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Description of the Major | Degrees Offered | Concentrations | Minors |
Declaring the Major | Progressing in the Major

Description of the Major

The School of Accounting enjoys a national reputation for excellence in accounting education and is viewed as a prime recruiting school by accounting employers throughout the mid-Atlantic region. The school offers a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) degree and a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in accounting. Most students choose to receive both degrees and thereby satisfy the 150 semester hours of education required in most states to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam.

Several features of the accounting program are distinctive:

• Outstanding employment opportunities.


• A post-graduation CPA exam review course offered on campus.


• Opportunities for internships.

Degrees Offered

B.B.A.

Concentrations

Public Administration

Minors

None

Declaring the Major

New Freshmen and Transfer Students
Declare the Accounting major when you register for orientation. Any student admitted to JMU can declare any major offered by the College of Business; however, students are not formally admitted into the College of Business until certain requirements are met as listed in the section below "Progressing in the Major."

Currently Enrolled Major Changers
If you wish to change your major to accounting you must be in good academic standing (have a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 or higher) on the date you submit a "Change or Declaration of Major" form, which is available in the Academic Services Center located in Zane Showker Hall, room 205. Declaring a College of Business major does not guarantee full admission to the major. You will not be fully admitted to the major until requirements are met as listed below.

Progressing in the Major

You must satisfy admission requirements into the College of Business and admission requirements into the School of Accounting.

Full Admission to the College of Business
Declaring a business major does not guarantee full admission to the College of Business. You must formally apply for full admission to the College of Business by submitting an application for admission during the semester in which you are completing the lower-level B.B.A. core courses.

Students are formally admitted into the College of Business as a B.B.A. degree-seeking major and permitted to register for COB 300. Integrated Functional Systems when the following requirements are met:

1. A completed application for admission into the College of Business is submitted to the College of Business Academic Services Center located in 205 Zane Showker Hall, according to the following schedule:


• October 1 for the upcoming spring semester


• March 1 for the upcoming summer session and fall semesters


2. All 10 lower-level Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) core courses are successfully completed as follows:


• First Year (It is recommended that you complete the following five B.B.A. core courses by the end of the freshman year):


• COB 191. Business Statistics or MATH 220. Elementary Statistics


• COB 204. Computer Information Systems


• GECON 200. General Education Macroeconomics


• ECON 201. Microeconomics


• MATH 205. Introductory Calculus or MATH 235. Calculus


• Second Year (It is recommended that you complete the following five B.B.A. core courses by the end of your sophomore year):


• COB 202. Interpersonal Skills


• COB 218. Legal Environment of Business


• COB 241. Financial Accounting


• COB 242. Managerial Accounting


• COB 291. Introduction to Management Science


3. Earn a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher in the B.B.A. lower-level core courses (excluding MATH 205 or MATH 235);
   
   The B.B.A. core GPA is calculated using grades earned in the B.B.A. lower-level core courses excluding calculus (MATH 205 or MATH 235). Only grades earned at JMU will be used. The university policy for calculating repeat-credit and repeat-forgiveness will be followed.
   
   Students with a 2.7 B.B.A. core GPA are assured admission into the College of Business and COB 300. Students who meet all of the requirements above but fail to achieve a 2.7 B.B.A. core GPA will be admitted to the College of Business and COB 300 based on B.B.A. core GPA ranking, and pending resources and space availability.


4. Admission is granted within one calendar year of the applicant's first application. Two applications, in consecutive semesters of enrollment, are permitted.

Full Admission to the School of Accounting
In addition to meeting all requirements for full admission to the College of Business and COB 300, students who wish to be fully admitted to the School of Accounting must meet the following requirements.

To register for ACTG 302, ACTG 303, ACTG 343, or ACTG 377, you must have:

• been fully admitted to COB 300


• completed COB 241 and COB 242 with a grade of "B" or better in each course


• scored 80 percent or higher on the COB 241 assessment exam

The assessment exam is administered in the second week of COB 242 and by appointment for new transfer students with JMU approved transfer credit for COB 242. Students who do not meet the 80 percent threshold will meet with the director of the School of Accounting to outline steps for improving their proficiency in financial accounting. Students may take the exam no more than twice.

Progressing in the Accounting Major
Students are required to earn a "C-" or better grade in all upper level prerequisite accounting courses before continuing to the next course in the sequence. Students receiving a "D+" grade or lower in any upper level accounting course must repeat the course and earn a "C-" grade or better in order to be awarded the B.B.A. degree with a major in accounting.

Any student having a total of three"W", "WF", "D+", "D" or "F" grades in any required 300 or 400 level accounting courses will be dropped from the major and not permitted to register for additional accounting courses.

Any student having a total of two, "WF", "D+", "D", or "F" grades in any (single) required 300 or 400 level accounting major course will be dropped from the major and not permitted to register for additional accounting courses.