Despite widespread reports of declines in accounting students nationwide, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, is defying the trend and seeing accounting enrollments growing dramatically.
Enrollment in one of its core accounting courses for accounting majors, Intermediate Accounting I, grew from 109 in 2019 to 297 in 2023. In the follow-up Intermediate Accounting II, enrollment increased from 102 in 2019 to 227 in 2023. Between 2018 and 2023, the master's program enrollments have grown from 18 to 45. Approximately 40% of accounting undergraduates stay at Purdue for their master's degree.
"Over the last few years, we have made changes to our programs that we believe are responsible for the increased enrollments," said Troy Janes, clinical professor and academic director of the MSA Program at Purdue's Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business. "Our biggest innovation is the creation of a survey course called Careers in Accounting and Finance. It is a freshman level course that is required for accounting majors. We have guest speakers, generally Purdue accounting alumni, come talk about the varied careers that accounting opens the doors for. The idea is to make an accounting degree more exciting by demonstrating that the staid audit/tax stereotype isn't the only career path."
The changes began happening about four years ago. "We started getting in front of our students, and basically telling them a traditional accounting path is set up for the CPA and public accounting, but there are so many varied career paths that are not just audit and tax," said Kevin Koharki, associate professor of accounting at the university. "I was a Wall Street guy. A lot of students think about corporate accounting, but not necessarily corporate finance. So we designed a course where every Friday, a new speaker comes in — and they're usually alums — and talks about the careers you can get with an accounting degree: investment banking, private equity, FBI, fraud examination. That was really the impetus to where we started to see that inflection point on the graph."
Another incentive is every year, the accounting program will buy 200 tickets to a Purdue football game. "We have our advisory board firms send 100 of their people, and we bring 100 of our freshmen," said Koharki. "It's really just a start to get kids excited about accounting because we think the problem is everyone just thinks about it as the old green visor eyeshade kind of thing and nothing else. We learned that when you get out and you start opening up the world to the students, they realize accounting could actually be pretty fun."
The experience has been a revelation for many students. "The big thing is opening students' eyes to what can be done with an accounting degree," said Janes. "With the shortage in the profession, and the firms worried about having enough talent, if we're trying to get people into accounting by telling them about other professions or the other things that you can do with an accounting degree, is that going to help anything? And we think it will, because if they don't walk through the door in the first place, then they're not going to be pursuing the traditional accounting jobs either."
Purdue alumni come in and describe their varied career paths and current jobs since earning an accounting degree. "Most of them do start with a couple of years in one of the CPA firms, which is generally what the CPA firms need and want," said Janes. "By enticing more students to walk through the door and study accounting, that we are going to help, that sort of strategy will help alleviate the shortage in accounting."
That applies to the shortage in the tax field as well. "In particular for tax, everybody has this preconceived notion about tax where you don't see the light of day between January 1 and April 15," said J.T. Eagan, an accounting lecturer at Purdue. "Yes, tax season is busy, but the consulting aspect of taxation, which is where I spent a good chunk of my career, and now in private practice as well — the compliance is fine, I need those people — but I live on the entrepreneurial aspect of taxation. And that's really where I've made a career personally. Sharing that with students to emphasize to them that it's not being stuck in a cubicle from 9 to 5, or 5 to 9 on some of the worst days. It's about going out meeting with clients."
He spent 10 years working at a Big Four firm before he went into higher education, where he has worked since 2017.
"Being a Purdue product myself, that really resonates with them," said Eagan. "There's no reason why you couldn't start your own practice, and after you facilitate and build your expertise, that is pretty powerful for a student to hear because a lot of them understand that public accounting can be a grind. They read the blogs, just as we all do, with the challenges that the firms face with turnover, with long hours and things of that nature."
Reducing tuition
He and the other professors don't believe the problem with attracting students to accounting is because of the 150-hour rule for earning a CPA license, pointing out that rule has been around for about 30 years, depending on the state.
However, Purdue has reduced its tuition in recent years, which has helped make the extra credit hours more affordable. "I think about the prices at other schools," said Koharki. "To go get an MSA or a MAcc, a Masters in Accounting, you're looking at 40 or 50 grand a year, to where in-state at Purdue is $16,500. It wasn't always that way. We reduced our tuition in 2018. But even then, that did not result in an immediate bump. It wasn't until '19 and '20 when we started to go in front of the students more and do the football games to create this class that we talked about where we're opening up the world to them. That's when we saw it improve. Some people would just say, well, it's tuition only. Well, it's not."
Football networking
The football games give the students the opportunity to network and socialize with alumni who are working in the fields of accounting and finance. "It's like half students, and half people from firms and companies," said Janes. "They're able to make some of those connections and talk to people and learn about what working is really like. And then, the football game doesn't hurt either."
