All students meet with the the Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) Director during their first semester of graduate study. This conference is intended to assist the student in formulating a graduate program that integrates the student's background and areas of interest, and in completing the student's required Program of Study form.

The master's program requires a minimum of 30 semester hours of acceptable course work beyond a bachelor's degree. A minimum of 21 credits of course work must be taken on campus at Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU). The number of required credit hours may vary, depending on prior course work. Students with a degree in accounting generally complete their course work in one full year (two or three semesters).

Required Courses:
 The following seven graduate classes, totaling 21 credits, are required, plus electives:

  Fall  Cr.  Spring   Cr.
ACTG 514  Fraud Examination 3 ACTG 521 Advanced Auditing 3
ACTG 522 Accounting Analytics 3 ACTG 526 Advanced Taxation 3
ACTG 525 Accounting Theory & Complex Issues in Accounting 3 ACTG 529 Survey of Accounting Topics 3
ACTG 536 Advanced Accounting 3   Elective (See list below) 3
  Elective (See list below) 3   Elective (See list below) 3
    15     15

NOTE: The courses listed above are offered only in the fall or spring as designated above.

Approved MPAc Electives (9 credits):

  Course Description Semester of Offering
ACTG 531 Tax Practicum Spring
ACTG 544 Professional Accounting Issues Fall/Spring
ACTG 598 Internship (max 3; P/F) Fall/Spring/Summer
Undergraduate Course Options  
ACTG 401* Prin of Fed Tax Fall
ACTG 410* Cost/Mgmt Accounting I Fall
ACTG 411* Auditing I Fall/Spring
ACTG 415* Govt. & Nonprofit Acct I Fall/Spring
ACTG 421* Acct Info Systems II Spring
ACTG 431* VITA Spring
ACTG 441* Fin Statement Analysis Fall/Spring
BFIN 420R* Investments Fall/Spring
BFIN 421* Real Estate & Invest Analysis Spring
BFIN 435* Corporate Finance Fall/Spring
BFIN 452* Int’l Finance Fall
BFIN 456* Fin Mgmt for the Entrepreneur Fall
BFIN 458* Commercial Bank Mgmt Spring
BFIN 460* Derivatives & Securities Fall/Spring
BMGT 405* Supply Chain Mgmt Fall
BMGT 406* Negotiation Fall/Spring
ECNS 403 Intro to Econometrics Fall/Spring
ECNS 451 Behavioral & Experimental Economics Fall
EFIN 401 Engineering & Economic Financial Mgmt II Fall
EFIN 405 R Lab Class II Fall
EFIN 499 Financial Engineering Design Capstone Spring
EIND 434 Project Mmgt for Engineers Fall
EIND 457 Regres & Multivar Analysis Spring, even years
EIND 458 Production & Engineering Mgmt Spring
PSYX 461 Indust & Organiz Psych On Demand
PSYX 481 Judgement & Decision Making On Demand
STAT 408 Statistical Computing & Graphical Analysis Fall/Spring
   Graduate Non-Business Course Options
PSCI 525 Non-Profit Mgmt Fall
PSCI 530 Tools of Public Administration Summer
PSCI 555 Human Resources Mgmt Fall
PSCI 560 Ethics & Public Service Spring


*Cannot be used as electives or for degree requirements if the course has already been used as part of another degree program.Maximum of 9 credit hours of approved 400-level course work may be included in the 30-credit MPAc program, if at least 6 of these 9 credit hours are ACTG or BFIN classes.Otherwise, 6 credit hours of approved 400-level course work may be included.


Academic Requirements

Students are required to achieve at least a 3.0 GPA each semester and maintain at least a cumulative GPA of 3.0 at all times while in the MPAc program. Additionally, students with provisional admittances will be required to adhere to the provisions of their admittance.

Length of Program

Students with an undergraduate degree in accounting generally complete the MPAc program in one full year (two or three semesters).

Students with an undergraduate degree in business, but not accounting, must complete course work equivalent to that for an undergraduate accounting degree at MSU, which averages approximately three semesters of additional study. 

Students with an undergraduate degree in a non-business area must complete a common body of knowledge in business courses (finance, information systems, law, management, and marketing) in addition to the undergraduate accounting courses, which averages approximately 2.5 years of additional study.

Program Load

Nine to 15 semester credits is considered a full graduate load for a student in the MPAc program.

Financial Assistance

The Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship offers scholarships for graduate students. Application is made during the month of November only and is an electronic application (no paper copy).  Students who wish to be considered for a scholarship should contact Beth Schmidt in the Dean's office.

A limited number of graduate teaching assistantships are also available to fully admitted graduate students and are awarded on a competitive basis.

Graduate teaching assistant positions may be for one or two semesters. Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) provide teaching support to faculty and tutoring services for students. In exchange, the GTAs receive a partial tuition waiver and a small monthly stipend.

International students: please find the admission forms, including the International Graduate Student Financial Certificate form here.

For more details on financial aid, please see Financial Aid Services homepage.