You Can Lead ‘em to Water…

As a parent for nearly three decades, I’m sort of used to having my advice ignored. Whether it be music, TV, clothing or food, my daughters dutifully listened to their father’s suggested guidance and then just as promptly ignored it.

But that goes with the territory – especially during that joyful tantrum-filled period between middle school and high school graduation. I think I personally kept the manufacturers of Maalox in business or at least buoyed their share price.

But perhaps no urging I put forth was as vehement was my strong directive that each study accounting in college. Having either covered or consulted on the accounting profession for nearly 20 years I was well-aware of both the opportunities and the large talent void in the pipeline that existed.

And true to form each decided to eschew accounting and instead pursue marketing and public relations. Not that they haven’t up to this point become successful – in fact one recently received a promotion to media buyer. And each explained that what they currently do is/was far more exciting than looking at tax and audit spreadsheets in some cubicle. To that point it was hard to argue.

But along these lines I noticed an online survey titled College Factual recently unveiled a list of the top 10 accounting schools in the country and wouldn’t you know it, my youngest’s alma mater Binghamton University, a school well-known for its engineering and STEM curriculum in upstate New York, was ranked No. 8.

The ranking took in a number of factors – primarily metric-based ones such as quality of education, average salaries of those who graduated and of course, accreditation.

For those breathlessly awaiting the results, Bentley University just outside Boston with an undergraduate enrollment of just under 5,000 took top honors, followed by University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and in third place was Notre Dame, perhaps better known for its athletics, but nonetheless it obviously excels in accounting education as well.

So, without further ado, the remaining seven were in order:

Bryant University in Rhode Island; Baruch College in New York City; Boston College, Loyola University in Maryland; the aforementioned Binghamton University; Fairfield University in Connecticut; and Villanova University just outside Philadelphia.

So, I lost that argument and as my spouse pointed out, they’re both happy and successful.

However, I’m still waiting for one or both to invite us out to dinner and utter the magic words, “our treat.”

I can always hope.