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Accounting (B.S.B.A.)

With over a 99 percent career placement rate amid constant recruiting by many firms, Bloomsburg's popular accounting program is a national leader in the field. It was the first in the nation to offer a full concentration in fraud examination and the Student Association in Fraud Examination was the first chapter in the United States to be nationally chartered.

The program is a key element of BU's College of Business, a recipient of the coveted accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, ranking Bloomsburg among the best business colleges in the world.

Recruiters from public accounting firms, industry and government agencies - including the four largest accounting firms in the world - actively recruit BU students for internships and jobs conventionally and through visiting lecture opportunities, and starting salaries for graduates are in the $30,000 to $50,000 range and up.

While the department focuses on undergraduate education, it can lead directly to admission into BU's MBA program. Typical careers include auditing, cost accounting, financial accounting and tax accounting, but fraud examination has become highly popular in recent years.

The 300 students in the program are supported by Bloomsburg's comprehensive business programs in management, marketing, technology, finance and business law and get personal attention from ten full-time faculty, all of whom hold doctoral degrees and most of whom have professional certifications (CPA, CMA, CIA, CFE).

An important component of a Bloomsburg education is that all the classes are taught by professors, and most are in the 15- to 30-student range. Students have access to faculty outside of class and everyone has a department adviser. This helps not only in keeping the educational program on track, but also in guiding students to internships that often lead to post-graduation employment offers before the senior year even begins.

The College of Business offers two student computer labs and an independent server large enough to run a medium-sized corporation that is also accessible from residence halls. Software is typical of what might be found in most business environments and students are expected to gain proficiency in using database management, spreadsheets and word processing.

You'll learn how to accumulate and summarize information, to analyze and interpret results and to present information that often becomes key to decision making. The program emphasizes the importance of communication skills, both written and oral, because successful accountants spend more time working with people than with numbers and more time helping others to reach decisions than tabulating figures.

Among service and learning projects, students are involved in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and prepare income tax returns for the elderly and disadvantaged in the area. Student organizations include the Accounting Society, Phi Beta Lambda (business fraternity), Student Association for Fraud Examination and the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA)

While approximately one-half of the students entering this program have completed an accounting course in high school, prior exposure to accountancy is not required for admission. Students are expected to develop proficiency in the general use of computer software programs dealing with database management, electronic spreadsheets and word processing.

To prepare for a BSBA in accounting, you'll take a combination of specialized business classes and round it out with general education courses to provide a balanced education. Core business courses include basic accounting, information technology, management, finance, marketing and business law. The accounting specialization includes eight advanced accounting courses plus business and commercial law, while general education courses will include composition, public speaking, business mathematics, economics, matrix algebra and business statistics.

Working with your adviser, you'll supplement their program with electives helpful to individual objectives.

The concentration in fraud examination includes courses in criminal justice and advanced fraud examination, and fits into the normal eight-semester sequence of courses (BU also offers degree programs in criminal justice and computer forensics).

You can also choose from a wide array of minors and concentrations university-wide, including minors and concentrations in:

• Business
• Business Information Systems
• Computer Information Science
• Economics
• Entrepreneurship
• Human Resources Management
• Information Assurance
• International Business
• Legal Studies
• Management
• Marketing
• Political Science
• Statistics