No, no, not a senior citizen (although I'm heading down that hill FAST!), but a college senior. How time has flown. Saw a fresh crop of undergrads brandishing their "2010" folders at the Student Union the other day and realized it had been THREE YEARS since I proudly carried my "2007" credentials-in-cardboard. It has been a fun and interesting ride, and I can finally see the horizon.If it's true that the first two semesters of the accounting curriculum are the hardest, then I have successfully and officially survived. Turns out I'm only an "average" accounting student but, considering the difficulty of the material and the breakneck speed at which we are supposed to "learn" it, I'm okay with that. If scoring in the mid-70s is the worst of it, then average is exactly my style.
A fellow (older) student and I have discussed the relative merits of a department that feels the need to place obstacles in the way of future accountants as they have deliberately done with Intermediate Accounting I and II. I suppose their intent is to turn out only the "best and brightest" accountants and gain a reputation for this consistency. But in the real world, darned good accountants can come from solid C-students and we all know it. My friend had the guts to email an influential professor in the accounting department with this brilliant suggestion: that they continue this "barrier to entry" for only those students yearning to spend 80+ hours per week working for one of the "Big Four" accounting firms following graduation. She recommends they leave us poor grunts - who will be content to get a local job and learn the ropes and perform adequately for our paycheck - to the less rigorous classes. It would be refreshing to take classes that teach us valuable things that we will actually experience in the job market. Her email likely won't change the world, but it was certainly worth a try.
Meanwhile, with those two giant obstacles safely behind me, I'm on to more enjoyable things like Macroeconomics and Tax Accounting! It's almost a shame I chose to take Macroeconomics in a rushed semester because it was SO interesting and probably ranks up there with one of the best learning experiences of my college career. To understand even a tiny bit about classical economics and how Adam Smith (and JB Say and Ricardo) saw things and how Schumpeter, Keynes and then Hayek totally changed how economics are viewed was exciting and mind-expanding. It was one of those mental upgrades that will stick with me the rest of my life. I'm definitely better for the experience.
Now, just two days into my Intro to Federal Taxation course, I have hope that at last I have found a class that will be less of a struggle, given my 10 years at H&R Block. Not that I already know everything by any means, but it is a relief to be able to follow the concepts and anticipate the structure. I have adequate time to spend on the homework and can keep up with the readings and it appears that is all it will take.
1 comment:
I can't believe it, but you've made me want to take Macroeconomics--me, who has successfully avoided making any economic sense for all of her adult life.
Congrats on being a senior! As far as feeling you're required to take classes that may be meaningless, or that feel superfluous to your ultimate goals, well, there could be larger reasons why they're part of the curriculum (such as the national accrediting agency for your college requires such stuff). You never know the logic behind it.
Oh, and if and when you do ever go to Toronto, don't bypass the shoe museum because you're not a shoe woman. It was really interesting because it starts with the earliest known shoes (the ice guy they found in the Alps back in the '90s had one shoe still on, and there's a replica in the museum, explaining how and why it was made the way it was). Anyhow, I discovered the history of shoes is actually the history of humanity--their living conditions, materials at hand, values, and eventually, fashion. So there.
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