It was another great semester for the Accounting and Finance Department! Our students are succeeding in the classroom, starring in their extracurricular activities, and securing internships which lead to jobs early in their college careers. Department energy has never been higher!

 There is a national shortage of CPAs and students choosing accounting as a major. In fact, one of our biggest competitors has seen accounting enrollments drop by 50%. However, our numbers have stayed strong – only once in the past 11 years have we seen more sophomores majoring in accounting!

 This was also the first semester we launched a standalone Finance major, in partnership with our Economics and Math departments. Our students will now have additional opportunities in wealth management, financial analysis, investing banking, and other finance careers.

 We are a social department and host a variety of events! We began the semester with a welcome back BBQ, where professors grilled tasty food and mingled with students while listening to some great live music and dueling in Cornhole. We also hosted our premier recruiting event, Numbers Night, where 50 companies attended and over 500 students and firm representatives mingled and discussed internship and job opportunities. Our finance club continued to meet and host speakers related to private equity, portfolio management, and other popular areas. We also held a group advising session led by professors and a panel of our junior and senior students.

 We have a dedicated and respected team of seven teaching assistants who are available 40 hours per week to tutor students. Our tutors also help increase the energy of our department – they have established a vibrant study space on Simons 2 and maintain an active Instagram account showcasing our student successes. Our TAs also help showcase our seniors with features on LinkedIn and posters on campus.

 Our students are securing jobs with the most prestigious companies in both Minnesota and the country. For accounting majors, Deloitte is the most popular destination, with students also heading to CPA firms Bergan KDV, Boulay, Boyum Barenscheer, CLA, Eisner Amper, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG, PwC, RSM, and Schlenner Wenner. Nearly 90% of our accounting seniors have already accepted their full-time job offer.

For Finance majors, UHG is our top recruiter, with students also having jobs at Ameriprise, Best Buy, Hyatt, Piper Sandler, Xcel Energy, and a number of other companies.

 As usual, our students were highly successful in athletics:

• Senior Aaron Syverson and juniors Zach Frank, Hayden Sanders, and Conor Murphy were named All-Conference, with sophomore Dylan Wheeler named Honorable Mention. Aaron and Zach were also named All-Region, and Aaron was one of 20 national semifinalists for the Gagliardi Trophy, which is Division 3’s version of the Heisman Trophy. Aaron also smashed the conference record with 37 touchdown passes in 8 conference games, and 45 touchdown passes overall.
• Senior Emily Renner set a school record by shooting a 69 in a golf tournament she won in September. Emily is headed to PWC Audit after graduation.
• Senior Abby Willenbring repeated as an All-Region soccer performer and was named the team’s most valuable player. Abby will also be headed to PWC Audit after graduation.
• Senior Lloyd Young repeated as an All-Conference and All-Region runner in Cross Country and will begin his professional career in RSM’s tax department.
• Senior Max Borst was named captain of the hockey team and plans to work in wealth management after graduation.
• Junior basketball sharpshooter Sophia Jonas won back-to-back conference player of the week honors and will be interning with PwC this coming summer.

 We continue to have the most engaged group of student-focused professors on campus, if not the country. Our professors have a strong in-person presence with plenty of office hours, and they individually advise our students. Our professors also enjoyed coming as a group to a football game, basketball game, and trivia night to support and celebrate our students. We were excited to add professor Lei Fan as our corporate finance specialist and professor Jin Lee as our info systems and data analytics guru.

 We are looking forward to a spring semester full of more learning and fun!