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Hello I’m Melissa – Welcome to the MAC Program

Author: Melissa

Hello I'm Melissa - Welcome to the MAC Program

Welcome to the official blog of NC State’s Jenkins MAC Program, Student Life! My name is Melissa, and I will be blogging throughout the year to share my experiences in graduate school.

I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and moved to the United States as a small child. I lived in Texas for a little over a year before relocating to North Carolina, where I completed most of my education. I received my undergraduate degree in Accounting from NC State in May, 2016. When I first began college, I wanted to become a tax attorney.

However, in my sophomore year of college I visited several advisers for law school who warned me I could have a tough time finding a job as an attorney when I graduated, due to the large number of available law school graduates. Since I was enjoying my accounting coursework, I decided to stay the course and become an accountant.

After my internship with Johnson Lambert, LLP, I was offered a firm-sponsored fellowship position in the MAC program – an incredible opportunity for me, since I had already been pursuing an academic fellowship!

Why NC State?

Before deciding to attend NC State, I did consider a few other graduate schools. In the end, the decision was simple. NC State was my Alma Mater, I enjoyed the teaching style of our faculty, and I was offered an excellent scholarship to attend. Some other facts about NC State’s MAC program that attract students are:

  • A high job placement rate (the most important, right?) 95-100%!
  • A focus on passing the CPA exam using the coursework, as well as review courses offered by the school.
  • Several available concentrations for further specialization.
  • Smaller class sizes for individual attention from faculty.
  • Graduate assistant positions for students looking to balance a job with graduate school.

I also loved that NC State was close to my family. Being an immigrant, I have minimal family living in the United States, and I would prefer to stay close to them. NC State is also close to where I will be starting full time after graduate school – in the Johnson Lambert tax department. So it should come as no surprise that I chose to concentrate in tax in graduate school!

I have a GA position with a professor in the department who I will be assisting with office hours and research, and I will be blogging tweeting about day-to-day life in the MAC program.

What’s Next?

We are only about a month into the program, Meet the Firms is already completed for recruiting students, and classes will be picking up speed as well. So far, going into the MAC program has been a great decision for me. I was very glad that I took the time to apply early, which helped me to get a great scholarship and have peace of mind during my senior year of college. In my next post, I’ll share more about the application process to the MAC program.

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