Student Profiles
Student Profile: Julia Chen
Asked to compare her native Shanghai, China, to Charlottesville, Julia Chen (M.S. in Accounting ‘09) laughs. “Shanghai,” she says, “is way different from Charlottesville.”
But Chen says she’s had an outstanding experience in McIntire’s M.S. in Accounting Program. “This is a pretty international program,” she says, “so I don’t feel isolated.” Chen says she’s also found that the program’s faculty works hard to help international students settle in. “There are a lot of team projects, and the teachers try to match international students with American students, which has helped us fit in more quickly,” she says.
In other ways, too, she says, McIntire’s faculty has worked hard to meet the needs of their international students. “I took a business communication class last semester, which was designed to help us with professional writing and speaking,” she explains. “It forced us to speak in class, which I really don’t enjoy, but the professor was so helpful and so encouraging.”
Chen says that the students have also been very welcoming. “Obviously, I’ve had to make a huge transition,” she says. “But I think it’s very easy to make friends here. My American classmates have been very friendly, and it seems to me that U.Va. in general is very friendly to international students.”
In another important way, too, Chen has found her experience at McIntire valuable. “In China, I didn’t get as much training in group work, she says. “But this is one of the reasons why I came to the United States—you’re famous for your group work, especially in graduate schools.” Chen, who will go to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Shanghai after graduation, says she knows that her teamwork experiences at McIntire will prove valuable. “Because I knew that I wanted to work in a public accounting firm,” she says, “I knew that I would often be working on a team—and I knew I needed some practice with that.” Of course, Chen says, working on a team at McIntire can at times be “very intense and very rigorous”—but, she jokes, “I can’t complain—that’s why I came here.”
Student Profile: Avani Gala
“I knew I wanted to go to a bigger school,” says Avani Gala (M.S. in Accounting ‘09), who spent her undergraduate years at a small Southern liberal arts college, “but I was a little worried that I might get lost in the shuffle.”
Now enrolled in McIntire’s M.S. in Accounting Program, Gala’s fears have proved unfounded. “I know everyone in the program,” she says. “I know first names and last names, and I know all my professors—I’ve talked to each one of them at least once or twice outside of class.”
And while Gala says she appreciates the small-school feeling of the program—small classes, lots of social and service events with her classmates (Gala is chair of the program’s service council), and plenty of individual attention from professors—she’s equally appreciative of the benefits that come with U.Va.’s size—and McIntire’s stature.
“There are so many opportunities that I never would have had coming out of college, as far as the job search goes, because my school was so small and so far away from the big city,” she says. “But here I have all the opportunity.” McIntire’s strong relationship with the “Big Four” accounting firms, combined with the School’s “wonderful” career services department, she says, have helped her to land her dream job, working as a forensic accountant for KPMG.
“I remember telling my professor, during my sophomore year of college, that I wanted to be a forensic accountant at a Big Four firm,” she says. “He was very supportive, but that opportunity never would have come up, simply because we didn’t have the chance to interview with the Big Four. So I recently got to call him up and tell him that I got the job—and that was a great feeling.”
Student Profile: Landy Johnson
“When the financial crisis hit in the fall,” says Landy Johnson (McIntire ’08, M.S. in Accounting ’09), “one of our professors took an accounting issue and put it in the syllabus for that week. She pushed back some other topics so that we could take the time to really understand what was going on. It made our careers seem very relevant.”
This episode, Johnson says, is typical of McIntire’s M.S. in Accounting Program. “The professors really try to tailor the programs to the students’ needs,” she says. “One entire course this spring is all about accounting policy. We’ve been comparing and discussing the new international standards, which we’re expected to transition to in the near future.” Johnson says she thinks the faculty’s efforts at keeping the curriculum up-to-date will give her a leg up in years to come. “When we experience the new standards in the working world, we’ll have some know-how,” she says.
In other ways, too, Johnson says, McIntire’s accounting program has been carefully crafted to ensure students’ success in the working world. While the program offers the nuts-and-bolts skills its graduates need, she says, “it’s more theory and practice—the big picture of how everything works in the profession.” Moreover, she says, the program also helps students improve their “soft skills”—things like learning how to be a leader in the profession and how to add value in the workplace. “These supplemental skills are really important,” Johnson says. “The faculty here wants you to know what you’re doing, and how to do it in the business world.”
Johnson will soon enough test out her skills in the business world, when she starts her job in auditing and assurance with KPMG in Washington, D.C. Until then, though, she’s enjoying her time as a student, acting as a social representative on the graduate Commerce Council. “We made an effort, starting in the first week, to try to get everyone together outside of classes,” she says. “Since then we’ve planned a lot of different activities so that people get to experience Charlottesville.” Johnson says that the program’s size—about 40 students—makes for a very sociable environment. “We really get to know each other,” she says. “Nobody is an outsider.”
Student Profile: Joe Richmond
“It’s great being part of a real college town,” says Joe Richmond (M.S. in Accounting ’09), “and I really like living in Charlottesville. But it’s the professors who have really impressed me.”
For Richmond, who graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in accounting from a liberal arts university in the Southeast, McIntire’s attentive accounting faculty—and the interactive, cutting-edge curriculum they’ve devised—has made his experience in the School’s M.S. in Accounting Program “superb.”
“There’s a lot of back-and-forth in the classroom, and a lot of discussion,” Richmond says. “It’s not so much lecturing, which I think allows us to find answers for ourselves.” Moreover, Richmond says, although the program prepares students for the CPA exam, it also teaches students to look at “the big picture,” and to think strategically about the things they need to know.
“Instead of just memorizing facts about how, for instance, you account for leases,” he explains, “we’re asked to think about why those rules are there, whether they’re right, and if they should be different. It really helps you understand the concepts.”
Richmond also says he finds the Accounting faculty to be extremely approachable. “I feel like when I was an undergraduate, there was a disconnect between professors and students,” he says. “But here, people go to office hours a lot more often, and they really get to know their professors.”
But Richmond also says he also enjoys the camaraderie of his peers, both inside and outside the classroom. “I really like the group work,” he says. “I think working on a team is a really effective way of learning.” Of course, the program isn’t all work and no play: Richmond, who’s already accepted a job with accounting powerhouse KPMG, says that for now, he and his “very social” classmates spend their spare time enjoying Charlottesville, and at UVA sporting events and tailgates.
“It’s just such a great environment here,” Richmond says.