If you are an accounting major, A311 (Intermediate Accounting) will be your favorite class. Well, let me rephrase that. It will be your most important class. Yes it is hard, challenging, and frankly, not enjoyable, but you need to take it ASAP. Why is this? Well it is simple. Intermediate Accounting is the cutoff for most, if not all, accounting firms for interns. If you have not taken A311, or are not in the process of taking it, you might as well just give up on finding an internship.
I have talked to many recruiters in the accounting profession, both through the accounting association, which I am the President of, and through networking events and they all say that they want their interns to have taken Intermediate. They say that if someone has taken Intermediate and has been successful, they know they are serious about Accounting. Unfortunately for me, I did not learn any of this information until it was too late. I am a junior and wished I would have taken A311 this semester instead of A337, Accounting Information Systems. Lucky for me, I had networked enough with certain people to receive an internship this spring at Dauby O'connor and Zaleski. Even they have a cutoff of A311, but said they were willing to take a chance on me. How lucky is that!
So make sure you take A311, even if you have to take it with I-Core, which is something that advisors will tell you now to do. They will tell you to take A337, the easiest accounting class offered, since you have so much work to do with I-Core. But if you plan on getting a spring internship, do the extra work and take A311. When you do to an interview in September and October, you will see why it is the best class ever.
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