Accountancy and Management Information Systems

About Us

Introduction

The School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems, known for its innovative programs in accounting, has been a major source of graduates for professional accountancy and management information systems careers in public accounting, business and industry, and the public sector. Located in the heart of Chicago’s financial and business community, DePaul’s location is a key factor in attracting a faculty with impressive talent, credentials, experience and a strong desire to teach. Chicago is the center for commerce, technology, and accounting employment in the Midwest. The leading international accounting and consulting firms are either based in Chicago, or have major offices here. Many regional accounting firms are also based in the Chicago area.

Drawing from over ninety years of experience in educating the nation’s leaders in business, finance and accounting, DePaul University’s School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems is one of the nation’s largest and most respected programs. With 35 full-time faculty members, including 23 who hold both a doctoral degree and CPA, the School offers one of the nation’s most comprehensive professional accounting programs. A practitioner advisory board and an accounting alumni association (Ledger & Quill) support the School. The School also offers five student organizations, tutoring services, supplemental instruction, an extensive scholarship program, a CPA Exam Review program, and the undergraduate Strobel Scholars (honors) program.

Attributes of the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems:

  • Highly professional, well-connected faculty that is committed, first and foremost, to teaching.
  • Flexible, fine-tuned curriculum geared to the demands of the new century.
  • Customized options offered by three undergraduate degree tracks and six graduate degree programs.
  • Focused career orientation that translates into such opportunities as part-time jobs, active student organizations and a success-driven C.P.A. exam preparation course.
  • Dynamic connections to Chicago and the city’s unparalleled accounting community.
  • Clear international perspective with the specific courses to match.
  • Small classes and personal attention, in the private college tradition.
  • Modern, technologically advanced facilities.
  • Track record of unsurpassed job placement and an alumni network that reaches to the top ranks of corporations, public accounting firms, education and government

Mission Statement

The mission of the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems is to serve students, faculty and alumni; the accounting, tax and MIS professions; and the community by:

  • Delivering innovative and quality education that provides students with the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to commence and continue careers in professional services firms; business and industry; and the not-for-profit and public sectors;
  • Provides all students in the College of Commerce and other students in the university with the opportunity to obtain fundamental knowledge of accounting and MIS as vital elements in the management of complex organizations.
  • Recruiting and retaining a diverse student body in accounting and MIS.
  • Recruiting a diverse and qualified faculty and providing faculty members with an environment supportive of research that is relevant to the needs of the academic discipline, higher education, and the accounting and MIS professions.
  • Providing an environment conducive to and supportive of achieving the personal and professional growth goals of faculty and staff.
  • Providing alumni with the opportunity to interact with the professional community, students, and faculty.
  • Encouraging faculty and students to provide meaningful community service.

Faculty and Department Highlights

DePaul professors, through an unmatched commitment to teaching excellence and innovation, prepare students with the skills to apply knowledge creatively and immediately. Here, professors—not graduate assistants—teach accountancy courses. They are active researchers who regularly write and contribute to widely used textbooks and professional journals. Most have direct experience in business. They have served as chief financial officers, controllers, and internal auditors for major corporations. A number of professors work with accounting and business firms or major professional organizations as consultants, faculty residents or participants on special projects.

Seven faculty members have been named Educator of the Year and two faculty members have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Illinois CPA Society—more than any other college in Illinois. The School has four professors holding chairs sponsored by accounting firms, industry, or alumni. School faculty members are authors of leading texts in financial, managerial, and not-for-profit accounting, tax and auditing, and hold leadership positions in major academic and professional organizations. Together, the School's faculty holds every degree and certificate relevant to accounting and accountancy education, including tax, auditing, internal auditing, management accounting, information systems, and law.

The School maintains a friend and alumni association, Ledger & Quill, one of the nation’s largest accounting alumni organizations. Ledger & Quill provides scholarships, funds professorships, technology improvements and faculty research, and sponsors the activities of the School's student groups. It is one of the largest accounting networks in the Chicago area. The School is blocks away from the offices of every major accounting firm, and many major industrial and financial firms.

Accreditation

The School holds separate accounting accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the nation’s recognized accrediting agency for business education, and is also a full member of the Federation of Schools of Accountancy (FSA), the leading organization of accredited graduate professional accounting programs.

Student Professional Associations

Accounting students may become active in five accounting-related student associations, allowing for interaction with other Accounting majors, alumni and working professionals. The organizations include the honorary accounting society Beta Alpha Psi, the Accounting Club, and DePaul student chapters of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA), the Midwest Association of Hispanic Accountants (MAHA), and the National Asian American Society of Accountants (Ascend/NAASA).

Internships

Leveraging location, reputation and extensive contacts with the business community, the School of Accountancy's internship activities provide a world of choices and opportunities: selection for one of the School's formal internship/scholarship programs sponsored by such firms as Abbott Laboratories, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers; participation in an arranged, faculty-monitored internship program which provides academic credit toward your degree; and applying for any of the dozens of internship and part-time job opportunities that are offered to School students throughout the year.

Career Possibilities

Recruiting at DePaul attracts all major accounting firms; by sector of recruiter accounting and consulting ranks #1, followed by banking and manufacturing. DePaul’s School of Accountancy & MIS ranks 9th in the nation in terms of the number of partners with the top four accounting firms.

Scholarships

Through Ledger & Quill and generous alumni, the School maintains 17 scholarship funds, and annually offers close to $200,000 in scholarships, awards and prizes to incoming and continuing students.

Contact Us

School of Accountancy & Management Information Systems
1 East Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60604-2287
Phone: 312/362-8770
Fax: 312/362-6208
E-mail: accountancy@depaul.edu