Department website

Bachelor of Science

Accounting is an influential profession affording real opportunities to contribute to the profitability and operational effectiveness of organizations. As organizations and the economic environment become more complex, accounting records, analyses, and reports become more critical to guiding and controlling the organization. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for accountants has been increasing for a number of years and is expected to continue rising. The accountant’s activities address two major concerns in the organization. First, the accountant reports at regular intervals on the progress and financial situation of the organization in order to inform the decisions made by management, creditors, investors, government agencies, and employees. Second, the accountant provides expertise in the interpretation of financial information to answer questions, solve problems, and project future trends.

The Aurora University accounting major is designed to prepare students for careers in public accounting firms, corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and in government service. Students take courses emphasizing managerial and financial accounting to prepare for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) professional examination. Undergraduate students also benefit from a required professional internship experience in the accounting field.

The undergraduate accounting program is designed for undergraduate students interested in pursuing CPA, CMA, or other industry credentials. The accounting major includes all accounting and business credits required to sit for the CPA examination in Illinois. Students planning on becoming a Certified Public Accountant in Illinois are required by the State of Illinois to complete 30 additional semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree in accounting to be eligible to take the CPA examination (150 total semester hours are required).

Program Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Required Courses
ACC-2010	Principles of Financial Accounting	4
ACC-2020	Principles of Managerial Accounting	4
ACC-3110	Intermediate Accounting I	4
ACC-3120	Intermediate Accounting II	4
ACC-3210	Cost Accounting	4
ACC-3310	Federal and State Taxation of Individuals	4
ACC-3320	Federal Taxation of Business Entities	4
ACC-4140	Advanced Accounting	4
ACC-4410	Auditing	4
ACC-4540	Advanced Auditing	4
ACC-4600	Accounting Research	4
ACC-4940	Accounting Internship	4
BUS-1020	Foundations of Management	4
COM-1200	Business Communication	4
BUS-3590	Business Data Analytics	4
BUS-3610	Business Law and Regulation	4
BUS-4990	Contemporary Topics in Business Strategy and Planning	4
ECN-2030	Principles of Economics	4
FIN-3400	Principles of Finance	4
MTH-2100	General Statistics	4
PHL-3200	Business Ethics	4
Total Credits		84

Undergraduate Degree Requirements

A student who graduates from Aurora University with a baccalaureate degree will have met the following requirements:

1. Completion of all requirements for an approved major (with no grades lower than “C”).
2. Overall completion of at least 120 semester hours of coursework with a GPA of at least 2.0 on a 4.0 scale (a course may be utilized only once in application toward a degree requirement, unless otherwise noted in the academic regulations). The 120 semester hours of coursework must include:
   • At least 52 semester hours completed at a senior college.
   • Residency Requirement - At least 30 semester hours completed at Aurora University, including the last 24 semester hours in the degree, and including at least 18 semester hours in the major. (Portfolio assessment credit, life and vocational experience credit, off-campus experience credit, examination credit, participation credit, and block credit, shall not count toward the residency requirement).
   • Upper-Division Requirement - A minimum of 30 semester hours numbered 3000 or above. Of these 30 semester hours, 15 semester hours must lie within the major and 15 semester hours must be completed at Aurora University.
3. Completion of all General Education requirements (with no grades lower than “C”), as follows:
   • Quantitative and Formal Reasoning competency requirement
   • ENG-1000 Introduction to Academic Writing
   • IDS-1200 Discover What Matters or IDS-3040 Global Justice
   • IDS-1150 First Year Experience - Not required for Transfer or AU Online students)
   • Satisfactory participation in the junior-year mentoring and assessment process designed to guide students to successful completion of their degree and to encourage planning for next steps beyond graduation. (IDS-3500 Junior Mentoring Program I and IDS-3550 Junior Mentoring Program II - Not required for ADC or AU Online students but may be designated electives for AU Online students admitted with fewer than 15 hours of transfer credit.)
   • Distribution Requirements
     Students will complete one approved course¹ from each of the following categories:
     • Artistic Literacy
     • Cultural Literacy
     • Human Inquiry
     • Scientific Inquiry

In addition to the above, ADC and Online students will also complete one approved course¹ from the following category:

• Discovery and Reflection

¹

Only courses that are approved to meet the distribution requirement can be used toward this requirement. See the list of approved courses  for available options. Courses taken to meet distribution requirements are 4 semester hours apiece, with the following exceptions:

• An approved transfer course of at least 2.50 semester hours can be used to satisfy a distribution requirement.
• Courses with co-requisite laboratory components may be used to satisfy a distribution requirement, provided that the student successfully complete both the three-credit-hour course and the single-credit-hour lab component.

Learning Outcomes