Accounting is the process by which financial data are gathered, analyzed and communicated for use in business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Accounting information is used to indicate the relative financial position of an organization at any given point in its business cycle and to indicate how well the organization has done in the past and how well it expects to do in the future. The demand for qualified accountants exceeds the current supply. Projections indicate that accountants will continue to be in great demand because of society’s concern with financial accountability in both business and government. Recent statistics from the Institute of Management Accountants indicate that 60 percent of accountants are employed by industry, 25 percent in public accounting, 12 percent in government, and 3 percent in education. At Cal State LA about 30 percent of the undergraduate students in the College of Business and Economics are pursuing the accounting option. The Accounting Department is one of the largest academic departments on campus.
Undergraduate Major
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration: Accounting
This option prepares students for careers in either Public Accounting, serving clients professionally in the areas of financial accounting, cost accounting, auditing, taxes and systems; or Managerial Accounting, dealing with the functions of the controller in a business firm, or an institutional or governmental agency; or internal auditing.
NOTE: This program is impacted. Program impaction means that the number of applications from fully eligible students to a designated major far exceeds the number of spaces available in that major. In these major programs, students are admitted to the major only if they meet the supplemental admission criteria for the major, as well as any applicable campus impaction admission criteria. The campus impaction criteria will be determined once the application deadline is closed.
Undergraduate Minor
Accounting
A minor in Accounting is available for students majoring in other fields. 21 units are required. Minimum C grades are required in all accounting courses taken to complete the minor program. A minimum of 9 units of upper division accounting courses must be taken in residence at California State University, Los Angeles. The minor will be noted on the transcript if the minor requirements are completed by the time all degree requirements are met.