The football game networking includes a tailgate party. "We called an 'audible' so that the students can get there and talk," said Eagan. "Having been at that tailgate this year and observing students, they're just more relaxed. One of the things that we have to remember is that these students are still highly impacted by COVID, so from a soft skill perspective, that's a skill that needs to continue to be polished for them. This gives those students that relaxed atmosphere. You've got a plate of food in your hand, you're talking to somebody. You're not in a suit, they're not in a suit. You're all in hoodies usually or polos because you're at a football game. It's just a different environment. And with it being freshmen, this attracts them and opens their eyes a bit to say, oh, my gosh, this is not what I expected for accounting or this is perhaps a minor or a double major that I could look at picking up, and at that point, just give us the opportunity to have that conversation with them, and we'll take it from there."
Career class
The Careers in Accounting and Finance course isn't like a typical introductory accounting 101 type of class.
"What we're doing in this class is essentially every week, we bring in a new speaker, mostly an alum," said Janes. "Last week, we had a CFO. In two weeks, the FBI comes in. This week, an examiner from the Federal Reserve Bank because nobody ever thinks about working with the Federal Reserve Bank. It's just about what careers are available with an accounting or finance background."
Among the Purdue alumni who have remained involved with the program are Tom and Nick Grote, two brothers who now work at Forvis, a Top 10 Firm that was formed through the merger of Dixon Hughes Goodman and BKD CPAs.
"This is a fairly new class that is offered which was not around when I was a freshman (I wish that it was)," said Tom Grote, a senior associate at Forvis. "I believe it's important for freshmen to have exposure to what an accounting/finance career looks like since what you learn in the classroom doesn't always reflect what daily job experiences are. Secondly, another reason why Purdue has seen great growth in their accounting numbers is due to the professors like Troy, Kevin and J.T. Purdue excels in bringing in great professors who are major assets to students by challenging them as well as being an open resource when necessary. For example, I was going back and forth whether or not to pursue my Masters in Accounting when I reached out to Kevin, who helped me make the decision to further my education."
His brother Nick, who works as a senior associate in tax at Forvis, agrees. "Purdue has done a phenomenal job expanding their connections with public accounting firms as well," he said. "I believe this is a great tool for students to utilize to gain a better understanding of what public accounting is and also the type of careers it develops. The firm we work for, Forvis, is constantly having events on campus at Purdue and getting to know the students. The students are getting more and more exposure to what public accounting is before they have to start an internship or their careers. This better understanding seems to have a correlation with more students wanting to go the accounting route at Purdue. However, none of this would be possible without the guidance of the accounting department at Purdue. They truly understand what the students need and are delivering great results. Having professors that strive to provide the best education for their students and also having networking opportunities for them is invaluable."
Another Purdue alum is Abby Manikowski, who finished her bachelor of science in accounting in May 2022 and completed a master of science in accounting in May of this year. She currently works full-time as an accounting associate for Pinion,
"Some of the benefits of Purdue's accounting program include the opportunity to take a semester off to pursue a spring internship," she said. "My spring internship gave me insight as to what a typical busy season looks like for an accountant. A spring internship allows students to gain real-world experience while also helping them decide their future career path. Purdue offers a Careers in Accounting and Finance class that is unique. It allows students to hear from guest speakers in all different areas of accounting. The classes I took at Purdue were very beneficial in preparing me for the CPA exam. The professors are always willing to provide further explanation on a topic and help students learn. Purdue also has many accounting student organizations that bring different firms to campus for networking opportunities. Every fall there is a Public Accounting Career Fair to allow students to network and look for full-time jobs or internships."
Tax class
In addition to the Careers in Accounting and Finance class, Purdue also takes a different approach with one of its tax classes.
"One of the pieces that we've looked at for tax in particular is changing, along with the CPA exam requirements, our requirements for the tax class itself, and revamping that a little bit," said Eagan. "One of the observations I've had is students tend to get disinterested in accounting before they get to the core accounting classes. And if we can get to them sooner, and have those conversations and expose them to these different career paths and opportunities, we've got such a better chance of keeping them interested in accounting as a result and not being reliant on the word of mouth that goes among students with how the upper-level classes are for somebody that finally got to them."
Purdue modified some of the requirements to make the class more accessible. "For our undergraduate tax course, we actually changed the prerequisite requirements to take it earlier so students can experience an upper-level accounting course earlier in their academic career, and get to hear a little bit about tax and get to hear a little bit about audit, which I can share with them as I share my war stories, if you will in public accounting, and how I've worked on provisions and things of that nature to keep those students engaged to have that audit focus," said Eagan. "For us, it's about getting them in earlier, and then also not just sticking to rote memorization in the classroom, giving them hands-on, practical experiential learning in order to give them the best experience and best education outcome. In tax in particular, we use a hands-on experiential case study that is award winning. We've gotten great accolades from the firms that it is the closest to preparing students for what a first year or internship would look like for them. and that ends up being pretty powerful for the students as a result."
