Business students were surveyed at a large university in the south-eastern USA to assess their perceptions of the benefits and costs of becoming an accounting practitioner. The current paper examines the extent to which these perceptions are related to whether students took accounting in secondary school and, if they had such exposure, the quality of their experience. Then, we examine whether perceptions differ at relatively early and late stages of a student's academic progress. Finally, we examine these benefit and cost perceptions in relation to the quality of students' experiences in the first university accounting course. The results indicate that experience in the first university accounting course is differentially associated with benefits and cost perceptions, and the nature of the association depends upon whether students took accounting in secondary school. Perceptions also differ between students at early and late stages of their respective academic programs, and accounting vs. non-accounting majors.Accounting majors, benefits and costs, accounting careers,

This study reexamines and extends the conclusions drawn from the Felton et al. (FBN) 1994 study that investigated a set of explanatory factors in the decision to choose a career as a chartered accountant (CA). The current study extends the findings of FBN in two primary ways. First, we improve upon their study by adding the students' overall experience in the first accounting course into the analysis. Second, we expand the analysis to include sophomores and juniors rather than seniors only. When we add the students' overall experience in the introductory accounting class into the analysis, it becomes the most important factor in distinguishing major choice between accounting and nonaccounting students. Consistent with FBN, we find that accounting majors place less importance on intrinsic factors and report a higher ratio of perceived benefits to costs of choosing accounting than nonaccounting majors. Unlike FBN, we find that initial earnings, long-term earnings, and job market considerations rank at or near the bottom in discriminating between accounting and nonaccounting majors. By shedding further light on the factors that attract students to the accounting profession, the results have recruiting, educational, and public interest implications.

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