Stillman School of Business Graduate Accounting Webinar

Address.

Hey, how are you?

Hey, Greg. Hey, Mark.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to join, but I wasn't able to go to the game, so here I am.

OK, OK.

Waiting for Danielle.

Sounds like 6:00.

This is.

And there she is.

Hi, I was having some trouble connecting. Can you all hear me OK?

We can. We can, yeah.

OK, great. Sorry I was having some issues.

No worries there.

All right. I'm going to meet it so we don't hear the bells.

OK.

I look at all these people.

So for some reason, I'm not seeing the participant list on my end. I just see myself and Mark. I don't even see Joyce. How many participants do we have right here?

Can you all see?

It says it's all right 12, so I think there's.

OK. All right. Gotcha.

All right. So welcome everyone. We're just going to get started shortly. I put, I just put a message in the chat. Seems like I'm having some some issues viewing the participants in here. But Mark and Danielle Joyce, we all love to see my message in the chat.

I know.

No, I don't see it.

All right, hold on one second.

Are you sure you're on the right call, Greg?

I'm just going to exit out and come right back in. Hold on one second here.

All right, so I realized that there is 2 screens of me. This happens sometimes. That second blank screen will go away shortly, so no worries.

It'll pop out soon.

But everyone welcome. Thank you for tuning in today to the to the graduate accounting webinar. Today we're going to tell you a little bit more just about why accounting give you a bit of an A process of admissions.

I.

An outline of what we offer here in our graduate accounting programs, we have several that are of interest and we're going to get into a little bit more of just some of our our faculty members here. We have two members of our actually three members of our of our accounting department as our Dean is a member of the accounting department as well. But we'll go ahead and get into introductions on the next slide here.

So firstly, before I begin, there is a, there is a chat, a chat box. I see that Dean Joyce Strausser posted a message in there. So if there are any questions as we are going along, please do feel free. I see that that second screen of me just popped out. So please definitely feel free to to just ask any questions as they come along. I'll either answer them in the chat or we'll save them at the end. But please feel free any questions as they come along, type them right in the chat box. So firstly, just to introduce myself.

Some of you may have known me or know me already at this point, or have gotten some emails, phone calls, text messages.

But my, I'm Greg Davis. I'm the Director of Graduate Admissions here at Seton Hall. So essentially all of the recruitment and retention efforts and helping our programs grow here at Seton Hall, I'm basically in charge of. So I will pass it off to our fearless leader, Dean Joy Strausser to introduce herself.

Thank you, Greg, and welcome everybody. It's such a pleasure to be here. As Greg said, I am also a faculty member in the Department of Accounting and Taxation, though I haven't taught any accounting courses in a little while. But my goal here is just to thank you for joining us tonight to tell you that we've got a lot of wonderful things to share about our accounting programs. This department has been truly innovative in making some improvements to across the board to all of our accounting courses.

Thinking about what you need as emerging accounting professionals. So I applaud the department. I think we've got some exciting things to share. I just want to give you a little bit of insight into the Stillman School for those of you who do not know us at Stillman or are not members of our Stillman community. And I'll just share two things that I think are the pillars of a Stillman experience. The 1st is a close knit community. I love the size of this school in this university.

I think we're in the sweet spot, so we are large enough and well known enough that you're going to have no problem connecting and having people respect the degree that you have. We've got a large and dedicated alumni base. In fact, Mark and I had lunch today with two of our alums from EY. But we're always connected with them, making sure that we are on top of what's happening in the profession and how we can best prepare students.

To meet those challenges or issues.

The, you know, the nice thing, too, is you're going to be an individual here. So I went to two very large institutions for my undergrad degree and my PhD, And while I felt I had a good experience, it was when I came here to Seton Hall that I realized the benefits of really knowing students and students for you really being known by your faculty members. Faculty here are invested in your success, and it makes a huge difference.

The other point I would make is about ethics. So we are a Business School in a Catholic University. We have an obligation to make sure that our students are really.

No understanding and embracing the obligation that they have to give back to their communities to make the world a better place and to really help positive societal impact occur. So I think business has a unique opportunity to make the world better. I know it sounds a little cheesy, but it's true the things that we do in business.

Have great ripple effects and impact and you'll find that we're concerned with ethical dilemmas throughout your course of study. So these are things that will be addressed in the courses that you take. But we are very keen on making sure that we develop not just leaders in the profession, but ethical or ethical or principled with business leaders. So I will turn back over to Greg. I'll be on of course and listening to your questions, maybe answering a few and can pop in at any moment but.

I will surrender the rest of the contact to my colleagues. Thank you for joining us.

Perfect. Thank you so much, Joyce. And I'll pass it over to to Mark to introduce himself.

Thanks, Greg. My name is Mark Holzmann and I'm associate professor here. I've been this is my 21st year at Seton Hall and I'm also the chair of the Department of Accounting and Taxation.

