Accounting is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #10 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 11 schools in Michigan to determine which ones were the best for accounting students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 309 master's degrees in accounting to qualified students.
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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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 schools for accounting students working on their master's degree.
The accounting school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Accounting Master's Degree Schools in Michigan.
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Calvin University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in accounting. Located in the medium-sized city of Grand Rapids, Calvin is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in accounting from Calvin University
It's hard to beat Grand Valley State University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in accounting. GVSU is a very large public university located in the town of Allendale.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the accounting program earn around $67,972 in their early career salary.
Oakland University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in accounting. Located in the large suburb of Rochester Hills, Oakland is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, accounting master's recipients usually earn an average of $67,253 in the first five years of their career.
Wayne State University is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in accounting. Located in the large city of Detroit, Wayne State is a public university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, accounting master's recipients generally make an average of $69,628 in the first five years of their career.
Located in the small city of Flint, UM Flint is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Accounting master's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Flint receive an earnings boost of about $13,885 above the average income of accounting graduates.
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).