Count, check and explain the money. A four year degree, one hard exam, and a job in every town.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $83,680 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $56,020 at the lower end to about $144,090 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 6 years after high school, on the usual route.
$28,000 to $130,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$83,680
Bottom tenth
$56,020
Top tenth
$144,090
The national median is $83,680 a year. The bottom tenth earn $56,020 or less and the top tenth $144,090 or more. These are the 2025 federal wage survey figures. The wage survey counts accountants and auditors together, so the figure covers both.
$56,020 to $67,020
What the bottom tenth to bottom quarter of accountants and auditors earn, 2025
New hires usually start in this part of the range. Pay also varies by state and city: O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) has a local wage tool that shows the figures for your area.
$111,530 a year
The median in Washington, DC (District of Columbia), the highest of any state or district
New York ($102,640) and New Jersey ($100,830) come next. Arkansas is the lowest, at $66,330. Partners in a firm own a share of the business, so their income is profit, not salary.
Roughly, all in
$28,000 to $130,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college then two years at an in-state public university, plus the four sections of the CPA (certified public accountant) exam and a state application fee. The high end is four or five years paid at out-of-state public tuition, plus the extra credits many states still require before they will license you. Most employers pay for the exam review course, so that is rarely your money. Filing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year decides how much Pell Grant money you get, which is never repaid.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year. It is the one form that decides whether you get Pell Grant money you never repay and how much you can borrow.
Employer-paid exam costs
Most firms pay your review course, exam fees and a bonus when you pass.
Retirement savings with a match
A 401(k) plan where the employer adds money on top of what you put in.
Busy season, then quiet
Long hours January to April, then real time off in the summer at most firms.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Work in government or for a nonprofit and your remaining federal student loans can be wiped after 10 years of payments.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, an exam in four parts, and a year of supervised work.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Take every math course offered, plus any business or accounting elective. Good spreadsheet habits start here.
Bachelor's degree in accounting
4 years
Four years at a public or private university. An internship in your third year is how most people get their first job offer.
Meet your state's credit rule
0 to 1 year
Many states still ask for 150 semester credits, about a year past a normal degree, often taken as a master's. Several states now allow a bachelor's degree plus extra work experience instead. Check your own state board.
Pass the Uniform CPA Examination
12 to 18 months
Three core sections covering auditing, financial reporting, and taxation and regulation, plus one discipline section you choose. Most people study 300 to 400 hours in total.
Experience and license
1 year
Usually one year of work signed off by a licensed CPA (certified public accountant), then your state board issues the license.
Math
Algebra and statistics, not calculus. Accuracy matters more than difficulty.
Accounting or business
If your school offers it, take it. You will know in a semester whether you like this.
English
Half the job is writing clear explanations of numbers to people who hate numbers.
Computer applications
Spreadsheets are the tool of the trade for your whole career.
Anyone can work as an accountant, bookkeeper or tax preparer without a license, and most accountants in companies do. State law reserves two things for licensed CPAs (certified public accountants): audits and similar sign-offs on financial statements, and the CPA title. Each state's board of accountancy issues the license, and the Uniform CPA Examination is the same everywhere.
Almost every state university has an accounting degree, and the local ones feed the local firms.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The Gies College of Business runs one of the oldest accountancy departments in the country, from bachelor's through doctorate.
University of Texas at Austin, Brigham Young University, University of Southern California
Long-established programs that big firms recruit from every year.
Your nearest state university
Firms hire regionally. A degree from the public university an hour away is worth as much locally as a famous one.
Community college first
Two years of general credits at community college prices, then transfer in. It cuts the bill almost in half.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CPA (certified public accountant)
The main one. Required for audit work and expected for most senior finance jobs.
Certified Management Accountant
Aimed at accountants working inside companies rather than at firms.
Certified Internal Auditor
For people who check a company's own controls from the inside.
Certified Fraud Examiner
Forensic work: tracing money that went missing, often alongside investigators.
Enrolled Agent
A federal credential from the Internal Revenue Service that lets you represent taxpayers. No degree required.
A summer internship
At most large firms the internship is the interview. Many students have a job offer a year before they graduate.
Data skills
SQL (the language used to pull data out of databases) and a reporting tool put you ahead of every other new hire.
A second language
Spanish or Mandarin is genuinely useful at firms with international clients.
A student job with a cash register or a till
Sounds small. It teaches you what a reconciliation actually is.
Federal agencies hire accountants and auditors, and they post every opening on USAJOBS (the federal government's official jobs site). The hours are steady, the pension is real, and the time counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. State and city governments, school districts and the Internal Revenue Service all hire the same way.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In public accounting, you work in small teams on one client at a time: pulling records, testing samples, asking the client's staff why a number moved, writing it up. In a company, you close the books each month, explain the variances to managers, and build the numbers the business plans from. Either way it is a desk job with deadlines, and the deadlines cluster.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) counted about 1,595,200 people working as accountants or auditors in the United States in 2025. It rates the job a Bright Outlook career, with growth faster than average from 2025 to 2035 and about 115,300 openings a year.
The federal tax filing deadline sets the rhythm of the whole profession. Firms call January to April busy season, and a lot of accountants take their real holiday in May.
Once you pass your first section, most states give you 30 months to pass the other three before the first one expires. That deadline is why people study while working.
For decades most states required 150 college credits, about five years of school, to get licensed. Several states have now added a route with a normal four year degree plus more work experience, because the extra year was keeping people out.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Money and finance first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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