UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Master of Science in Accounting
Program of Study
The University of Rhode Island's Master of Science in Accounting Program is designed for students with a variety of educational backgrounds and professional interests. It has a core of courses and electives that allow students to prepare or advance their careers in public accounting and or management accounting. The program can be taken as a full time program or part time in the evenings.
A student's program of study varies according to her/his academic background. Applicants with a bachelor's degree in accounting from an accredited institution normally take 10 courses (30 credit hours). Those courses consist of the following:
- Graduate Accounting Core - These four courses are required of all students. They build on the accounting foundation to develop a high level of practical and theoretical knowledge in financial, managerial, and tax accounting.
- Graduate Accounting Electives - Students with an accounting undergraduate must take a combined total of 18 credits from these electives and the Graduate Business Electives (see the section below). At least 6 credits must be Accounting electives with Business electives filling the balance of the 18 credit hours.
- Graduate Business Electives - The program director will find a set of Graduate Business Electives that bests fits the students’ career objectives. These include courses in all areas of business as well as related coursework such as computer science, economics, industrial engineering, math, psychology, political science, philosophy, statistics, and others. Some examples of these courses are: MBA 566 Security & Investment Analysis, COM510 Seminar in Interpersonal Communication, LRS580 Labor Relations and HR, BUS 515 Law and Accounting, MBA540 Organization Decision Making and Design, MBA 577 Compensation, MBA 582 Applied Time Series Methods and Business Forecasting, HDF 598 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and many others.
Sample program for students with a degree in accounting
Applicants with a bachelor’s degree in business with a major other than accounting need to take Accounting Foundation Courses in addition to the Graduate Accounting Core. These students normally a mix of only 12 credits of Graduate Electives with at least 6 credits being Graduate Accounting Electives. The Accounting Foundation courses are undergraduate accounting courses. Only the 400 level and above are taken for graduate credit.
Sample program for students with a degree in business
Students without a business degree take a set of core Business Foundation Courses and the undergraduate Accounting Foundation Courses in addition to the Graduate Accounting Core. These students normally do not take graduate business or accouting electives.
Sample program for students without a business degree
The program of study for a particular student is unique and depends on the student’s academic background and professional expectations.
Course descriptions of each of the 5 sections above are available: