Friendsgiving

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! This is a short week for classes as Thanksgiving is on Thursday.

We MAcc students celebrated early, having a “Friendsgiving” this past Sunday. The MSA board cooked a couple of turkeys and the rest of us signed up to bring different dishes. We had mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, cheesy bacon casserole potatoes, barbecue chicken sliders, roasted brussel sprouts, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and more! My friend Ben cooked green bean soup, a traditional Chinese dessert. I made rosemary oven roasted potatoes and was really impressed by the cooking of my classmates.

It was a fun potluck with lots of yummy food and good conversations. Even in the craziness of studying for classes and the CPA exams, it’s important to take time and enjoy life. We certainly did!  

I am very thankful that I discovered the wonderful community of students, staff, and faculty that makes up the Ross MAcc program. It really is an incredible group of people and I could not think of spending this year anywhere else.

Safe travels this week and Happy Thanksgiving! Best of luck as you prepare your applications and GO BLUE!

Semi-Formal, Completely Fun!

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! Grad school is a lot of hard work, but we make sure to have fun as well. The MSA (Master of Accounting Student Association) plans philanthropic, diversity, professional development, and social events throughout the year. It has an eight member executive board that is elected at MAcc orientation each year. MSA members meet at least once a week as a group and have various commitments depending on their positions.

This past weekend, the MSA put on their largest social event of the semester: Semi-formal! We had buses take us to a cool bar in downtown Detroit called Punchbowl Social. It was one of the more interesting bars I’ve been to. We had the upstairs area to ourselves and it had a buffet dinner, shuffleboard, ping pong, pool, bowling lanes, and arcade games. We had a great time singing karaoke! It’s a good thing we’re studying to be accountants, because I’m not sure how many singing gigs our group would get hired for.

Although grad school is a transformative academic experience, it is also a social one! I’ve met so many cool people in these past few months. Ross MAcc students come from all over the country and world. I have classmates from the Midwest, West coast, South, East Coast, China, India, and even one friend from the Bahamas!

Although the University of Michigan is a large school, the MAcc program is part of the Ross School of Business, which is like a separate school with a community of its own. There are about 100 students in the MAcc program and we are broken into two cohorts that take all our core classes together. It’s very easy to meet people in class and through social events like the football tailgates and semi-formal. A good number of my classmates came from very small universities and have been able to settle in here quite well.

Best of luck as you prepare your applications and GO BLUE!

MAccing Your Life Essayer!

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! This week I’ll be talking about the most fun part of your application--the essays.

Seriously though, essays are a lot more fun than working Data Sufficiency GMAT problems and drilling through practice tests. They are a chance to tell your story and make a personable impression on the MAcc admissions committee.

Write good essays so you can get in and make great friends!

When I was writing my essays last year, I took some time to reflect on my life experiences and brainstorm what I wanted to write about. I used the prompts to write essay outlines and didn’t write my essays until I was happy with the outlines. I tried to make my voice come through in my writing. Don’t write what you think the admission committee wants to hear--write what you’re genuinely passionate about!

The essays for the Class of 2018 are as follows:

Question 1:

What attributes of the Ross MAcc will assist you in achieving your short- and long-term professional goals? Who influenced your decision to apply to the Ross MAcc? (500 word maximum)

Question 2:

If you could travel back in time, where and when would you go and why? (500 word maximum)

Optional Essay:

If there is any other information that you believe is important to our assessment of your candidacy, feel free to add it to your application (500 word maximum)

As you can tell by the time travel question, the essays are really about getting to know you as a person and gaining insight into how you think. The admissions committee wants to assemble a MAcc class full of people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This is a perfect place to show your creative side! The admissions committee is not looking for “I would go back in time to the signing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 because I like internal controls” (although if you’re super passionate about internal controls no one would judge you)!

The optional essay really is optional. If there is anything in your application that you think the admissions committee may question, it’s a good idea to briefly explain why. This could be used to explain low grades in a class due to extenuating life circumstances or other factors.

Once you’ve drafted your essays, have a trusted friend, professor, or mentor look over them for spelling and grammar mistakes. If your school has a writing center, that can be a great resource. For University of Michigan undergraduate students applying to the Ross MAcc program, check out the UM Sweetland Writing Center.

Essays are a key part of a successful application--do well so you can get in and make great friends next year! Best of luck as you prepare your applications and GO BLUE!

The Accountant Movie Review--Accounting Spoilers Only!

Welcome back, future accounting superstars!

Action. Romance. Suspense. Am I talking about James Bond, or accounting? The Accountant, starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, and J.K. Simmons was released in US movie theaters on October 14, 2016. A group of my MAcc classmates went to watch it and we had a really good time. We definitely laughed about the accounting parts after the movie and that gave me the idea to write a movie review. No plot spoilers here--just accounting spoilers!

Accounting Spoiler #1: Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) unethically and illegally advises a tax client. He coerces the client into classifying her necklace-making hobby into a business run from her house. Wolff illegally encourages the client to overstate the square footage of the home office in order to gain a larger tax deduction and to also deduct the client’s vehicle and mileage as business expenses. This is inconsistent with the US Internal Revenue Code and Circular 230, which governs tax preparers in the US.

Practicing tactical skills for The Accountant by playing laser tag

Accounting Spoiler #2: Ray King (JR Simmons) plays the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This organization is incorrectly portrayed as a federal law enforcement agency. FinCEN is part of the US Treasury department and their mission is “to safeguard the financial system from illicit use and combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities.” While they do have analysts and specialists performing these important tasks, FinCEN does not have Special Agents with law enforcement powers who work directly for them. Federal law enforcement officers from other agencies are often detailed to FinCEN, but the only law enforcement arm of the US Treasury Department is the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Special Agents.

Accounting Spoiler #3: Christian Wolff (Affleck) is in a conference room trying to figure out where the money went missing. He spends all night working, writing all over the walls and murmuring many account titles to himself. It is unrealistic to assume that someone could solve this forensic accounting puzzle so quickly or without the use of a computer. Wolff does employ Benford’s Law, which is a real forensic accounting technique involving analysis of first digit number frequencies, but a real analysis would require the data to be graphed and analyzed.

Despite a few mistakes in the accuracy of the accounting information, The Accountant is a very entertaining movie and definitely worth a watch! While I was originally drawn by the title, I was actually pleasantly surprised with how the movie unfolded. There was a nice mix of action, plot twists, and accounting to keep things interesting. Go see it as a break from all that GMAT studying and essay writing.

Best of luck as you prepare your applications and GO BLUE!