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Finance and Accounting Degree Programs at Golden Gate University
Golden Gate University appears in our ranking of the Top 10 Online Master’s in Accounting Degree Programs.
Golden Gate University offers graduate degree programs for professionals and offers several options for students with an interest in finance or accounting. The Master of Science (MS) in Taxation program is available as an accelerated cohort program, which requires that they attend classes on campus. The university also offers an online version of this program. Both programs include courses such as Advanced Federal Income Taxation, Tax Timing, Property Transactions, Federal Tax Procedure and Tax Research and Decision Making.
An MS in Advanced Financial Planning is available for students who have their CFA credentials and want to go back to school. The university offers an online program and a traditional program, which asks students to take classes in San Francisco. The three concentrations in the program include estate planning, taxation and financial life planning. Students will take 24 credits of concentration classes and six credits of required courses that include Business Development in Financial Services and Cases in Financial Planning. The university offers a general financial planning graduate program for students with less experience and no credentials. It features 21 credits of general finance classes, including Personal Financial Planning and Retirement and Employee Benefits Planning. Another program offered by the university for finance majors is an MS in Finance.
Master of Business Administration (MBA) majors can choose a concentration in either finance or accounting. They’ll take 12 credits of classes relating to that subject and 54 credits of general business and other courses. Those classes usually include Personal Leadership, Finance, Information Technology Management, Teams in Organizations and Communications and Presentations. MBA students must also take Business Planning, which is a capstone course that includes a project or a paper that students submit at the end of the class.
Two other graduate programs offered by Golden Gate University appeal to accounting majors. It offers an MS in Accounting and a Master of Accountancy. The MA program offers concentrations in forensic, accounting, financial accounting and reporting, internal auditing, management accounting and taxation. Students take 12 credits of concentration classes and 18 units of accounting courses, including Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting, Topics in Financial Accounting and Accounting Research and Communication. Though the accountancy program features the same concentrations and asks students to take 12 credits of courses relating to those topics, it includes 33 units of core courses, including Advanced Studies in Business Law, Intermediate Accounting I and II and Communication and Analysis of Financial Information.
About Golden Gate University
Golden Gate University is a private university that offers classes on its campus in San Francisco, California campus and online. Established in 1901 as the YMCA Evening College, it grew out of the literacy programs offered by that organization. Those programs provided young men with the chance to read classic books and talk about their thoughts and opinions with others. Those programs would eventually become college courses in fields such as math, Spanish and bookkeeping. The college would later add business administration and accounting classes to its curriculum, which evolved into its first bachelor’s degree program. A contest organized by the college let students submit their ideas for a new name. Golden Gate College won and became the school’s official name in 1923. It remained a college until 1972 when it became Golden Gate University or GGU.
GGU now focuses primarily on business degree programs. It added distance education programs in the early 1990s and switched to online degree programs by 1998. U.S. News and World Report now ranks GGU within the top 100 of all online colleges in the country. Between the online students and those taking classes on the San Francisco campus, GGU has an enrollment of more than 5,000 students.
Golden Gate University Accreditation Details
GGU has endorsements and approvals from several prominent organizations, including the California State Bar and the Association of Law Schools. It also holds accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). As WASC awards regional accreditation to institutions of higher learning, it allows GGU to award financial aid packages to its students and to accept the credits that they bring with them.
Golden Gate University Application Requirements
GGU has general application requirements and individual program requirements. Students applying to any graduate program must have a bachelor’s degree, a strong transcript that shows the applicant can handle advanced work and good research and writing skills. When applying to a degree program, a student must submit the GGU application and pay the $65 fee. The university asks for official transcripts from each school the student attended. Students have the option of providing a personal statement too, which allows them to discuss any issues on their academic records or to talk about the experiences they have that they didn’t include on the application.
The accounting and finance programs offered by the university often require a GRE or GMAT score too. GGU waives this requirement for students who have at least five years of professional experience. GGU also does not require a test score from students who:
-have a graduate degree from any school with regional accreditation in the United States
-maintained a GPA of 3.5 or higher in a bachelor’s program
-have a CPA license or any other professional license
Tuition and Financial Aid
Graduate students enrolled in most of the university’s business programs pay $1,050 per credit hour or unit. Both the School of Business and the School of Accounting charge this same rate. Students enrolled in a taxation graduate program will pay $1,200 per unit, which equates to $3,600 per class. The MBA program charges a tuition rate of $5,000 per class. Students spend $65,000 to earn those degrees from the university.
GGU offers financial aid packages for graduate students but only awards packages to those who complete the FAFSA. They will need to complete counseling and sign an online promissory note to get federal student loans. Some students may also qualify for work study, but they can only enter one of those programs if they take traditional classes on the GGU campus. The Yellow Ribbon Program provides military students with financial benefits for school. Those students can also use the GI Bill to cover some of their costs. Golden Gate University encourages students with an interest in its finance and accounting programs to look at alternative loans and external scholarships too.