I'll tell you more about a program in a few minutes.

All right, Antonio.

Hi everyone, I'm Daniel Demeglio. I am a lecturer in the accounting of Department of Taxation and I'm also the Director of the accounting graduate programs. And I'll be speaking more about the academic advisement piece that I do to you later on as well.

Perfect. Well, thank you all for that. So on your screen right now, you'll be seeing our agenda and I'm going to hand it back over to to to Mark to discuss a little bit more about why accounting, what accountants do, how to become AACPA. Then I believe I'll pass it over to Danielle to talk a little bit more about why Seton Hall, some of the programs offered. She'll discuss a little bit more of the advising process as we do offer one to one advising for our students and then I will take you through the admissions process.

And advice?

So for anybody that there may be some people in here that have already submitted an application, maybe you're thinking about it. So I think it will be beneficial for all there. So I will hand it back over to to Mark.

OK. Thank you, Greg.

And 1st I'll I'll just talk a little bit about accounting itself and what the field of accounting is like these days.

AICPA recently issued a report they updated every two years and we're we're waiting for the new reports to come out any day now. And I'm the demand for Cpas is increasing at an incredible rate and the world needs more accountants and whether it's in public accounting, whether it's in government positions, whether it's in what we call private accounting, working for public accounting.

I.

Working for public for companies as accountants, the demand is increasing. Taxes are not getting any simpler, and a lot of the other roles that accountants are needed for with all of the automation, people have been saying for years that with automation they're going to need less accountants. What we've learned is that with automation, they seem to need more accountants, and so people are choosing to go into the accounting profession. One of the greatest strengths of the accounting profession is the need for accountants today. And again, this recent study shows that more recent studies are also.

Everything we've seen in the last few years shows that demand is in fact increased since 2021. Greg, you want to go to the next slide?

So the supply for accountants on the other hand isn't really changing. So while the business world is looking for more accountants, we as an accounting, as accounting educators are not training more accountants. So if you figure out the supply and demand situation here, you can begin to see that going into this particular field Right now, there's really an ideal opportunity to get in at a time when accountants are in very high demand and.

There are many, many great opportunities for you right now. Next.

So the demand for accounting has held strong. The need for financial reporting, for tax advice, for advisory services, all of these things continues to be strong through the pandemic, through the economy, this in the last few years. And the CPA credential seems to be more valuable than ever. We're seeing salaries continue to increase over the past two or three years and even as there's a lot of questions about whether we're going into a recession and demand for people in different fields right now.

One thing I can tell you about accounting that we're seeing is our students at Seton Hall are being hired. They're typically getting job offers these days a year in advance of when they're going to be graduating. And we just plug these alumni we were just talking to. We're talking about hiring students a year and a half before they graduate. So demand right now is really strong, especially with that CPA credential next.

So what do accountants do? And again, if you know all of this, I apologize in advance, maybe it's a good review for the test, I don't know. But they're basically three areas that accountants simply work in. One of them is called public accounting and public accounting has led the industry is led by what we call the BIG4, four really super large global accounting firms and networks. One is Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC, formerly known as Price Waterhouse Coopers.

And then there are many more national and regional accounting firms.

Small firms and sole practitioners. It's not uncommon for people to start their accounting career with the big four or with national size accounting firms, and then over the years as their career grows, to move into smaller accounting firms and maybe in many cases start their own practice. Many of our students, as a career goal, they actually want to just have their own practices and hang out a signal. Well, people don't hang signals in front of their houses anymore, but hang a shingle in front of their house and do tax returns and kind of have this nice little business.

At home.

Another area that accountants go to is what we call private accounting and this would be, it's also known as believe it or not corporate finance and management accounting. And this is working as an accountant for for a private or publicly held company. And the company CFO, Chief Financial Officer who read the news today, Disney just hired a new CFO.

The Chief financial officer, Treasurer and Controller's office. These areas typical or typically are staffed by accountants.

Area that count and simply work for in private accounting is what we call internal audit. And that's an area where the accountants are kind of the watchdogs within the company to make sure that people are following policy. And then accountants have roles in many other areas. One important role that accountants have is in government is working for government. We've seen a tremendous demand on the part of government agencies looking to hire more accountants, especially now. I hope this doesn't upset you. The Internal Revenue Service, if you read the news, Internal Revenue Service is looking to hire 60,000 more accountants.

Over the next few years, if you look at my numbers before, you'll see that we might the entire United States might graduate 60,000 accountants in one year.

But they're looking to hire 60,000 accountants. We also see students going to work for other agencies like the like Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. So accountants in these areas simply work investigating money laundering or some other forensic accounting areas like that. So all of these areas, if you look at the stats, the demand for accountants is just increasing in all of these areas. And that means for people who are choosing to go into accounting, there are a lot more choices to make next.

So to become ACPA. And the rules are different in every single state. So you have to think about where you want to work when you finish school. And you would usually pick what state you plan to live in and then look to meet the CPA requirements in those states. But typically there's going to be an education requirement.

