The Carroll School of Management’s accounting program has raised the bar when it comes to the national Certified Public Accountant exam. Not only did Boston College set an all-time high for the percentage of graduates who passed, but it is among a handful of schools with multiple graduates who have won the prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award for mastering the rigorous exam.
Carroll School graduates taking the CPA exam established an all-time high passing rate of 74 percent (up from 69.8 last year); nationally, the average is 49.8 percent. Among first-time test-takers, the University set a school-record pass rate of 82.5 percent (55 percent nationally), which ranks 13th in the country and eighth among schools with 60 or more exam candidates for the year.
In 2015, four BC graduates – Jiaqi Gong, Marcos Carreno, Courtney Fogelman and Mark Piorkowski – scored 95.5 percent or better on all four parts of the exam on their first attempt, earning the Sells Award. To put this feat in perspective, of the 93,742 individuals worldwide who sat for the examination, only 75 – including the four from BC -– scored 95.5 percent or better. Only the University of Michigan had more (six). BC had two Sells Award winners in 2012.
“Receiving the Elijah Watt Sells Award is a remarkable achievement attained by fewer than 1 percent of all CPA exam candidates around the world,” said Associate Professor Billy S. Soo, chair of the Accounting Department. “It takes great knowledge and a lot of perseverance to do so well in all four parts of the exam. Having four graduates attain that level in one year, and having BC exam candidates achieve an all-time high passing rate, illustrates the quality of our students and program at Boston College.”
By Sean Hennessey | News & Public Affairs