Accounting Program Overview

The accounting program is among the most rigorous on campus. The program has a reputation for being both comprehensive and challenging—and for getting results.

The accounting major begins with Introduction to the Accounting Profession during fall semester of the freshman year. While students become familiar with the college as well as student organizations, they also receive presentations from various accounting firms and organizations such as Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Withum, Smith & Brown, Johnson & Johnson, and the New Jersey State Auditor’s Office regarding career opportunities in accounting. Accounting majors start their sophomore year with Financial Accounting and Reporting, in which they become familiar with major concepts of financial accounting and develop an understanding of how to analyze financial statements. In the spring of sophomore year, students learn the technical aspects of accounting in Fundamentals of Accounting, and receive presentations from accounting practitioners regarding career planning in Sophomore Career Planning.  These courses build college-level skills and provide the foundation for the program’s further specialized courses.

The specialized courses are taught by faculty who are experts in the courses they teach.  Abdus Shahid has taught Intermediate Accounting I and II for almost twenty years.  Sunita Ahlawat has been teaching Accounting Information Systems for over five years, and Mark Nigrini, an expert in forensic accounting, teaches the senior accounting capstone course. Cost Accounting is taught by Bea Chiang, who brings community service, as part of teaching, into the course.  Tax Accounting is taught by Andrew Lafond, who is an experienced tax professor and tax practitioner.  Advanced Accounting, which includes governmental and non-profit accounting, is taught by Gerald Miller, who has ten years of government auditing experience.  Auditing is taught by Hossein Nouri, who has extensive work experience in auditing and previously worked at the manager level for international public accounting firms.  These specialized courses generally have less than 28 students in each class, which allows a rich and interactive atmosphere for learning the material.

Students can participate in a shadowing program during their sophomore year and have ample opportunities for internships during and after their junior year.  In many cases, the shadowing experience and internships lead to full time positions upon graduation. 

The accounting curriculum consists of 34 courses of four credit hours each, for a total of 136 credit hours.   Although graduates can sit for the CPA exam in New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree, students who wish to graduate with 150 credit hours to meet the state’s education requirement for licensure have the option of either taking additional courses during their time at TCNJ or taking additional courses at other colleges and universities.

Praise for TCNJ's Accounting Program, from a parent.....

Besides the small class size and rigor of the business courses, which I think have been excellent, I think the college does an great job of positioning the business students for employment upon graduation. I was speaking with a Partner at PwC here in Florham Park and he was very impressed that [my son] was going to TCNJ. He began telling me how good the school was and how they use it for recruiting with no prompting from me. It is important the business community knows the talent of the students that go to TCNJ and apparently PwC does know.

- Bill Westington, Manager BASF Federal Tax

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