An experience requirement and then also a CPA exam requirement. Typically you need at least a bachelor's degree in or in accounting to take the CPA exam, and this is where graduate education comes in. You need 150 credits of course work in all 50 states now, so typically that's going to be a bachelor's degree. It may be in business or maybe in another area. And then thirty more credits of schooling. And some of our students will typically do a bachelor's degree in accounting.

And then take 30 credits in a complementary area. For example, they might do our MSN in professional accounting, but they they also do our Ms. in business analytics. Other students may have a bachelor's degree in finance and they go in the other direction and they get, they do our 3030 credit Masters of Science in accounting, the MSA program And again that will meet all the educational requirements. But you have to be very careful as you go into this to make sure.

That the classes that you take or the degree program that you take are going to be the educational requirements in the state where you plan to work. A second requirement is the CPA exam. I probably don't need to get much introduction to the CPA exam, but there's a new the CPA exam is actually undergoing revisions right now, and we're looking forward to the new CPA exam coming out in January 2024. Our curriculum is set up for the new CPA exam, but that is a requirement if people choose to become ACPA.

And then finally, one year professional experience. This usually means working under another CPA for a period of at least a year next.

And Seton Hall, I've been here 21 years and I've been fortunate to work with Dean Strausser and Professor Domeglio and all my colleagues to try to create a program for you that's going to meet your needs and really pay for itself. Like the way we think about it is that when accountants are evaluating investments and evaluating performance, they're looking for return on investment. And our philosophy here is very much that we want to provide all of our students.

Return on Investment. Your education should pay for itself, not only financially, but in terms of having a rewarding career. You invest four years of your life for a bachelor's degree, maybe a fifth year for 150 credits of school. However you invest your time into your education, it should pay off not only in terms of the finances, but more importantly in terms of having a rewarding career to rely upon. So next slide, Greg.

The way we think about it is there's four things we really try to focus on to provide with our students. With. Key is, we found that a little bit of career advising goes a long way. Students need to be ready for interviews. They need to be set up with the right recruiters, ready for interviews, know how to interview, and exactly know what to expect.

And a little bit of career advising. We have a full time career advisor on staff to help you who's primarily dedicated to accounting that little bit of career advising.

Which may involve several one-on-one meetings with with Christine Milano.

Will help make sure that you're ready to recruit with some of the firms that recruit our students. That's a big four accounting firms, several large Wall Street investment banks, a number of national accounting firms and smaller accounting firms too. Something else that we found is really important is quality advising, and that's why Professor Domeglio is here. We found that students really benefit from having one-on-one advising.

Regular basis We want to make sure that you take the right classes. We want to make sure that you're going to meet the CPA educational requirements. And to be perfectly frank with you, we want one thing which students have come to us and said is.

Students in Graduate School usually do not want to take any extra classes that they don't want to take. We want to have your time. We want to use your time as effectively as possible. So one in one advising allows you to take the right classes, the right degree program that's going to meet your needs.

And make sure that you're going to have that story that you really need to be able to get your career moving in the direction that you want.

Quality coursework. Our classes rarely go over 30 students.

And we want to make sure that our faculty are available for you. Many times students, they may have trouble in a class, they may not understand everything. To us, it's extremely important that our faculty are able to provide you with a quality experience in the classroom or online, however the delivery occurs and that they're going to be available to answer your questions. And then finally, the highest standards AACSB, that's the accounting, that's the accreditation agency for business schools, that's considered to be the gold standard for for.

Quality business education actually has two levels of accreditation. They have a business level accreditation and then they also have a specialized accounting accreditation. We've invested in a great deal in making sure that we have that accounting accreditation and it's makes our job a lot more difficult. It means that there are some professors unfortunately who we can't hire to teach our classes. It means that we have to have assessment programs that other programs do not have, but it makes it a lot better.

The accreditation process is tough and it puts a lot of demands on our faculty, but the result is a much higher quality program and a program with a stronger reputation that's going to attract the top recruiters. Next slide, I think it's Danielle's turn. So here again, though not quite ready yet, here again, accounting accreditation, ACSB, we're the only school in North Jersey with a ACSB accounting department accreditation and AACSB provides.

An external.

Test of the quality of our program. I happen to also be an AACSB reviewer. I sit on the Accounting Accreditation Committee of AACSB, so I'm familiar with what a lot of other schools do, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to bring a lot of those ideas here for the benefit of our students.

So I think this is my last slide right?

This one, the CPA exam, is your last one right after this.

No.

Oh, I went over, OK, So I'm going to pass the baton to my to professor, to Maglio, and she'll share more great things about our program.

Mark, because I can speak about great teaching as being one of your great faculty members.

So I all kidding aside, something that we really hold dear to us here at Seton Hall is the great quality teaching that we have. All of our classes are taught by PhD faculty or professional accountants. Many of us have not only our CPA licensure but years of experience in both public and private accounting, and have continued to have that exposure and connection to practice.

