Accounting professor and school director Benjamin Ayers instructs students during class.

The School of Accounting at the University of Georgia was established in 1977 and named the J. M. Tull School of Accounting in 1978. The mission of the J. M. Tull School of Accounting is to pursue excellence in accounting education. As a professional school in a major public research university, we are committed to teaching, research, and service that advance the accounting discipline and prepare future leaders for business and academia.

The Tull School offers three degree programs: a BBA in accounting, a Master of Accountancy (MAcc), and a PhD. Each of these programs has been recognized nationally in recent years as one of the top ten accounting programs in the country, among both public and private institutions.

The success of Tull students has been equally impressive. Tull BBA and MAcc students consistently finish among the top 10 schools in the country on the CPA exam, posting first-time CPA exam pass rates that are two and a half to three times higher than the national average. Most recently, Terry BBA graduates who took the CPA exam for the first time recorded an 83 percent pass rate that ranked No. 4 in the country among large programs (and within 1 percentage point of a No. 2 ranking).

In nine of the last 11 years, Tull MAcc graduates have been selected for prestigious and highly competitive Postgraduate Technical Assistant positions with the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Recent standout Tull students include FASB intern Bryan Davis and Susan Guo, a three-time scholarship recipient and Leonard Leadership Scholar, who also found time to serve as a teaching assistant.

Tull PhD students have also amassed an impressive set of accolades. Recent Tull graduates have twice won the American Accounting Association (AAA) Competitive Manuscript Award, the most prestigious research award presented by the AAA for single-authored research. They have also won the AAA Financial Accounting Reporting Section’s Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Tull BBA and MAcc graduates are in high demand and achieve both short-term and long-term career success. Our BBA and MAcc graduates are heavily recruited by the very best international, national, regional and local public accounting firms and by some of the top companies in the country (e.g. , Aflac, Georgia Pacific, Home Depot, and TBS). Tull PhD placements have also been very strong with recent graduates hired by Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Virginia, Nanyang Technological University, UNLV, and UAB.

Among Tull alumni are more than 150 partners in international, national, regional, and local public accounting firms-Tull alumni also include the current or previous CEO or CFOs of publicly traded companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Delta, Cox Enterprises, Mirant, Rare Hospitality, and Time-Warner. In addition, the previous chairman of the AICPA, current members of the Georgia State Board of Accountancy, and officers in the Georgia Society of CPAs are Tull graduates.

The faculty of the Tull School of Accounting has a strong history of publishing in the top accounting journals. For the past six years, the Tull School ranks No. 8 among public institutions in research productivity based on publications in the top 11 accounting journals. Five senior faculty members ranked in the top 5 percent of the most productive accounting scholars over the past 50 years. In addition, the Tull faculty includes four past recipients of the American Accounting Association Competitive Manuscript Award, which is the AAA’s most prestigious research award for sole-authored research.

The Tull School faculty is also known for setting high standards in the classroom. Current faculty members have received numerous teaching accolades, including:

• the Richard B. Russell Undergraduate Teaching Award, the highest honor for junior faculty at the University of Georgia
• the Georgia Society of CPAs Accounting Educator of the Year Award
• the prestigious Outstanding Accounting Educator Award from the American Accounting Association
• the Terry College Outstanding Teaching Award
• the Terry College of Business MBA and Executive MBA Teaching Awards
• the Alpha Kappa Psi Outstanding Teacher Award for the Terry College

Tull faculty are also known for innovation. Case in point: A popular Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination course that utilizes an interactive whodunit format to teach students how to ferret out perpetrators of accounting fraud.

The Tull School places strong emphasis on national service, particularly in organizations that serve the academic accounting, professional accounting, and business communities. The Tull School faculty includes Denny Beresford, former chairman of the FASB and current Board of Directors member for Kimberly Clark, Fannie Mae, and Legg Mason. Three of our current or former faculty members are joint recipients of the AICPA Gold Medal and Accounting Hall of Fame designation, and one of our faculty members is a member of the FEI Hall of Fame.

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