What Makes the Ross MAcc Program Different?

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! Some of you domestic students may be preparing your applications to meet the extended deadline of May 1, 2017. Some of you may have submitted your applications already and are waiting to hear back.  Some of you may have received an admissions decision and are weighing your options.

For those in the first group, still in the process of applying, there’s still plenty of time! And even better, there are still scholarships and Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) positions available. Apply for financial aid at the same time as the MAcc program and receive both decisions simultaneously.

For those in the second group, waiting to hear back, be patient and optimistic! It can take 1-8 weeks for a decision, depending on how many applications are being reviewed. The admissions committee is very fair and looks at applications holistically. Don’t stress too much if some parts of your application are not as strong as others--it’s the big picture that counts.

For those in the third group, congratulations on being accepted! The Ross MAcc program is more wonderful than you could imagine. Some reasons I decided to join the Ross MAcc program over other accounting master’s programs are:

• Flexibility - A large portion of the degree is electives
• Interdisciplinary - 20% of credits can be taken outside Ross at any other graduate school on campus. I've taken two classes at the Ford School of Public Policy. Law School classes are also popular!
• Alumni network - University of Michigan has about 600,000 alumni, Ross has about 45,000 alumni. Lots of future career opportunities and networking
• CPA Success - Ross has one of the highest CPA exam pass rates in the US and has had several Elijah Watt Sells award winners
• Ann Arbor - Great college town with lots to do. AA is close to Detroit and an international airport. We’re also a short drive or bus ride from Chicago!
• Camaraderie - Ross MAcc students have the perfect balance of people being smart and motivated, but not overly competitive. Students are very close because of social activities organized by the MAcc Student Association.
• DC trip - EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium exposes us to world class guest speakers from academia, government, business, and nonprofit organizations. I got to meet both of Michigan’s US Senators, people who served in President Obama’s White House, and other experts. Plus you get to explore DC and do sightseeing with your friends!

It’s a good idea to connect with a student who shares your interests. Checkout our student and alumni ambassadors here and set up an email or phone call with one of them!

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

EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium Days 4 and 5

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! Day 4 and 5 of the EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium rounded out a great week. 

Thursday started with a look at tax from two different perspectives. F. Michael Dell is the leader of the EY Center for Tax Policy and Dr. Robert Carroll is the National Director for EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics. Mr. Dell provided a practitioner's viewpoint of tax, as he is a tax partner and has worked preparing tax returns his whole career. Dr. Carroll provided a more analytical, theoretical view, as he’s an economist who has previously worked at the US Treasury Department on tax policy issues. We also heard from Shuana Steele, EY’s Director of Regulatory Policy.

After lunch, we walked a few blocks to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to have a panel on standards, inspections, enforcement, and research and analysis. I really enjoyed this presentation. The PCAOB is a private sector non-profit that audits the auditors. They shape auditing standards, perform quality assurance inspections of audits, and investigate when audits go really wrong. Most of the people working at the PCAOB had prior experience in public accounting and seemed very happy with their jobs.

Day 4 ended with a presentation on health care reform by Keith Fontenot. Keith served as the former Associate Director for Health in the White House Office of Management and Budget, so he has lots of real world experience with health care reform. This, along with tax reform, may be one of the most complex public policy areas. It is so difficult to balance benefits and costs while also thinking about the wellbeing of people and reelection prospects.

Day 5 was quick, as it was a half day. It started with an exciting presentation by the FBI. We had FBI Forensic Accountants and an FBI Special Agent talk about how the FBI conducts financial crime investigations. They wove lots of personal anecdotes into the presentation and then sat on a panel to answer our many questions. I was really intrigued by how diverse their experience was. The agent was a CPA and previously worked in Big Four audit and as a controller. The accountants worked in public accounting audit and forensic accounting/litigation support in the private sector before joining the government.

The last presentation was by Steven Koons and two Ross MAcc alumni at Cotton and Company, a government auditing firm based near DC. Steve leads the US Marine Corps audit for his firm and it sounds like fascinating work. The auditors are frequently required to get security clearances, as their audit client’s operations can be classified. Steve explained how their audits help ensure the government agencies are accountable to the taxpayers and using their resources efficiently.

It was an incredible whirlwind of a week where we learned about how accounting fits into government and strengthened friendships. The EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium was definitely one of the best parts of my Ross MAcc experience and I’m so thankful for it.

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

EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium Days 2 and 3

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! Day 2 and 3 of the EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium were just as exciting as the first.

Capitolizing on a good picture opportunity!

We started Day 2 with an interactive exercise, breaking into groups and making governmental spending decisions. Each decision had information about the policy and how the decision whether or not to implement it would change the federal budget. The challenge was balancing cost savings with providing social services and security to the American people and considering how your decision would affect your reelection prospects. Most groups were very aggressive cost cutters and saved the deficit over $2.5 trillion in exchange for a reduced social safety net and national security. Our older professors were not happy with this!

Speakers included Dr. Joshua Gordon from The Concord Coalition, James Hohmann from the Washington Post, Dr. Aparna Mathur from the American Enterprise Institute, and Robert Knake from the Council on Foreign Relations.

I really enjoyed hearing from James Hohmann during lunch at the National Press Club. James is a national political correspondent for the Washington Post. He shared his story on how he got into journalism (school newspaper while attending Stanford University), his experience covering Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, and his thoughts on President Trump. James, like all our speakers, took our questions and gave very candid answers. I signed up for his daily emails (Daily 202), learned a lot about journalism, and am now considering subscribing to the Washington Post.

US Senator Gary Peters

Robert Knake was President Obama’s Director for Cybersecurity on the National Security Council. This topic may at first glance seem unrelated to accounting, but is actually extremely relevant. Private sector companies are responsible for providing their own cybersecurity and these controls must be audited. A cybersecurity breach can be considered a significant event that must be disclosed on the financial statements. More broadly, cybersecurity affects all of us and is an area that the public and business community needs more education in. I learned that two-factor authentication is a necessity to protect your email accounts from being hacked and all the major email providers offer it. Since this talk, I’ve started using it! Robert also wrote the book I’m reading in my cybersecurity Master of Public Policy elective class at the Ford School, so it was fascinating asking him questions.

US Senator Debbie Stabenow

Day 3 was a field trip! We took a class photo on the steps of the US Capitol and met Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Gary Peters from Michigan. We also visited the Senate and House galleries. Most of our class got to witness a Senate confirmation hearing and watch Senators John McCain, Bernie Sanders, and other well-known Senators cast their votes.

Our day wrapped up with a meeting with Margot Cella and Vanessa Teitelbaum from the Center for Audit Quality and Michael Waring from the University of Michigan Federal Relations office. Michael had an interesting job of lobbying for our university. People think of lobbying negatively, but lobbyists are actually a good thing because they provide politicians with fairly unbiased view of policy issues. They are educators and although they have corporate interests at heart, they play a large teaching role that I hadn’t thought of.

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

EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium Day 1

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! I just came back from an amazing week with my classmates in Washington, D.C. During ACC 695, better known as the EY Accounting and Public Policy Symposium, the Ross MAcc class is hosted by The Washington Campus for a whirlwind week learning about how business, accounting, and public policy intersect.

The program is one week, Monday - Friday, and I highly recommend going to DC the weekend before it starts to do some sightseeing! A few other MAccs and I visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian museums of American Art, National Portrait Gallery, Hirshhorn (modern art), National Air and Space, American History, Natural History, and the Renwick Gallery. We also saw The White House and many of the monuments. My favorite quote I saw was this one from the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial.

Day One started with Professor Cathy Shakespeare and Professor Kathryn Hauser giving a welcome and introduction. We then had talks with Dr. John Fortier from The Bipartisan Policy Center, Dr. James Thurber from American University, Michael Fitzpatrick from GE, Julie Erhardt and Dr. Pevzner from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Eric Hylton from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation (CI).

This was an incredible lineup of speakers. Dr. Thurber is considered one of the world’s leading experts on American government, Michael leads GE’s lobbying group and formerly served in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and Eric leads the IRS’s international criminal investigations.

We received a great introduction to the American system of government, how power is divided between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and what some major government agencies do. I think this was an excellent way to start the program, since most of my government education comes from a short high school class and School House Rock videos. It was also very helpful for our international students, who are more unfamiliar with the American system of government.

I really enjoyed our last speaker of the day, Eric. As a part of the IRS’s CI division, he investigates criminal violations of the tax code and other financial crimes like money laundering and wire fraud. I wrote about IRS CI in my review of The Accountant movie with Ben Affleck, as FinCEN was incorrectly portrayed as the law enforcement arm of the Treasury Department.

Eric was a particularly engaging speaker who just had an incredible amount of energy and charisma about him. He peppered his PowerPoint presentation with a preponderance of personal parables (that was fun) and made us all laugh. Eric has worked in field offices all over the US and done some incredible international assignments for the IRS.

The rest of the week was very eventful too! Stay tuned for more in upcoming blog posts. Best of luck as you prepare your applications and GO BLUE!

