M.Acc.) program at NDSU is designed to have students complete graduate studies needed to advance their careers whether their career be in public accounting, corporate accounting, or government accounting and prepare them for the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exam. Our approach to learning combines case study and applied learning in a collaborative environment. The focus of the program is to develop a student's analytical skills, provide students with in-depth accounting knowledge and skills, prepare students to identify accounting problems, research the problem and possible solutions through using on-line and other databases, and present a recommended action. The learning environment also provides students the opportunity to draw from the experiences of fellow students from diverse backgrounds as well as interact with corporate, public-accounting, government, and not-for-profit accounting discipline leaders.

Through the College of Business, North Dakota State University's M.Acc. program is fully accredited by AACSB International, the premier accrediting agency in business administration and accounting.

Admission Requirements

NDSU accounting faculty have ample opportunity to assess applicants for the Master of Accountancy program that are currently enrolled in NDSU's undergraduate accounting program or have an accounting degree from NDSU. Consequently, the admission requirements for NDSU accounting majors/graduates will differ from those required for other applicants.

A. Admission requirements for NDSU accounting majors

1. The applicant's overall undergraduate GPA should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
2. The applicant's GPA for upper-division accounting courses should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
3. The applicant does not have to complete the GMAT, if the student meets the minimum GPA requirements (requirements A.1. and A.2.).
4. If the applicant's undergraduate GPA is below the 3.0 standards (requirements A.1. and A.2.), provisional admission to the program may be allowed under the following conditions: the applicant has significant post-graduation work experience OR the applicant takes the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) with the expectation the applicant earns a score of at least 550.
5. If the above requirements are not met, the applicant may be granted conditional admission.
Conditional admission is granted solely at the discretion of the program coordinator and/or Admissions Committee.

B. Admission Requirements for Students Graduating with Accounting Major from Tri-College Schools and AACSB accredited Schools

1. The student’s overall GPA should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
2. The student’s GPA for upper-division accounting courses should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
3. Applicants do not have to complete the GMAT, if the student meets the minimum GPA requirements (Requirements #1 and #2).
4. If the student’s undergraduate GPA is below the 3.0 standards (Requirements #1 and #2), provisional admission to the program may be allowed under the following conditions:
   4.1. The student has significant post-graduation work experience OR
   4.2. The student takes the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) with an expectation that the student earn a score of at least 550.
5. Students must also submit a letter stating reasons for wanting a Master of Accountancy degree and two letters of recommendation.
6. If the above requirements are not met, the student may be granted provisional admission.
7. Provisional admission is granted solely at the discretion of the program director and admissions committee.

C. Admission Requirements for All Others

1. The student has an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited school.
2. The student’s overall GPA should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
3. The student’s GPA for upper-division accounting courses should be at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
4. The student takes the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) with an expectation that the student earn a score of at least 520.
5. If the student has not completed the following core courses or their equivalent in their undergraduate program, the student may be provisionally admitted to the program.
   5.1. Core courses
   5.1.1. ACCT 311 (Intermediate Accounting I)
   5.1.2. ACCT 312 (Intermediate Accounting II)
   5.1.3. ACCT 320 (Cost Accounting)
   5.1.4. ACCT 418 (Tax I)
   5.1.5. ACCT 421 (Audit I)
   5.2. The student will be expected to complete any missing core courses within the first two semesters of the program.
   5.3. Students must meet the minimum GPA standard of 3.0 for all of the core courses for final acceptance into the program.
6. If the student’s undergraduate GPA is below the 3.0 standards (Requirements #2 and #3), provisional admission to the program may be allowed under the following conditions:
   6.1. The student has significant post-graduation work experience.
   6.2. The student takes the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) with an expectation that the student earn a score of at least 550.
7. Students must also submit a letter stating reasons for wanting a Master of Accountancy degree and two letters of recommendation.
8. If the above requirements are not met, the student may be granted provisional admission.
9. Provisional admission is granted solely at the discretion of the program director and admissions committee.

D. Conditional status expires and regular admission is granted if the applicant earns a 3.0 GPA or greater on the first nine credit hours of graduate classes he/she takes. See sections A.4., A.5., B.6., and B.7. above.

E. A student who attended a university outside of the United States should submit a transcript evaluation from World Education Services (WES). See www.wes.org.

Financial Assistance

A limited number of graduate assistantships are available through the Master of Accountancy program. The Program Director will send an application for the assistantship to all students who have applied to the program by April 1. The submission deadline is April 15^th. Assistantships will be awarded by May 1.

Degree Requirements

The total course requirements necessary to complete the M.Acc. degree will vary depending on the background of the student. Students without an undergraduate accounting degree will be required to take a core of undergraduate accounting courses in addition to the graduate courses required for the degree. See para. B.5. of the Admission Requirements above. A student with an academic background in accounting will need to take 10 graduate-level courses (30 semester credit hours) and should be able to complete the degree in two or three semesters depending on the number of courses a student desires to take in a semester.

The graduate course work for the M.Acc. degree includes four required courses in accounting theory, applied professional research, legal aspects of business, and information resource management. In addition, the student must take five accounting electives from a list of courses that cover fraud examination, taxes, cost management, auditing, international financial reporting standards, and advanced financial accounting. Finally, the student must take one non-accounting elective from a list that includes courses on human resource management, international management, and organizational communications.

Click here for course descriptions.

How to Apply
Online Application

Margaret (Peggy) Andersen, Ph.D.
Indiana University, 1989
Field: Accounting

William "Bud" Bowlin, Ph.D.
University of Texas at Austin, 1984
Field: Accounting

James W. Clifton, M.Acc.
University of North Dakota, 1988
Field: Accounting

Thomas D. Dowdell, Ph.D.
Temple University, 2004
Field: Accounting

David Herda, Ph.D.
University of Texas at Arlington, 2010
Field: Accounting

Yongtao “David” Hong, Ph.D. 
Drexel University, 2008
Field: Accounting  

Fariz Huseynov, Ph.D.
University of Memphis, 2009
Field: Finance

Bonnie Klamm, Ph.D., CPA
Virginia Commonwealth University-Richmond, 1999
Field: Accounting Information System 

Michael J. Peterson, Ph.D.
The University of Iowa, 2002
Field:  Accounting 

Frederick Riggins, Ph.D.
Carnegie Mellon University, 1994
Field: Management Information Systems 

Herbert Snyder, Ph.D.
Syracuse University, 1994
Field: Auditing, Forensic Accounting

Ruilin Tian, Ph.D.
Georgia State University, 2008
Field: Risk Management and Insurance  

Wei "David" Zhang, Ph.D.
Syracuse University, 2001
Field: Business Administration/Finance 

Limin Zhang, Ph.D.
University of Arizona, 2005
Field: Management Information Systems  

Jill Zuber, Ph.D.
University of Arkansas, 2007
Field: Accounting