If you pursue a master's degree in accounting, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #10 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 334 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 15,888 master's degrees in accounting during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of accounting for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality accounting program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on accounting students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other accounting students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for accounting to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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 colleges 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 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 United States
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for accounting students seeking a a master's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Texas A&M University - College Station is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in accounting. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station.
Master's students who receive their degree from the accounting program earn an average of $68,417 in the first couple years of working.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in accounting has to look into The University of Texas at Austin. UT Austin is a very large public university located in the large city of Austin.
Master's recipients from the accounting major at The University of Texas at Austin earn $4,030 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Accounting master's degree recipients from New York University receive an earnings boost of approximately $14,606 above the average income of accounting majors.
Located in the small city of Waltham, Bentley is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Accounting master's degree recipients from Bentley University get an earnings boost of about $5,401 above the average earnings of accounting graduates.
Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the accounting program at George Washington University make $8,622 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
UCONN is a fairly large public university located in the fringe town of Storrs.
Accounting master's degree recipients from University of Connecticut get an earnings boost of about $7,091 over the typical earnings of accounting majors.
Fordham U is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Bronx.
Master's recipients from the accounting program at Fordham University earn $9,102 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities receive $10,336 more than the average accounting graduate.
UMass Amherst is a very large public university located in the city of Amherst.
Master's recipients from the accounting major at University of Massachusetts Amherst make $10,339 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Fairfield, Fairfield U is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the accounting degree program at Fairfield University make $5,781 above the typical college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Accounting master's degree recipients from University of Maryland - College Park receive an earnings boost of around $4,265 above the average income of accounting majors.
UW Seattle is a fairly large public university located in the city of Seattle.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $4,756 more than the standard accounting graduate.
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Additional Award Winners
This section shows the rest of the schools awarded a Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 20% of the 334 different United States accounting schools we analyzed.
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).