Ranked #10 in popularity, accounting is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 83 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,584 master's degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Master's Degree
The accounting master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to accounting students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of accounting students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt accounting students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for accounting students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Accounting in the Southeast Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in accounting. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
16 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Accounting
Emory University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in accounting. Located in the large city of Atlanta, Emory is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in accounting from Emory University
George Mason University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in accounting. GMU is a very large public university located in the suburb of Fairfax.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from George Mason University receive $10,827 more than the average accounting student.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in accounting needs to look into University of Georgia. Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the accounting program report average early career wages of $65,934.
It is difficult to beat University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if you wish to pursue a master's degree in accounting. UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill receive $2,260 more than the standard accounting student.
Auburn is a very large public university located in the small city of Auburn.
Master's recipients from the accounting major at Auburn University earn $3,548 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville, UT Knoxville is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville make $3,889 more than the average accounting student.
Clemson is a very large public university located in the suburb of Clemson.
Master's recipients from the accounting major at Clemson University make $4,222 above the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
FIU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Miami.
Master's recipients from the accounting degree program at Florida International University earn $4,335 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Accounting students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).