Reba just
started her senior year in the MPA program at the University of Texas at
Austin. Coming from a large public high school in Houston, she has known she
wanted to attend UT from a very young age. Reba is very close to her family,
especially her parents who have served as influencers throughout her major life
decisions. Reba’s dad operates his own commercial real estate company focusing
mainly on managing three shopping centers, which he owns. Her mother is self-employed as well
working as a private CPA. Reba has a brother who is four years older than her.
He also attended UT and majored in geology. Reba’s brother is now at the
University of Houston getting his masters in geology and business. During her
time at UT Reba has been very involved in her sorority and has held two
important and time consuming officer positions. In addition, Reba has a strong
dedication to her studies, and is excited to pursue an accounting career upon
graduating next year. However,
Reba hasn’t always been excited about accounting. So begins Reba’s journey into
the world of the college major.
The Early Years:
During the
summer after seventh grade Reba worked with her mother performing mainly
secretarial duties for her mom’s private CPA business. This experience
influenced Reba to think about her future career and college major. At the time
Reba had no clue what she wanted to do but she knew she did not want to be an
accountant. She was somewhat confident that her primary major would be in the
business school, however she did not know in what. What she was 100% confident
in at the time was her desire to go to the University of Texas, where her dad
went and brother would be attending in a few years. Into high school the
possibility of a business major resurfaced when Reba took accounting and
personal finance classes during junior year. Because of this experience Reba
grew more confident in her business focus and more open to an accounting or
finance major.
Freshman Year:
Reba started her
freshman year in the fall of 2010 at the McCombs School of Business. She was
100% confident in her school choice, as the University of Texas was the only
school she choose to apply to and she knew she wanted to pursue a career in
business. At this time Reba was not required to declare a major within the
business school but she was somewhat confident in marketing as a primary focus
and perhaps finance as a secondary focus. A major influencer during this
semester was Reba’s academic advisor Mr. Powell, who spoke of marketing very
positively and emphasized its people oriented nature. Reba enjoyed having Mr.
Powell as an advisor and trusted his opinions. During the spring semester of
her freshman year her focuses and confidence level of her focus remained the
same. However, things began to change during the summer following her freshman year
at UT when Reba worked for her mom’s CPA business again. This time around Reba
did less office busy work and more financial work including work with accounts.
Reba realized she had a pretty good understanding of what was going on and
enjoyed the accounting work.
Sophomore Year:
Due to her
experience during the summer Reba officially applied to become an accounting
major upon returning for her sophomore year at McCombs and was at least
somewhat confident in her choice. Her secondary focus at the time was supply chain
management. Interest in SCM occurred when Reba attended a business etiquette
dinner put on by the McCombs School. At this dinner she spent the majority of
the night speaking to a recent UT grad that was currently working for Shell
under their SCM sector. Their conversation influenced her to consider a new
major she hadn’t thought of before. During the second semester of her sophomore
year Reba took time to visit with the head professor for the supply chain
management program to learn more about the major. After this conversation her
interest in major faded and she was not confident at all in this secondary
focus. This same semester Reba took the managerial accounting course required
for all McComb students. The class material came really easily to Reba and she
thoroughly enjoyed the class. This experience left Reba very confident in her
choice of an accounting major.
That summer Reba
applied for the MPA program at UT and was incredibly excited when she was
accepted in July. She had several conversations with her parents throughout the
summer in order to sort out her career aspirations. Her mother assured her that
accountants enjoyed job security because ever business needs an accountant in
good times and in bad. Her dad further increased Reba’s confidence by
explaining that he couldn’t have started his own business without the
accounting and financial expertise of her mother. Reba realized if she ever
wanted to start her own business, accounting is a great background to have. No
matter how creative you are, if your ideas don’t make any money sense they will
fail. Due to her experience getting in to the MPA program and the influence
from her parents, Reba went into the next year very confident in her major.
Junior Year:
With the start
of junior year came Reba’s first MPA classes. These were challenging; Reba
enjoyed the opportunity to meet the challenge and succeed. One class in
particular would bring in current CPA’s to talk about their careers. Reba
realized not all accountants sit at a desk and crunch numbers every day. In
fact the majority described working with people on a daily basis and leading
very sociable careers. This class helped disprove many negative accounting
stereotypes that had worried Reba. Her experience with her classes this
semester helped Reba become 100% confident in MPA as her primary major choice.
At this time Reba briefly considered a minor in finance because it would
require her to only take one more additional class. Reba quickly decided she
wouldn’t need the class or the minor for the career she wanted to pursue, so
her confidence in the secondary focus quickly faded. The spring semester of junior year was filled with MPA
recruiting. Reba remained 100% confident in her major choice with no secondary
focus throughout the recruiting experience. Reba met countless accountants who
were smart, sociable, active, fun and all around great company. She realized these professionals encompassed
the persona of who she aspired to be.
Senior Year:
As Reba begins her senior year she is
100% confident in her MPA major. This is the result of many influences
including her classes, family and interactions with professional accountants. Above
all Reba wants to spend her life doing something important, something
worthwhile. Accounting brings value to businesses in every industry,
shareholders and ultimately consumers. Accounting is necessary. Accounting is
also constantly changing and Reba does not want to be stuck in a stagnant
career. As a professional accountant Reba will have the opportunity to work
with multiple companies throughout different industries. She believes she will
enjoy learning how these different businesses run and enjoy the ability to
switch between them. Reba is currently looking forward to her internship next
spring with PWC and her future career with a MPA degree.
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