Even while teaching, we have no teaching assistants and we have and pride ourselves on small class sizes. So our classrooms are about 25 to 35 students and that's unique in that it really allows us to connect one-on-one with our students. I know all of my students names by like the first week or so class and it really allows for us to help curate and help advise them and find those paths and be a support system for them because we do really get to know you.

We have best practices in online delivery.

All of our graduate courses are what we call in a flex modality, which I believe we'll speak to later on where we have all the latest technology in the classroom to enable that online delivery should you select that format.

So in terms of the CPA exam, many of you may find that the CPA exam is a goal of yours and that is why you're looking to pursue a graduate degree. We don't have updated information beyond 2019. This is the last reported data that has been provided to us. But graduate students in the 2019 cycle has had a 56.8% pass rate on all sections, and so that may not sound like a high number to you, but believe it or not, it is.

Above, I believe the nationwide average.

And so we do pride ourselves in that many of our students go on to successfully pass the CPA exam and become licensed professionals.

So we are also very lucky that we have an array of graduate degree programs that you can pursue. And I want to outline those for you so that you can really understand the differences between the programs when making your selections. So we have.

Various graduate degrees we the first one is an MBA with a concentration in accounting. This is a generalized degree that explores a broad base of business categories. So there's curriculum in areas such as finance, economics, marketing.

And your concentration is in accounting. The total credits for this program is 40 credits and the areas in accounting that it focuses on are 15 credits in accounting. That is a great stepping stone towards the requirements for CPA licensure.

We also have the Ms. in accounting. With this you can have any undergraduate degree. You don't necessarily have to have an accounting undergraduate degree. Same as with the MBA, but this is more specialized.

This is really those that want to make those career change into accounting and get their feet wet and possibly pursue the CPA exam. The curriculum in this program really targeted its more in depth accounting and taxation curriculum that we have that will focus the requirements of the CPA exam and licensure. This is a 30 credit program. We also have our Ms. in professional accounting and these are for students whose undergraduate degree is already in accounting and they really just want to further their niche in accounting or further.

Knowledge base in accounting. It's a specialized program, also 30 credits, where there's curriculum in various areas of taxation, deeper areas in auditing, and again, this is just a further niche out what you already established with your undergraduate degree in accounting.

And our newly launched MSN professional accounting and analytics, we're very excited about this one because we were just able to launch this this year and work very hard on it.

In response to some feedback that we received about data analytics and the importance of analytics and the demand for analytics and incorporating that in conjunction with accounting curriculum. So with this degree, you do need an accounting undergraduate degree and it is more specialized not just in areas of accounting, but in areas that focus on big data, data analytics, information technology and a lot of those hot topics that you're seeing now in connection with accounting.

This is also Authority Credit Program and I'm happy to say that it is a STEM designated program.

Which is great for our international students.

So this is a more deep dive in each of those areas. Our MBA accounting, they have accounting courses that cover financial reporting, cost accounting, auditing standards, every foundational thing that you'll need as a stepping stone towards the CPA exam, if that's something you want to pursue. But because it is broad based, you're going to get that exposure to the other areas in business like I said earlier, economics, behavioral sciences, finance, marketing, even sports management.

Our MSN accounting, again also in person or online, we have courses there that you can take that will give you not only the foundation in accounting that you need for CPA exam, but also explore some areas. We even have some new courses that we've just launched this past year or so where you can get experiential learning. So we recently partnered with the United Way on a new program, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.

Where we're volunteering to prepare income tax returns.

For underserved communities, Vita has been long established, but this is a new partnership that we have with them to get experiential learning through a class called the Tax Lab. Our Tax Lab is an elective in the MSN accounting and we've received such wonderful feedback so far about the experiences that our students have had. You know, taking the classroom out to the community and being able to support not only our community and underserved area in the community, but also being able to provide that hands on experience that many students.

Would like to have if you're not sure about what areas in accounting.

You want to dive into this is a great way to get your feet wet and it's all for a three credit elective under the program while giving back to the community. So we found that it's been just really a win win so far. So we have classes like that in the Ms. accounting that you can take advantage of.

With the MSN professional accounting, we are diving deeper into your already foundation or knowledge base in professional accounting with areas such as big data analytics, specialized tax courses, enterprise wide accounting, information systems and other areas of auditing such as financial statement analysis, internal auditing and even newly forensic accounting has been a really hot area in the industry that many students like to dive into. So we have a friends in accounting elective there as well.

And you know, we find that these specialized areas students are more and more navigating to and so the MSN professional accounting can afford you to dive further into those niches.

And it satisfies the CPA educational requirement and is also a 30 credit program.

Lastly, like I said before, our newly established MSN professional accounting and analytics, I think the the most exciting part about this is not only that it's covering areas such as analytics that are really more and more integrated into accounting. We're seeing it all over the importance of big data and being able to analyze data and perform analytics on data. But this also is a STEM designated program that helps support our international students to pursue you know USCPA licensure.