Sanger Impact Challenge Continued - Cornerstone High School Visit

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! You may recall my blog post from back in October about the Sanger Leadership Center Impact Challenge. During our orientation, the MAcc class designed a year-long plan and a one day event to encourage middle/high school students to explore different business careers, engage in professional development, and become college ready.

Our MAcc Student Association philanthropy committee has been working hard to implement this plan throughout the year, making trips about every other month to Cornerstone Middle and High School in Detroit to work with the students.

This month’s trip revolved around helping students talk about their experiences in a way that could be useful on a resume or college application. Part of Cornerstone’s innovative curriculum involves a mandatory internship. Every Wednesday, high students go out into the community and work at an internship to gain real world work experience. Students I worked with worked at a grocery store, temporary job agency, law office, and nursing home.

It was so wonderful to help the students think about creative ways to communicate the impact they had on the organizations they interned with. The kids had to list out challenges as well, and I was very entertained by these. Common struggles included being afraid to initiate conversations with coworkers who were much older than they were and having difficulty staying awake in a quiet office environment.

I was so impressed by how accomplished and articulate the students were. Most 9th and 10th graders have never worked before and these kids have an experience that most students don’t get until their first college internship! It was a great trip and very energizing to work with high schoolers. We will be Skyping the students next month to work with them on their resumes and they will be visiting Ross in April!

My experience as a MAcc Graduate Student Staff Assistant, designing the college readiness curriculum during the Impact Challenge, and working with the students at Cornerstone High School helped me realize that I really enjoy helping students figure out their college and career paths. Once I graduate and start my career, I will seek out opportunities to mentor students of all ages.

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

2 CPA Exams/Red Wings Game

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! Last week was great: I went to my First Red Wings hockey game and I took two CPA exams.

Let’s start with the fun part first: Two CPA exams! No, I’m not a genius who’s able to study for two tests simultaneously while in grad school and working. When I applied for the CPA exam in California and got my Notice To Schedule (NTS) 9 months ago (some states are 6 months), I signed up for more exams than I should have. I ended up being busier than I planned during my summer internship and with classes and recruiting during Fall semester. If you’re unfamiliar with the CPA exam application process, this article does a good job explaining it in general, as the requirements differ by state.

Red Wings hockey game at the Joe Louis Arena!

Fast forward to last weekend, when my NTS expired. I was able to study for REG this semester, but unable to properly take AUD before my NTS expired. I decided to sit for the exam because if I didn’t use it, I would lose it and have to reapply anyways. I didn’t feel completely lost since I took an audit class in undergrad and I’m in the MAcc audit class right now. If I somehow pass the exam, I will be overjoyed (and probably blog about it). Please learn from my mistakes and only apply for as many CPA exams as you can reasonably take!

I’m glad I took time to go to the Red Wings game, even in the midst of my hectic week. It’s the Red Wing’s last season at the Joe Louis Arena, so it was great to experience the venue. It was a MSA (Macc Student Association) event, so a good number of us carpooled to Detroit for the game. It ended up being a really close game, with the Red Wings losing in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was my second hockey game ever and I had a lot of fun.

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

Winter Is Coming

Welcome back, future accounting superstars! This week’s topic will be chill--I’m going to talk about winter in Ann Arbor.  

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area where winter means we wear jeans instead of shorts. I have never lived through a real winter or even lived somewhere it snows. Surprisingly, I have had a very easy time adjusting to the weather in AA and I want to dispel any fears you might have about living through a real winter.

AA is in Southeast Michigan, which helps it not be quite so cold. The northern part of Michigan, or Upper Penninsula, is much worse. The average temperatures in January, the coldest month of the year in AA, are a high of 31 degrees Fahrenheit (-.4 degrees Celsius) and a low of 18 degrees Fahrenheit (-7.8 degrees celsius). I’ve attached a chart showing what the weather is like all year in AA.

We had great weather for our football games! It only snowed for the last part of the last home game, which was fun. The cheerleaders and football players ended up making snow angels on the field and “Let It Snow” rang through the loudspeakers after the game.

I live in the Munger Graduate Residences, which are about a 7 minute walk to Ross. All the sidewalks around campus are plowed so you have a clear path through the snow. They’re also heavily salted so you don’t slip on ice.  

The thing I miss the most about warmer days is the ability to exercise outdoors. While I try to run outside when the temperatures are above 30 degrees, I do end up working out at a gym most days. Luckily, there are several on campus like the new Intramural Sports building and Munger actually has its own mini gym on the top floor, complete with a rooftop track!

Don’t let weather stop you from attending the Ross MAcc program! It really isn’t that bad and the wonderful people, family atmosphere, and classes inside and outside of Ross more than make up for it.

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