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Let’s Not Pretend That All Accounting Programs Are of Wake Forest’s Caliber

Here we have yet another article about how plentiful accounting jobs are, with Huffington Post using Wake Forest as an example this time. Which is totally appropriate because Wake Forest doesn't have a freakishly successful accounting program or anything.

In "College Degrees With High Placement Rates," Scott Willyerd shares the fantastic news:

Due to the nature of today's economy, many students want to be ensured they will leave college with a specific skill set to land a job. As the costs of college rise, families are beginning to question the ROI of a college degree. But it's hard to argue with majors that offer students easy access to jobs post graduation. Below these are six fields with placement rates at 100 percent or very close to it.

Now, before we get to this next part, we all know accounting has weathered the recession better than, say, majors in Greek Mythology but Wake Forest is a really awful example to use when trying to prove how marketable an accounting degree is:

Accounting

The field of accounting continues to be a lucrative field for graduates. Students in the Master of Science in Accountancy (MSA) program at Wake Forest University Schools of Business achieved the top pass rate in the nation on the Certified Public Accountant exam once again, according to the 2012 edition of Uniform CPA Examination Candidate Performance. Wake Forest had the highest pass rate among 793 institutions with 10 or more candidates sitting for the exam, as well as the #1 pass rate for large programs (a total of 258 institutions with more than 60 candidates.) Jack Wilkerson, senior associate dean of accountancy programs at Wake Forest says that all MSA graduates have accepted job offers prior to graduate, with many students receiving multiple offers.

Well, that is AWESOME NEWS…for Wake Forest. How about everyone else?

I don't have the data for this but what about graduates of the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, who boasted a bit fat 0% CPA exam pass rate in 2011? Sure there were only 5 candidates but did all 5 of them get hired?

As previously stated here, Wake Forest > everyone else. We all know that. Well, all of us except Scott Willyerd.