Wednesday Sept 4 2013

Professors Welcomed Students Back to campus with free ice cream. Here Allen Preston visits with a student. 

At right Lisa Siegal likewise greets a student.

Professors manned a table in the welcome center for two days during the first week of classes.

Wednesday Sept 3 2013

Social Media: A New Age Strategy for Sourcing & Recruiting Talent

You are invited to the October 2nd Learning Event – “Social Media: A New Age Strategy for Sourcing & Recruiting Talent”, hosted by SHRM@TAMU-SA and co-sponsored by the College of Business and the San Antonio Human Resource Management Association (SAHRMA)

However…we need your help! We are asking students to send in their questions for our webcast panelists from LinkedIn, Gild, and RedHat to be featured at our Learning Event .

We encourage students to read the article that inspired this Learning Event at the link below. Once you have completed reading the article, click on the Survey Monkey link to submit your questions. Deadline for submissions is Friday, September 13th, 11:59 PM.  Your suggested questions are appreciated. Please note while the article was written with technology careers in mind, the use of social media and the use of algorithms will influence sourcing and recruiting talent for occupations in a wide range of sectors.

The article:  Computer World magazine's July 13, 2013 edition, What IT recruiters know about you whether you're looking or not.http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240657/What_IT_recruiters_know_about_you_whether_you_re_looking_or_not.

The survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7CH5BSW

Monday Labor Day Sept 2 2013

Each chapter in the Spiceland Intermediate Text has well over a dozen questions at the end of each chapter. There is not time to go over all of them in class. So I am adding the suggested solutions to the questions. You should use this in conjunction with the other TAMUSA Accounting Resources. But of course it only works if you take advantage of it.

How to Use this Resource

I have already suggested partnering with a study buddy in your class. Start with question one, prepare your own oral answer to the question while you are together. See if your partner can add to that idea. Then compare your suggested answer with the correct answer. What did you omit, what did you add that the authors did not, why by the way did they ask that question?

As I have said, passing certified exams is hard, the difference betweneen the Quick and the Dead over a three hour exam may be only three or four m/c questions. It may be that reviewing all the chapter questions for all the chapters gives you just the edge and knowledge you need to be three questions ahead of your competitor. Helping you attain your professional goals is what we are all about at TAMUSA. I will be checking the counter to see how many students take advantage of this added resource. 

Monday Labor Day Sept 2 2013

I have posted a piece on the Proficient Accounting Student on Blackboard. The Proficient Accounting Student has a plan and a routine, and sticks to it. This is also true of professional athletes ans musicians as I noted in the article. 

This morning I was buttering some toast and preparing a great fruit smoothie (strawberrries, matchstick carrots, bananas, and craberry grape juice in the blender with ice, delicious and refreshing in this heat), who should sit down beside me but Bentley our Catahoula. 

Bentley has his routine in the morning as well. Part of that is sitting, shaking hands and receiving a treat, a tasty dog biscuit. When ready for his walk he makes it well known with an audible howl, repeating until I relent. 

I have not heard from any of the students in the Saturday hybrid class but I hope they are developing a routine.   Did you realize that the professional accounting exams are the toughest to pass of all professional exams?

For example on the recent BAR exam for lawyers, Baylor law students scored an impressive 95% pass rate. The accounting students pass rate on the CPA exam was also exemplary, but at 63% it is two thirds the bar exam pass rate. Run your eye down the hyperlink for the reults across the state. Yep, about 50% fail. Which means it pays to be prepared, Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. 

The resources available to you as a student today so dwarf what I had that there is simply no comparisoin. You have 

flash cards on the textbook site

learn smart on connect

practice exams and m/c on the textbook site

power point slides on the textbook site

Schaums with 400 solved problems

connect to help solve problems

and a textbook with solutions, objectives and illustrations. 

But the probablity distribution of grades today is no different than when I was an undergrad. 

Times change with iPhones, computers, and such but 

People don't change, as Dale Carnegie observed. 

Are you developing a structured system geared towards your success?

Read the chapter, underline points to understand, outline the learning objectives,  watch the power point, use learn smart, attempt the flash cards, practice working the solved problems in the chapter until you master every one without looking at the solution, read how your adopted company treats accounting issues in their financial statements. 

Do not delay, the successful students at all the other colleges in Texas are doing just this. I just directed you to the results, look at them again.  Remember the story of the leopard and the gazelle on the African veldt. 

The gazelle knows that if she does not run faster than the fastest leopard, she will be eaten. 

The leopard knows that if she does not run faster than the slowest gazelle, she will starve.

Leopard or gazelle, start running…..

Monday Labor Day Sept 2 2013

Free Live Accounting Tutor

Joe Dupuy maintains his own blog on accounting issues. He is available at the times below here in the Brooks City Base Business Building. I have just learned that he will be in Room 104. I believe that is on the northwest corner of the building. Room 104 is located in the Education Office Area.

Monday 3:00pm – 8:00pm

Tuesday 3:00pm – 8:00pm

Wednesday 5:00pm – 8:00pm

Saturday 11:00am – 5:00pm

Labor Day Sept 2 2013

Tammy Woodward is our new business librarian. Once things settle down she will be at Brooks Mon, Tues, Thursday from 10 AM – 7 PM. She is located in Room  202 c at the rear of the computer lab. Diedre McDonald will be here on Wednesdays as the Education Librarian. Check out the new window for their office inside the building!

We welcome our new Full time  Lecturer, Nancy Batch. Ms. Batch previously taught at Mountainview CC in the Dallas CC system. Mountainview is one of only four CC in the state allowed to offer the full array of courses so that one can sit for the CPA Exam. She holds Msters in both Accounting and Finance, as wel
l as the CPA designation. She will be teaching five classses in the fall and spring. This will allow our students to rotate among professors as they move through the intermediate group of classes. 

Labor Day Weekend August 31 2013

A big favor to ask: Would you please send the students in both of your Thursday afternoon classes that meet in Room 139 an e-mail asking them to let someone know if they found an I-Phone 4 in that classroom last Thursday.  I am hoping that a student picked it up with the plan to bring it to campus after the Holiday.  No problem with this, I just need to know that the phone is in good hands.

The phone belongs to Henry Ramirez of supply chain fame. If anyone has the phone please bring it to class so I can return it to henry. It is locked on the alarm setting when it was lost. 

Wednesday August 28, 2013

The Accounting Education Foundation of the Texas Society of CPAs is pleased to announce that applications for scholarships for the 2013-2014 academic year are now available. Last year, the foundation was able to award over $140,000 in scholarships to Texas students intending to earn the CPA credential. This year, the award amount will be $2,500 without renewal.

We have changed our scholarship program from prior years. We ask that you follow the following steps in connection with this scholarship program:

1. Distribute the application link to those students you think will be eligible to receive an award. The eligibility criteria are listed in this email. Ask them to complete the application form online.  Once the student submits the application, the department chair will receive an email notification that reads “TSCPA Official Scholarship Nomination Form”.  The chair must complete and submit the email to officially nominate the student. The application deadline is September 30, 2013.
2. To encourage applications from all accounting programs in the state, the Foundation is allocating scholarship applications based on the number of candidates from your school who sat for the CPA examination in 2012. For your school, the maximum is two (2) applications.
3. Each student must request an official university transcript.  The transcript should be sent directly to:  Accounting Education Foundation, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408. This is important. The selection committee will not consider applications unless they are accompanied by an official transcript.
4. Submit evidence that the student has filed an Application of Intent with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy to take the CPA Exam in the state of Texas.  The evidence should be sent to:  Accounting Education Foundation, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408.

We appreciate your efforts in making this scholarship program a success and look forward to receiving applications from your students. Please contact Stephanie King at sking@tscpa.net if you have any questions on the application procedures.

The application link is:  https://secure.tscpa.org/aef/aefnewapp.asp

ACCOUNTING EDUCATION FOUNDATION 

Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants

Scholarship Program

GUIDELINES & INSTRUCTIONS

The Accounting Education Foundation of TSCPA has established a program to provide scholarship assistant to accounting students who plan to become Texas Certified Public Accountants and enter the accounting profession. 

To be considered for a TSCPA scholarship, a student must:

·         Attend a college or university which participates in Accounting Education Foundation programs and be nominated by the chairperson of the accounting department of the university.

·         Have satisfactorily completed at least 110 semester credit hours of college-level courses by August 31.  A recipient will normally be classified as a 5^th year student or graduate student in the fall semester or quarter.

·         Be an accounting major with the intent of becoming a Texas Certified Public Accountant and entering the accounting profession upon graduation.  The student is expected to be enrolled as a full-time college student (at least 12 semester credit hours each semester for undergraduate students/at least 9 semester credit hours each semester for graduate students).

·         File an Application of Intent to sit for the CPA Exam with the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.

·         Have an Accounting GPA of 3.6 or more on a 4.0 scale.

·         Have completed 21 semester credit hours of accounting courses required of accounting majors with a grade of B or better in each course by August 31.

·         Submit an official cumulative college transcript through the end of summer of the current academic school year to include semester or quarter hours earned and cumulative GPA.  If the applicant has attended more than one university, the cumulative college transcript should show grades and credit received for all previous schools.  If such transcript does not show a previous record, then a separate transcript (or transcripts) will be required.

FOR THE CHAIRPERSON AND THE STUDENT:

The chairperson of the department must nominate the applicant. Official transcript and evidence of filing an Application of Intent should be sent to the Accounting Education Foundation of TSCPA, 14651 Dallas Parkway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75254-7408.  Deadline for receiving applications and all supporting documents is September 30, 2013.  Each college may nominate at least two students.  Awards will be made during the fall semester and the funds will be sent to the school for disbursement to the student.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

Stephanie King 
Accounting Manager
Texas Society of CPAs