All of these programs offer flexible delivery, which means that they have flex modality in our courses. So you can attend them with online content or you can attend them asynchronously online where it's self-paced and you're able to do it. We understand that a lot of individuals have other obligations, work families, whatever the case may be, and so you can attend those sessions, recording asynchronously if you need to. Or you can have live engagement where you're meeting with the professor a couple of times this semester and getting that in person interaction.

Everyone learns differently, Everyone has different needs, and so our flex modality and our flex delivery really helps support all the varying needs of our potential graduate students. The times and dates are all pre scheduled months in advance and they're fully remote options if needed, and we work with you based on your specific needs.

So a big part of what I do for the department is academic advising. And not only do we take academic advisement seriously, but it is something that is offered to all of our students, including extending to our graduate students. You know, some people think academic advising it's just about picking classes, right? And maybe that's what you did with your academic advisor at the undergraduate level. But the purpose of academic advising is also to help visualize your goals.

And help visualize your course plans and how we can achieve those goals both short short term and long term. I'm currently in the thick of it right now with academic advisement and I'm meeting with every student, one-on-one, to ensure that they're meeting those goals and staying on their path. And this is beyond just picking classes that we really try to connect you with our career advisors who help you with internships and entry level placement. We also help support you through our Dean's offices.

Services, if you need tutoring or mental health counseling or just even personal resources, we work with our international office, with our international students. So it really is a hub to sort of extend you to all the other resources that are available to you. At Seton Hall, we find that it is really important to meet with all our students one-on-one, give them that personalized feel so that we can curate the best path that works for you when we meet with you.

We get to know you and we get to really understand what you're looking for out of this program. Like Mark said earlier, this is an investment, right? You're investing time, you're investing money with us. This is our way of making sure that you're making the most out of that investment by guiding you and providing ourselves as a a full resource, not just academically, but through the whole experience that you're having as a graduate student.

So career advising, we've mentioned it before. We have a lot of great relationships with our Career Center with not only the BIG4 firms, you know, the usual ones that you see here, Deloitte, EMY, PwC. We have a lot of regional firms and corporate firms. Most recently we've established a great relationship with the IRS. We've even had an event with them which we hope to have again in the spring called the IRS Citizens Academy, where the IRS and FBI agents come on campus and we do this whole investigative accounting.

Because that's been really popular now again bringing that hands on experiential learning through our events to you. We take pride in a lot of different career advising opportunities that are not just in the traditional format where you're just meeting with the career advisor, uploading your resume. We have career events in the fall and the spring we have where counting is very prominent. The last career fair that we had, I think accounting took up like.

2-3 rows at the career fair all ready to meet with our students and help recruit with them. We have more intimate settings where we do career advising where we have meet the firms and accounting specific events. That is just for our accounting majors where they get to connect with all types of firms. We also have an accounting roundtables event that's upcoming this spring That again is a more intimate event that you're not getting lost in a crowd at a career fair, but being able to get that one-on-one networking.

And put yourself in front of all of these firms. So we really take pride in our relationships with these firms. We've had very good experiences then and many of our students are able to continue those relationships and give back to Seton Hall and get placed in these firms upon graduation.

Thank you so much, Danielle. And before I move on to the to the application and admissions requirements, we had a question in the chat that I'm I'm going to relate to you, so appreciate the question. So the question states I passed the CPA exam in September. I currently do not work as an accountant or even work in finance. I plan to pursue part-time accounting work to supplement my primary career. What value aside from more knowledge can a Seton Hall masters in accounting provide me?

So I think I can take that one. I think you sort of said it there besides more knowledge since that you don't work as an accountant, you may not know what area of accounting that you want to pursue, right?

And I assume that if you're currently, you know, looking to pursue part time work in accounting, you're going to want to make that valuable, right. And so I think that the curriculum that the Master's degree offers you can help you decide what niches and accounting do you want to work in. You know, many people think accountant, they do taxes.

And that's all we do. There are so many varying areas and job opportunities as Mark described.

That you can explore. And because the curriculum that a master's degree can afford you, it gives you an opportunity to explore those electives without committing to a job opportunity in those electives first, right. You sort of test the waters a little bit. Do I like tax? Let me take a tax class? Do I really like forensic accounting? Let me take an elective in that and then really see if it's for me. And then from there we can help kind of.

Provide that pipeline to you, to those career opportunities, right. If you take a forensic class, we may say, OK, if this is an area you want to go in and you want to work for the IRS or you want to become a a fraud examiner, well this is, these are the companies you should look at. These are the connections that we can make for you. And so I think beyond just the curriculum, it kind of forms a pathway, right? What are you going to do with just the CPA exam, right?

Where do you go next? And the graduate degree program I think can help you decide that. Anyone feel free to add to that as well, but that's my take on it.

