Accounting is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #8 most popular major in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 19 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of accounting. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,037 bachelor's degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of accounting for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 bachelor'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 bachelor'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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for accounting students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Santa Clara University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in accounting. Located in the medium-sized city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Santa Clara University get an earnings boost of about $15,919 over the average income of accounting graduates.
Loyola Marymount University is a great decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in accounting. Loyola Marymount is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Those accounting students who get their bachelor's degree from Loyola Marymount University earn $8,462 more than the typical accounting grad.
It is difficult to beat University of San Diego if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in accounting. USD is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Diego.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting degree program at University of San Diego make $6,742 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Saint Mary's College of California is a great choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in accounting. SMC is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Moraga.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Saint Mary's College of California earn a boost of around $4,130 over the average income of accounting graduates.
Located in the large city of Northridge, CSUN is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those accounting students who get their bachelor's degree from California State University - Northridge earn $6,406 more than the typical accounting graduate.
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).
Your choice of accounting for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
