Ask the Accounting Professor

Dear Accounting Professor: What does one have to do to become a CPA? Student Dear Student: In the United States, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is someone who meets the education requirements (a bachelor's degree with at least 150 semester credits of college/university level coursework in specific areas of business including accounting) and passed a set of four exams covering a broad range of topics. Under the current model, these four exams cover regulatory matters (including income taxation), auditing, business environment, and financial accounting. (Please note that this exam model is expected to change in 2024.) The oversight of the CPA exams is done by the American Institute of CPAs (see https://us.aicpa.org/becomeacpa.html ). After the education requirements are satisfied, a prospective CPA candidate is granted permission to sit for the CPA exams. That permission comes from the state accountancy board that a candidate is seeking certification and licensing from or that s