Classwork for the case study can include something seemingly as routine as leaving a voicemail message. "It's shocking how many students haven't left a voicemail for anybody, let alone a client, and they have to articulate a tax technical matter in 90 seconds in a voicemail," said Eagan. "That's something that I tell my students like, even if I can't hook you on tax, and you're not interested here, that's just the creative aspects that we approach accounting to give students the extras, if you will. At some point, they're going to have to leave a voicemail and say, 'Hey, thank you for my interview.' And that has to be done with an elevator pitch compactness to it in order for students to be successful as they start their careers."
Technology skills are taught as well. "We implement other skills that we hear the firms asking for all the time, such as Excel, embedded Excel assignments that underscore the technical aspects of the class with just a different perspective in Excel," said Eagan. "And data analytics is deeply embedded in a lot of our classes, where we are using Tableau dashboards and doing some data manipulation."
He sees the technology skills as fitting in well with the
Diversifying the profession
Many firms have been trying to diversify their ranks to reach younger people in underrepresented groups, but the Supreme Court ruling in June against Harvard University's admissions policies has given many colleges and universities pause about how they can apply a student's race when evaluating a candidate.
"As you can imagine, we can't consider it in any admissions or enrollment decisions," said Koharki. "Nothing like that. so that one is a little bit trickier. The way we've thought about it is if we can get in front of the students, and open up the world to them, wherever they come from, or whatever their background is, if they're interested in accounting, they'll want to come and join our group, if you will, and explore paths that way. Admittedly, the firms do try very hard to tout that they do have a diverse workforce, and that there is value in that not only with them, but with their clients. But it still comes down ultimately to the student having that just basic interest in accounting or finance or whatever it is, and wanting to pursue it."
He was at an Intro to Finance class with Eagan recently where they were talking to one of the biggest classes at the school with about 250 students in attendance about how a career in accounting can help them and where it can take their careers. "Hopefully that spans across whatever you want to say — cultures, race and gender," said Koharki. "Hopefully, it attracts whoever's interested, no matter what their background."
Post graduation
After graduation, most of the students go into the accounting field, at least initially, but from there they can branch out into different career paths, even high-stakes poker.
"Most of them went to work for a CPA firm for a few years, and many of them after a few years moved away from that into another type of company, but they're pretty much all still in accounting," said Janes. "We did have one guy who left the program and joined the World Poker Tour."
Starting salaries are still a major issue, especially for graduates who have to pay off their student loan debt.
"One of the problems that students and schools make is everybody focuses on starting salaries, which lately have gone up," said Koharki. "You're actually seeing it in real time right now where the firms are starting to bump up the starting wages. But a lot of people look at it and say, well, what's my starting salary? And I sit there and think I never looked at it like that. I want to ask, what's my salary in five years? In our advisory board firms, the Big Four and a couple of others, that trajectory is so steep."
"I think that it's a hard pitch to get around that fact, because that is a hyper focus for a lot of students that, oh, my goodness, the starting salary is just too low," said Eagan. "But if you articulate to students the long-term value and the career opportunities that will come, and the companies that you have the ability to work with and travel to, it still resonates pretty loudly with them even though we are trying to speak louder than that black and white number on the page that they're looking at in various job-hunting articles or something like that. Yes, it's still hard, but a lot of our faculty have experience in Big Four or big regional firms and they have that ability to speak to their career path and trajectory."
He tries to help students land jobs after they graduate. "I've always considered myself to be a longtime mentor for my students," said Eagan. "I tell them jokingly, on the last day of class, your biggest problem now is that you're my student even when you walk out this door today. And so whenever you need anything, reach out, and that is a culture that permeates throughout the Purdue accounting faculty. I think a lot of our students would feel very comfortable reaching back out to us for career advice, for coaching, for job hunting."
That career advice helped one recent Purdue student. "We had reached out and through our network were able to connect him with some opportunities when things were looking kind of bleak for him," said Koharki. "That's pretty powerful for our students to offer a value that you'll never see in a syllabus."
There have been
He has suggestions for other schools that want to expand the accounting student pipeline for firms. "It really was, on our part, a culture change amongst the faculty," said Koharki. "We all got together and said, Look, we're going to attack this differently. And so while Troy and I and now J.T. are kind of triple-heading this thing, to make sure that there's a vision in place going forward that everybody understands all the way down to the undergraduate advising office, it really is about getting in front of your students, and changing your view that accounting is just the audit and tax. That will always be the bulk of it. But there are so many other different career paths out there that we've honestly seen a lot of finance kids come to us and say, you know, I never thought about it from this perspective, and I actually think I want to do accounting, maybe with a finance degree, because it just opens up that many more doors. Honestly, that's what schools need to start doing. They need to get out there and start telling kids that the world is so much bigger than just audit and tax. Once they do that, they'll really start to realize that there are so many more interesting things that you can do. The students will pick up on that, and it will flow through the results, as it has here at Purdue."