Great. Yeah. No, thank you. And I think that definitely answers the question. So appreciate the question and thanks a lot Danielle for, for that response.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know the one thing I might add to that? Oh, I.

Your test.

I was just going to say the one thing I could add to that is if you're feeling like, OK, I have, I have a degree, I passed the CPA. What might be interesting, you know, we do have a certificate of advanced study, so maybe that would be the way you'd want to go to take some courses that you would have prerequisites for that you could obtain prerequisites for, and then explore particular courses in which you want to have a specific skill or knowledge base.

So while I would love to see people getting the full graduate degree, I do want to point out that we have graduate certificates that students can take if they want to dip their toes in, maybe get immediately some specific knowledge, and then if they'd like to ultimately convert into a degree.

Yeah, that's a great point, Joyce. Appreciate that.

So getting a little bit more into the application requirements, so you'll see here the application requirements for the MBA and the accounting programs are pretty straightforward. So first thing is needed is an is an online application form. So each of you definitely should have gotten that link. We we normally hand out the fee waivers pretty often as well. So I'll throw that in the chat later on as well just to make sure that you all have it. But it'll be the online application form which basically just asks you some questions about yourself, your personal background, employment history, education history.

It will then take you into a personal statement, which is 250 to 500 words really just explaining why you want to be a part of the program, what experience you'll bring to the program, your goals afterwards. Whether you're looking for for the, the, the, the CPA to sit for the CPA exam, or you're looking for a change in career, or you're possibly looking for that promotion, or or or or you know, a position a little bit higher, so that will benefit with a master's degree.

We'll then ask for your resume, so your most updated resume letters of recommendation. So we only require one letter of recommendation. However, you can certainly submit more than one. It doesn't have to be from either a current professor or a former professor. It can be from a supervisor or current supervisor or former. We just we just say someone that can speak to you either as a student or professional or as a person in general.

GMAT or GRE, so we are there are waivers that that are automatically offered and we are test optional at this point. So I'll get into that in a little bit in the next slide.

And then official transcript. So we will need your official transcripts. All post secondary transcripts we will need. So there are some. I know there are some students in here that may be in their senior year and and possibly you haven't graduated yet. Maybe you're graduating in December, you're graduating in May. You can certainly still apply and submit your official transcript. We can offer conditional admission on the condition that we receive your official transcript with proof of graduation once you graduate. And official transcripts means that that needs to come directly from the institution to Seton Hall.

Let's say if you have a copy of your transcript or the unofficial transcript, you cannot send that directly to us. That has to come immediately from from the school, directly from the school.

So in regards to application requirements for international students, so for any international students who did not complete their undergraduate studies in an accredited university with English language instruction, Please note a TOEFL, IELTS, i.e. LTS or Duolingo score is required. Now if you did attend an institution outside of the United States and the language of instruction was English, then we would simply just need an official letter from the school stating that the language of instruction was English and we can go ahead and waive that language requirement.

In terms of the transcript evaluation, so if you did attend a university outside of the US, then we will need an international transcript evaluation. So this evaluation has to come directly from the issuing agency to Seton Hall. You'll see that these are two of the organizations that we work pretty closely with, Macy's and West, which is World Education Services. So you will need to request an official transcript sent to one of those organizations. And once they evaluate your transcript, that has to be sent directly from to Seton Hall. And there are a number of organizations that are a part of Macy's and you can feel free to check out that website right there.

Just to see which organizations are acceptable for for international transcript evaluations.

So in regards to admissions requirements, so firstly it will need a degree from an accredited undergraduate institution. Generally speaking, we're looking for an undergraduate GPA of a 3.0 or higher.

Or a score in the 30th percentile or higher on an entrance exam G Matt GRE let's say. So in terms of the international requirements, the TOEFL, you know if you will need to submit an English language proficiency exam. TOEFL working for a score of at least an 80.

We're looking for a score of at least a six and Duolingo a score of a 110.

So in regards to a waiver opportunity, so if you did receive an overall undergraduate GPA of 3.4 or higher, you will be automatically waived from that GMAT or GRE exam if you received a graduate level from an accredited institution. So let's say if you've already received a masters degree, you know possibly a master's degree in another area, and you're looking to come back to earn a Master's in accounting that can waive you directly from the GMAT dreary we're looking for. If you have five years of significant professional and entrepreneurial experience, that can certainly waive you from the Gmail GRE.

Successful completion of AUS recognized certifying exam. I know we had one in here that that completed the CPA exam, so congratulations again. That will automatically waive you. Or if you've completed a Stillman School of Business graduate certificate program, which Joyce mentioned a bit more in the graduate certificate programs that we do offer. If you completed that in the last five years with the cumulative GPA of a 3.3, you'll be automatically waived as well.

