Even more reason to get into this profession! It's often overlooked, but it's such a great profession. Challenging and rewarding, while providing great flexibility and pay. Adding to this plenty of opportunity, makes this a great choice all round!
Protecting Our Future: Reaffirming the Role of Academia in the CPA Profession The oft-repeated claim that “the need for CPA services is growing faster than the number of new CPAs joining the profession” is misleading when one considers the broader context, especially with firms that are proud of their acceptance rates well under 5%! A short visit and conversation with university career centers nationwide will reveal that the real issue isn’t a shortage of educated candidates but rather a set of systemic challenges: uncompetitive compensation, grueling work hours, and recruitment processes dominated by automated emails and AI-driven interviews that deter top talent. Despite a long and proud history of developing today’s leaders through rigorous education, business schools and their faculty are being sidelined in current debates over lowering entry barriers. California’s 150-hour requirement—mandated in 2014 under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger— was established as a response to the growing complexities of our field. In the early 1980s, industry leaders and educators recognized that a traditional 120-hour curriculum was insufficient. The additional 30 credit hours were intended for developing not only technical proficiency but also the critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and managerial skills essential for today’s business environment. New sources of capital and influence (e.g., private equity) are reshaping the landscape, and we witness a disturbing trend: reducing educational rigor under the guise of lowering entry barriers and cutting costs—a change that, while argued to increase accessibility, effectively shifts the burden of training from academia to accounting firms. This approach undermines the proven strength of a comprehensive academic foundation and jeopardizes our future by producing graduates who may be ill-equipped to navigate an increasingly complex business landscape. Our students and academic institutions deserve more than apprenticeship-like programs that emphasize on-the-job training at the expense of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary education. No other profession—law, medicine, or academia—has reduced its educational requirements to attract new candidates. Instead, these fields have maintained rigorous standards to meet growing complexities. We believe at UC San Diego University of California, San Diego - Rady School of Management the Profession of Accounting should be no different!!! For the reasons above, and more, I respectfully dissent from the proposed change in law being contemplated nationwide, which risks compromising the high standards essential to our profession. Jacqui Irwin, I both appreciate and support your efforts to bring more students into our profession! Let's have a conversation that includes academia -- with the professional associations (AICPA, CalCPA), academia (American Accounting Association), the firms (Center for Audit Quality, EY, PwC, KPMG US, Deloitte, RSM, BDO, Grant Thornton (US))