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 43 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,446 master's degrees in accounting to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MBA - Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MBA - Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Accounting (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Accounting (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BS in Accounting" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BS in Accounting" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "AS in Accounting" with relevance 0.9
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "AS in Accounting" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.9)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MBA in Accounting" with relevance 0.9
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MBA in Accounting" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.9)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MS in Accounting" with relevance 0.9
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MS in Accounting" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.9)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Forensic Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Forensic Accounting (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Forensic Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Forensic Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MBA - Forensic Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MBA - Forensic Accounting (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BS in Business Administration - Accounting" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BS in Business Administration - Accounting" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 13
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 8 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 8
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 5 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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 Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "business-management-marketing-sales//accounting"
Texas A&M University - College Station is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in accounting. Located in the city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those accounting students who get their master's degree from Texas A&M University - College Station receive $2,073 more than the average accounting graduate.
The University of Texas at Austin is a good choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in accounting. Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the accounting program at The University of Texas at Austin get $5,350 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It is hard to beat Baylor University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in accounting. Baylor is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Waco.
Master's students who receive their degree from the accounting program make around $68,048 in the first couple years of their career.
It is difficult to beat Texas Tech University if you want to pursue a master's degree in accounting. Texas Tech is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Lubbock.
Students who graduate with their master's from the accounting program report average early career income of $65,786.
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).
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:
