Ranked #8 in popularity, accounting is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 927 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for accounting students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 51,042 bachelor's degrees in accounting to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The accounting bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality accounting program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on accounting students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other accounting students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for accounting to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for accounting students working on their bachelor's degree.
The accounting school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Accounting in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in accounting. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in accounting has to check out Bentley University. Located in the small city of Waltham, Bentley is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Bentley University earn a boost of about $17,862 above the typical earnings of accounting majors.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a great decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in accounting. UIUC is a very large public university located in the city of Champaign.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get an earnings boost of about $18,534 over the average income of accounting majors.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from University of Southern California receive an earnings boost of about $17,906 over the typical income of accounting majors.
Georgetown is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Georgetown University get an earnings boost of about $30,550 over the average earnings of accounting graduates.
UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the large city of Madison.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison earn a boost of about $14,714 above the average income of accounting majors.
Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Ohio State University - Main Campus get an earnings boost of about $10,214 above the typical income of accounting majors.
Located in the medium-sized city of Provo, BYU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Brigham Young University - Provo get an earnings boost of approximately $13,677 over the average income of accounting graduates.
SCU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Santa Clara.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Santa Clara University receive an earnings boost of around $20,937 over the average earnings of accounting majors.
UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities earn a boost of approximately $11,823 over the typical earnings of accounting majors.
UT Austin is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Austin.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from The University of Texas at Austin earn a boost of around $4,765 above the average income of accounting graduates.
Located in the city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting program at Boston College make $23,008 more than the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
TCU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Fort Worth.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting program at Texas Christian University get $21,885 above the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
U Miami is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Coral Gables.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting program at University of Miami make $9,855 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Michigan State is a fairly large public university located in the city of East Lansing.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Michigan State University get an earnings boost of about $11,209 above the typical income of accounting majors.
Located in the suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting major at University of Maryland - College Park get $15,091 above the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
This list shows the rest of the schools awarded a Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 15% of the 927 different United States accounting schools we analyzed.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).