So you'll see here that we are test optional. So I did receive a question in the chat if G matter and GRE G matter, GRE will be mandatory. So Please note that we are test optional and optional means it's at your discretion of whether you would like to submit your GMAT or GRE test scores. I would say submission of test scores, GMAT or GRE is highly recommended for candidates seeking Merit based Scholarship Awards and Graduate Assistantship. So Please note that we do offer.

Graduate Assistantships A graduate assistantship is a part time job here on campus.

For which in return you'll receive tuition remission and a small stipend. Please note that these positions are pretty competitive, so we are looking for our our strong strongest applicants and if you feel like a GMAT or G rescore can strengthen your application, we'd certainly advise you to submit that. And then we do offer also a merit based scholarship awards. So we have scholarship awards that is offered by the university as a whole and then within the Stoneman School of Business we also do have.

Endowed scholarships that we can offer based off of merit.

These scholarships a lot of time are based on whether you've submitted a FAFSA and demonstrated need financial needs. So I always encourage students. You know it'll be in your acceptance letter once you apply and if you're accepted that it that it's highly, highly recommended to submit a FAFSA. You know whether you think you're gonna get a lot of financial aid or not. Please note that some of these scholarships that we do offer that we do have is based on whether you've filed a FAFSA and whether you demonstrate needs. So just keep that in mind.

So getting on into the priority deadline, So the first thing that I will point out, we are still accepting applications for the Spring 2024 semester. So you'll note there the priority deadline is is listed as October 31st. I would say that that's pretty flexible. We do work.

Wholly on a on a rolling emissions basis. So we are still accepting applications for the Spring 2024 semester. You may be receiving an e-mail in the next couple weeks regarding.

A an extension on that deadline, but we are still accepting applications for spring of 2024. So if you have any interest in beginning your graduate degree or graduate journey here at Seton Hall in January, just about the middle of January is when the Spring 24th semester starts. Note that we are still accepting applications for US applicants, you'll see there. We recommend a deadline of May 31st to submit that application, and for summer a deadline of March 31st. Please note for international applicants, these deadlines are a little bit earlier, just in terms of additional paperwork that may need to be completed, whether it's regarding a visa or an I-20 processing.

And for international applicants, you'll see there we recommend a deadline of April 30th for fall and a deadline of September 30th for spring.

So I touched.

Sorry, skip the slide there. So getting into the graduate business tuition and fees, so you will see here that the tuition cost per credit right now is $1465. You'll see that the majority of our programs are accounting programs are 30 credits except for the MBA and accounting program which is 40 credits. So you can kind of get an idea there of of how much the program each program will cost. You'll see that for full time students, a full time student is any, any student that's completing about 9 credits.

Or above an apartheid student, anyone. That student, any student that's completing 8 credits or below, you'll see some of those additional fees there. But again, always encourage students to apply for for financial aid. Always inquire about scholarships as well. I'll touch on those a little bit in the next slide, but note that we do have opportunities available for students to to supplement the cost for a graduate degree here.

I.

So in regards to financial aid, so we do have our graduate financial aid website. So if you are interested in, you know, filing a FAFSA, how does that work for graduate students? I'll tell you it's similar to the process that maybe you've completed for undergraduate. If you have any interest in in possible loans, you know how can how can the FAFSA help help me in terms of financing my my graduate degree, Definitely do check that out, you'll see the Seton Hall University FAFSA code there.

002632

and just note that the facet must be completed in order to be considered for federal, state and institutional aid programs. And I mentioned graduate assistantships as well. I will mention that we do have graduate assistantships within the School of Business. So we are hiring for graduate assistantships for the spring 24 semester and then shortly afterwards we'll be hiring for graduate assistantships for the fall 24 semester. We have a graduate graduate assistants that support our faculty members. So our accounting department specifically has a graduate assistant that's helping them out and then we also have graduate assistants that help out other.

Departments here in the Stoneman School of Business.

Also note as well, if you're looking on our Graduate Assistantship page, you'll see that there are opportunities outside the Stillman School of Business. So if you have any interest in any other of the departments here, whether it's you know, possibly athletics or Residence Life or financial aid or international programs, note that some of those programs hire, some of those departments hire graduate assistants as well. So, so it's never hurts to submit more than one application. So just keep that in mind.

All right. And if you have not submitted an application, you definitely, as I mentioned, you definitely still can. We work pretty quickly on the admission side here to get you a decision. I would say once you submit your application, we receive your transcripts, your letters of recommendation and everything's all set there. I would say you probably could have expected this decision from us in the following two to three days after we receive everything on your end. So if you have any interest whatsoever in, in in starting an application right now, the application is open obviously for the Spring 24 semester, but also for the summer and the Fall 24 semester. So you can certainly start in an application now. It definitely doesn't hurt to get started early.

You'll see the fee waiver promo code There is GFW in case you forget that stands for Graduate Fee waiver. So pretty simple there and you can fill that out on your application to avoid paying the $75 application fee.

