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As a USC accounting grad, I must encourage you to check out the MAcc and MBT programs there. The graduate accounting programs at USC are ranked in the top 10 in the country. I really enjoyed the program and learned a lot, and we had excellent job placement. Plus, if you want to stay in LA, the Trojan Family is really hard to top.

Your GPA is good. If you can get 600+ on the GMAT, I think you'd have a pretty good shot of getting in. The tuition is expensive but they give scholarships based on GMAT scores (or at least they did when I applied in 2003).

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for the response. Yeah, USC is my number one choice. Do you have suggestions for backups but still good schools....also do you have any suggestions on how to study for the GMAT, as in kaplan, princeton review, or vespita...and whether or not in class or online is better....or if i should just study on my own with books. Thanks.

I'm a Veritas instructor, so my opinion is a bit biased... so I won't comment about the best GMAT prep company to use. Send me a PM if you want to know more about Veritas.

As for the accounting stuff, I think that all of the Cal States have MAcc programs. You won't have the same level of job placement as you would coming out of USC (as in, most Cal State Fullerton grads probably don't work at Big 4 firms), but I'm sure everyone gets a job somewhere. The UC schools and Stanford don't have MAcc programs.

Out of state, you might want to consider Arizona and Arizona State. They are strong programs and place well at the Los Angeles firms. If you want to go a bit further, Washington (Seattle), Texas (Austin), and Texas A&M are top programs, though they don't place as many grads in Los Angeles.

If you're curious, here's a link to the top 25 accounting programs, as ranked by the Public Accounting Report.

https://www.bentley.edu/graduate/banner_ ... report.pdf

Really, I don't see a reason that you wouldn't get into a top program assuming you put in the effort on the GMAT.

One more thing:

In accounting, it doesn't matter a whole lot where you went to school. Obviously, your opportunities coming out of University of Texas (the #1 program in the country) will be quite different than if you graduated from Cal State LA. However, there's no reason that a Cal State LA grad can't work hard, pass his CPA exam, and get to the same point within a few years.

The difference in opportunity becomes even smaller when you're comparing one top school to another. There's really no difference in job placement between, say, Texas (#1 program) and Washington (#24 program). The more important issue is where you want to work. If you want to stay on the west coast, you're probably better off going to Washington (#24) than to higher-ranked Indiana (#8). If you go to school where you want to work, things like recruiting and internships will be easier and you'll have a bigger alumni network. So, if you want to stay in Los Angeles, USC is far and away your best option.