AICPA Accepting Applications for Nearly $1 Million in Scholarships

The AICPA Foundation High School Scholarship provides $2,000 for up to 10 high school seniors who have taken Advanced High School Accounting and who intend to continue their accounting studies at an accredited college or university.

Advanced High School Accounting is part of the AICPA’s Accounting Program for Building the Profession (APBP), which trains high school educators to teach higher-level accounting curricula. Research shows that taking an accounting course in high school increases the probability that students will major in accounting in college.

LEGACY SCHOLARSHIPS

The AICPA Legacy Scholarships, funded by the AICPA, the AICPA Foundation and partners, offer $3,000 to $10,000 per student, with more than $700,000 in total scholarships available. These scholarships provide support to students with a variety of backgrounds, including liberal arts majors pursuing a graduate degree in accounting, minority and female scholars, and those transferring from a two-year to a four-year institution.

The scholarship awards that comprise the AICPA’s Legacy Scholars Program are:

• American Woman’s Society of CPAs (AWSCPA) Scholarship Award, which offers $5,000 to up to four outstanding women pursuing a degree in accounting.
• AICPA John L. Carey Scholarship Award, which gives $5,000 to up to five non-accounting or business degree holders pursuing a graduate degree in accounting.
• AICPA Scholarship Award for Minority Accounting Students, which offers $3,000 to $10,000 to approximately 90 outstanding minority students to encourage their study of accounting.
• AICPA Foundation Two-year Transfer Scholarship Award, which provides $3,000 to $5,000 to up to 25 students transferring from a two-year school to a four-year program to complete their accounting degree.
• AICPA Foundation Scholarship for Future CPAs, which offers $5,000 to $10,000 to up to 25 students interested in pursuing their CPA license after graduation.

“The AICPA is committed to fostering and developing the pipeline of students studying accounting and finance, as well as others pursuing CPA licensing and/or the CGMA credential,” said Jan Taylor, Academic-in Residence and Senior Director of Academic & Student Engagement at the AICPA. “We want to support and encourage the next generation of licensed and credentialed accountants both by offering financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students and to qualified exam candidates, and working to ensure there is a strong supply of qualified educators to teach them.”

DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPS

The Minority Doctoral Fellowship program provides $12,000 to 25 students, renewable for up to an additional four years (assuming students continue to meet eligibility requirements), and is intended to bolster racial and ethnic diversity among accounting educators at colleges and universities.

The William (Bill) Ezzell Scholarship program offers an annual award of $10,000 to five accounting Ph.D. candidates who demonstrate significant potential to become mentors for the next generation of CPAs. This one-time-per-recipient scholarship honors the late Ezzell’s passion for the profession and recognizes his belief that the best way to encourage the next generation of CPAs is to put educators in the classroom with relevant and recent real-world experience.

Both programs are intended to ensure a healthy pipeline of accounting educators. Having recently practicing CPAs in the classroom also strengthens the connection between academia and practice.

Additionally, the AICPA’s ThisWaytoCPA’s National Scholarship Search lists a wide range of other scholarships available to accounting students around the country.