And in terms of connecting with us, so all of us are readily available. I can tell you right now that for any student that that is accepted into the program. I see that there's a few of them here. You'll get an e-mail automatically from me. I'm introducing you to Danielle Demaglio as the advisor of the program. She normally responds probably within about 10 minutes asking for a time to set up a meeting to discuss further. So we are always here to connect with you. So always feel free.

To always e-mail us, you know, I'll put the our general graduate admissions e-mail address in there as well. You'll see it. It's listed there. It's just bus grad, biz grad at shu.edu. I see Danielle and Mark.

Listed their e-mail addresses as well. So if you have any specific questions maybe about your current situation or, you know, maybe specific questions about the courses that you'll be taking in each program, definitely please feel free to reach out If you possibly want to schedule a class visit, Maybe you wanna see you know what a class is like, Definitely reach out to us and and we can certainly set that up for you.

I also offer one-on-one appointment so you can find that if you've gotten my emails, you'll see that that's listed right below my signature schedule 101 appointment. If you want to discuss you know again your situation, a little bit more detail, please do feel free to reach out ioffer virtual appointments as well as phone appointments about 4-5 times a day. So definitely feel free to not hesitate to reach out and I'll list my the general biz grad e-mail address in the.

In the box there as well.

So that wraps up the presentation portion of of today. Really appreciate you all tuning in, but I will leave it open for another maybe about 2-3 minutes just to see if there are any questions that any of you have. Please, if you do type them right in the chat box.

I'd like to respond to Jamie's question a little bit in a little more detail.

What we found is that a lot of students are coming to the program, have unique needs that aren't necessarily met by a specific program. And So what we what often makes the most sense for students is simply to talk to Danielle and myself and talk about what they're looking for and what their needs are. And we'll put together a program of courses, whether it's going to be a certificate or one of the master's programs or so on that's going to meet your needs. For example, Jamie, just from your what you're saying there.

What I would say is you probably want to have a small tax practice and perhaps do a lot to tax returns during the busy season.

And so to do that, you probably want the graduate certificate of tax and that might bring you to the C, the CPA, educational requirement of 150 and so on. So a lot of times these can be what makes sense is simply to have a conversation with Danielle and myself and talk about what your needs are and different ways to meet your needs and not going any further. Also not providing a lot of other things that you might not need.

Appreciate that, Mark. Definitely.

Right. And it looks like as I mentioned, any questions whatsoever, you know you have about four e-mail addresses that you can reach out to. If you don't know where to begin, definitely you can always begin with with graduate admissions and I will, I will point you in the right direction. So you can always begin with that biz grad at shu.edu. That will come directly to me. I'll always point you in the right direction, but looks like yes. Go ahead, Mark.

I have I have a question.

Do Do graduate students in the accounting program, Can they get a discount on basketball tickets?

It's a great question actually. The the season kicks off today. We are playing against Saint Peters, another New Jersey rival school, so 10 graduate students get discount on basketball tickets.

Who wants to answer that one?

You know what? I I don't honestly know. I know that if you're an undergrad student, in the past they've had, they've discounted tickets quite heavily. I think the graduate students too. I feel like there were a couple years where if you went to, if you went to every game, they would refund the full price of the tickets.

We pay full price.

I know, but but I can't. I don't want to say that's for sure this year. Not not for faculty. Not for faculty students.

Right. We pay full price.

I.

I have a second question. Do graduate students do internships in our programs?

Yes, we do.

Why don't you talk about that?

OK.

Internships are especially popular among our Ms. and Professional accounting program.

Students and our students will typically do an internship this summer. They this a summer a year before they graduate, and they can also earn credit for that internship too. These internships pay quite well, they give students a lot of professional experience, and it helps solidify their career choice towards accounting.

And most of our students get full time job offers at the end of the internships.

Yeah, Thanks a lot Mark. So definitely something to keep in mind as well and as Danielle mentioned, the amount of of accounting firms and and the presence of of accounting here at our school, whether it's at a career fair or whether it's at our accounting meet. The firm's event which is an annual event that we hold where we have smaller to mid size to larger accounting firms come on campus to speak to all of our accounting students. So always something to keep in mind.

All right. Well, I think we answered all questions. There is a question that I have to get back to all of you on, which is the discount for graduate students at basketball game. I don't know that answer either.

And we will go ahead and and Bernard I see you just shout over a question, I will shoot you an e-mail to describe that a little bit further. But really appreciate all of you again attending tonight. You know if you if you do have some time and you can check out, I'm not sure what channel we're we're playing on tonight but.

But as always, we're always rooting for the Pirates. So go Pirates. I believe the game starts at around 7:30 or so, but again, we really appreciate all of you attending tonight. Hope you got a ton of good information about all of our graduate accounting programs and really can't wait to to hopefully see all of you in the near future.

All right, Well, everyone, have a great night. Take care.

Thank you everyone. Go pirates.

Goodnight.

Yep, Thank you for being here with us.