2015 MAC Program Student Experience: Enrollment, Orientation, Courses and Faculty

Author: Brian

Enrollment

As I recall as an undergraduate at my last school, the class enrollment process was daunting. By now you should know that NC State’s MAC program is atypical to many of my gripes about the average college experience. Dr. Krawczyk, the MAC Program advisor was great in guiding me through the planning process of picking which classes I needed to enroll in and what I needed to accomplish while in the MAC Program. There are a number of high-demand accounting niches to choose as a concentration. My co-blogger, Cindy, will go into detail about those in a separate post. There are also summer semesters and even a MAC study-abroad program. I must say, I am still very jealous of my classmates who had Professor Showalter’s class in Prague because it not only lightened their course load in the fall, but it was also Prague!

Orientation

Before the semester began, the Class of 2016 attended a MAC Program orientation that served a lot of different functions. First, it allowed us to meet each other for the first time and participate in interactive get-to-know you activities that immediately shed light on some of our individual strengths as well as our diverse backgrounds and experiences. This was a crucial kick-start for the plethora of group projects we will do as students and accounting professionals. Second, we were introduced to all of the course offerings and how to register for summer and fall classes.

The Courses and Faculty

Most of the classes we take are required, but there is room for an elective here and there, depending on whether the student is going through mandatory recruiting (a similar experience to what I did back in the spring). I had room for one elective this fall, which I filled with an MBA class on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Dr. Mark Beasley is a leader in the field of ERM and NC State is attracting a lot of positive attention for his work. Beasley does a great job of marketing the program and its students as well. My other courses are thoughtfully laid out to align with a suggested schedule for the CPA exam. This is so we maximize the knowledge retention needed for each of the 4 sections. I am currently enrolled in Robin Pennington’s IT Risk and Controls class, which looks at IT compliance through the appropriate frameworks. We do a real world risk/control assessment of a Raleigh company and present it to management at the end of the semester. I hope they like my group’s work! Ernest Carraway’s advanced income tax digs deep into the Internal Revenue Code’s affect on C Corps, S Corps partnerships and more. These rules make some people cringe and others giddy. Carraway cuts the tensions with an arsenal of one-liners and catchphrases. Bonnie Hancock brings her corporate A-game to the table for our applied financial management course. We cover financial forecasting, valuation and ratio analysis. This course is a homerun if you enjoy spreadsheets, 10K reports and MD&As.. As a future auditor, I have to mention Professor Showalter’s research course. Largely graded on the “expectations” grading scale, this course improves your ability to find answers and present them effectively with proper support. Showalter, who shares the podium with MAC director Kathy Krawczyk, is a decorated audit veteran whose legendary tales are still repeated by former students. Finally all students have a mandatory course on career effectiveness. Students from other schools often graduate with the knowledge to succeed, but do not understand smaller details like how to ask for a raise, business etiquette and money management. Quite simply, this class teaches professional decision-making and transitioning into the workplace. The entire MAC staff and guest speakers contribute to this course and tie everything together nicely to complete the experience.

I hope this post has you wanting to enroll right now. Check back here for Cindy’s next post on MAC concentrations. She will feature some inside knowledge from others in the program! If you have any questions for us, comment on the blog post or tweet us @NCStateMAC.

Go Pack,
Brian