Accounting majors who take a new accounting capstone course being offered for the first time in the fall 2022 semester will no longer have to take Business Policy, a course normally required for all students in the Haub School of Business.
Joseph Ragan, M.B.A., chair and professor of accounting, will teach the course, Accounting Control Systems, next semester.
Ragan said the course will focus on how accounting technology supports “business processes, including accounting and financial reporting.”
Ragan said he hopes when accounting students graduate from St. Joe’s, they can perform accounting skills in the “new world” of accounting.
“The new world is a world where it’s all digital,” Ragan said. “I want students to project forward. I want them to have forecasting ability, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.”
Matthew Ziff ’23 is registered for the capstone in the fall.
“As an accounting student, I like to take as many accounting specific courses as possible,” Ziff said. “All the accounting courses are completed as early as junior year. So, I really wanted to take some sort of accounting course senior year before starting to study and look at the CPA.”
To receive a certificate to practice as an accountant in the U.S., applicants must first pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. State accountancy licensing boards set their own rules. According to the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, students must have 24 credit hours in accounting before taking the exam and 36 credit hours in accounting subjects before receiving their certificate. They also need to have logged 1,600 hours of work experience within five years of applying for their accounting certificate.
Ziff, who already has a job lined up at PricewaterhouseCoopers after graduation, said he believes the business school is updating their curriculum so students are better prepared for their professional careers.
“I don’t think St. Joe’s would be saying this class can be taken instead of Business Policy unless they thought it was good for the students in their preparation for their career,” Ziff said. “I’m just happy St. Joe’s is looking for ways to improve the business school in classes which they might find most relevant to us and our majors specifically.”
Patrice Boselli ’23, who is also taking the capstone in the fall, plans on graduating in December. She said she hopes to gain more of a hands-on learning experience in the course than in Business Policy.
“I’m really excited about it,” Boselli said. “I know I’m going to get more out of this than I would have in Business Policy, and I feel like it’s just going to better prepare me for the CPA and for my career in accounting.”