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At Last, Here Are the Top (and Bottom) CPA Exam Performers Among New York Colleges

Alright, you guys have hounded me enough. I'm sorry it took so long but there are A LOT of New York schools. I mean a lot. And I'm not too smart when it comes to numbers so it's kind of overwhelming to pick through the data in the 2011 Candidate Performance Book for the info you guys want so desperately. But I'm willing to take one for the team and suffer through it if it makes you all happy. Don't say I never did anything for you.

Note: New York did NOT make the top 20 in the country for first-time testing events. Yes, they were beat out by Utah, Missouri, Arizona and even Ohio. Sorry, guys.

Because there are so many NY schools, let's look at the top 10 for overall 2010 CPA exam performance (repeat and first-time testing events):

1. Columbia University 75%

2. Cornell University 69%

3. SUNY – Geneseo 63.1%

4. Canisius College 62.8%

5. Excelsior College 60.6%

6. New York University 56.1%

6. (tie) University of Rochester 56.1%

8. Touro College 55.5%

9. Marist College 55.2%

10. Siena College 54.3%

Where the hell is Pace? CUNY? Adelphia, even? Off the list, that's where. Pace (NY, not Pleasantville) pulled 35.7%. Of the various CUNY campuses, Baruch did the best (not surprising) at 42.3% while the Medgar Evers campus did the worst (and I mean WORST) at a whopping 8.3% (of the 10 AUD exams taken, not a single one was passed).

Of all NY schools, Baruch took the most exams at 1,953. Note that is the second largest number of exams taken by any school in the entire country, topped only by the University of Southern California at 2,110. Go Baruch?

Students from Monroe College did the worst, with a pass rate of – wait for it – 4%. 42 candidates took 99 exams. Of 17 AUD exams taken, every single one was failed. Of 38 BEC exams, Monroe grads passed 2 (good job, guys). Of 25 FAR exams, all 25 were failed. And for REG, 19 exams were taken with only 2 passed. It must feel awesome to be those 4 who passed.

The school with the best average score was Columbia with 79.4. The worst was CUNY Medgar Evers with 52. For the 1000th time, 75 is passing.

The real Medgar Evers would be embarrassed I'm sure but at least he can't write me an emotional email saying I hurt his feelings.

For first-time testing events, Berkeley College pulled a 4.4% pass rate for an average score of 51.7. That is harsh. I've done better on practice CPA review software for kicks and I never took accounting. Anyway, of 45 exams taken (9 AUD, 15 BEC, 11 FAR and 10 REG), only two REG exams were passed. I bet that burns.

Baruch sent the 4th most CPA exam undergrad candidates to the exam for the first time in 2010 of all schools in the country, topped only by the University of Illinois – Chicago, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA. 487 Baruch grads without Master's degrees sat for 953 first-time exams.

As previously discussed, Cornell came in 4th in first-time CPA exam performance among candidates without advanced degrees. 31 unique candidates passed 64 exams. They failed just 14.

Interestingly, Excelsior came in 7th in REG performance nationally for undergrad candidates taking the exam for the first time with a 79.3% pass rate. Just 6 Excelsior grads failed REG in 2010 of 29 who took that section for the first time.

SUNY Buffalo had the 10th highest pass rate of first-time candidates with advanced degrees. 21 unique candidates passed 47 exams and failed 12 for a pass rate of 79.7%.

CUNY Bernard Baruch had the 7th best national performance on FAR among first-time candidates with advanced degrees for a 76% pass rate.

Pace University came in 9th nationally on repeat exams by candidates with advanced degrees even though they got a 36.2% overall on repeat exams with an average score of 67.8. They were beaten out by the University of Phoenix and Keller Graduate School as well as St John's University and SF's Golden Gate University, among others.

Baruch was #1 nationally in repeat exams taken by candidates without advanced degrees. Is that a stat to be proud of? Yes, passing is passing. 391 candidates sat for 783 exams. According to the general repeat testing data, 420 Baruch grads sat for 848 exams.

Overall, New York came in 2nd in size of the 55 NASBA jurisdictions (California being #1) and ranked 43 in CPA exam pass rates for repeat exams. Of repeat candidates, 5,557 unique candidates sat for 2,813 AUD exams, 3,809 BEC exams, 2,851 FAR exams and 2,536 REG exams for a pass rate average of 38.1%. NY came in 37th on first-time exams nationally, 7,473 unique candidates pulled a pass rate of 49.2%.

Are we happy now?

Illinois is next.