Cost of Becoming a CPA

College: The First Significant Cost

We could get as granular as looking at how much it costs for you to be born, but let’s not get too crazy. Instead, we’ll fast-forward to picking the right school when you leave your parent’s nest. According to Credit Karma, the nation’s average cost of tuition for one year of school at a public university is $17,702. For those attending private universities, this number is $33,270 for students attending private colleges. We’re off to an expensive start! This cost doesn’t include any costs outside of tuition!

Throughout the rest of this article, we’ll continue to include averages and variables for the associated costs of becoming a CPA, but we’ll also hone in on the specifics for a CPA candidate in California just so we can highlight the process.

And in California, the school with the highest first-time CPA Exam pass rate belongs to the University of California, Los Angeles Berkley, with a pass rate of 91%, according to Masters in Accounting. That’s rather spectacular. So how much does it cost? Keep in mind, that these numbers are for in-state tuition, so it’s going to be much more expensive if you’re coming from another location.

That’s for one year… times the four it’ll take to complete the degree: $183,536. Welcome to the college in America.

Attending UCLA as a California resident will cost you over $180k and net you roughly 120 semester-equivalent hours towards the required 150 hours of public accounting you need. Let’s move on to the next phase, where you’ll obtain the remaining 30 hours needed.

Grad School

One of the top schools for obtaining a master’s degree in accounting is just down the road from UCLA. San Diego State University offers one of the best Master of Science in Accounting degrees available in the United States. There are three specializations within the degree: Accounting Information Systems, Financial Reporting, or Taxation. You can even tailor your electives and course program to specifically help prepare you to sit for the CPA Exam.

In addition to the MSA, SDSU offers a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS), and a Master of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Financial and Tax Planning (MSBA-FTP). And here’s how much each is going to cost you, in total:

The above information is just the price of school. We’ve left out the cost of living for this portion. But hey, if you’re still able to live in your parents’ basement, then good on you. Most of you, we suspect, will be living on your own, making your way in the world. Some of you will be fortunate enough to leave college and begin work as an intern at one of the big four accounting firms or even a smaller firm. Many of these firms will have some kind of reimbursement program for tuition at a grad school or scholarships. If so, then the cost of this portion of your journey to becoming a CPA could be drastically subsidized.

Others might opt to keep working similar jobs they held during college so that they can have the most flexible schedule that will afford them the ability to attend full-time. But despite being cheaper up front, those students aren’t as likely to receive scholarships or tuition reimbursement. But they will have much more freedom upon graduating in deciding where to live/work.

So far, our typical Californian aspiring to become the next best CPA in all the land has gone off to college, graduated with all the honors one could want and racked up a sizeable sum of cost in pursuit of his/her dreams. But, to be fair, the amount needed to get this far is not much different than the amount anybody is going to have to spend in any field to do just about anything in this country besides flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

Narrowing our person down to someone who left the nest, got a paid internship at a medium-sized accounting firm, and had to foot the bill for part-time grad school in pursuit of a Master of Science in Accounting, has spent $133,471.

Time to Take the Test

It’s that time! Our future CPA rockstar has completed all the requirements. And now to the meat of the matter: the cost to take the CPA Exam.

It differs from state to state, with each jurisdiction’s state board of accountancy having their own registration fees and prices for each section of the CPA Exam. With this information being somewhat difficult to obtain, we’d recommend going here to look up whichever jurisdiction you’d like to know more about. Here’s what our Californian candidate will have to fork over in examination fees:

California has a testing window of 18 months. This is in candidates’ favor should they want to pay for all four CPA exam sections at once. This is highly discouraged because even though our candidate went to UCLA, the school with the highest first-time passing rate, it is still a very short time and a very, very difficult test. Should they fail just one section after having paid in full for all four, it is extremely unlikely they will finish the rest of the exam and retake the failed section within the 18-month timeframe.

This is why it is generally recommended to pay for two sections instead at once and then see if you pass and pay for the other two sections afterward. This costs a little more as the second application fee will cost $50, but if you fail, you’d have to pay the full amount of CPA exam fees for the second round. In some jurisdictions, where the time frame is limited to 12 months, it’s almost impossible to accomplish paying for all sections and taking and passing all of them within that time frame.

Assuming our rockstar candidate takes our sage advice and looks to knock out two at a time, their total cost to take the CPA Exam in California would be over 1k.