By Nathaniel Luce
The Vanderbilt Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program partners with liberal arts colleges and universities to offer undergraduates interested in business an opportunity to launch a career in public accounting with only 12 additional months of education.
Sylvia Strauss, Davison ’17 and Vanderbilt MAcc ’18
In this spotlight, we talk with 2018 MAcc graduate Sylvia Strauss (Davidson ’17) about her time at Davidson College, her journey to the Vanderbilt MAcc program, and how her higher education experiences complemented one another.
The institution: Located in Charlotte, NC, Davidson College is one of America’s strongest and most selective liberal arts colleges.
How she came to find MAcc: Strauss came to Davidson with limited exposure to the business world. “My parents are journalists,” she explained. “Business is really far out of our range.” The French major and Economics minor initially looked at roles in higher education administration, working in Davidson’s admissions and development offices, but became genuinely interested in accounting after taking Professor Ben Baker’s course in the subject her senior year.
“Professor Baker brings in recruiters from Vanderbilt MAcc and other schools to tell us about the opportunities out there,” she said. “Most students go to a graduate school for law or medicine, but business wasn’t on my radar, so it was my first look at that career.” She applied to Vanderbilt that year and enrolled the following fall.
The Davidson + Vanderbilt experience: Coming from Davidson, Strauss found the small size and personal scale at Vanderbilt MAcc very attractive. “That’s what we’re used to at Davidson. Having everyone in one class was pretty normal,” she says. “The (MAcc) program helps you make friends. It’s definitely a nice diverse group of people, and everyone’s trying to meet each other.”
Once she began the MAcc program and completed her internship, Strauss better understood how her Davidson education factored into her business career.
“There are stereotypes about accounting: you’re nerdy, you work alone,” she says. “But it’s really a lot different than that. There’s a lot of group work, using critical thinking skills that you develop at Davidson. Being a smart, well-rounded person goes far, working with clients and being a good teammate. So you just bring a lot more to the table, and Davidson definitely provides that background.”
Davidson College is a highly-regarded liberal arts college located in Charlotte, NC.
Photo courtesy of Davidson College
The next chapter: The many geographic options were one of the factors that drew Strauss to the MAcc program and public accounting, and after interning with PwC in the company’s San Francisco offices, she’ll be returning to the Bay Area in a full-time capacity this fall.
“It would be hard to get to San Francisco another way,” she says. “I know that in public accounting in general, if you put in the work for a year or two and want to go somewhere else, it’s definitely possible, because they have offices everywhere.”
Advice for Davidson students: Thinking about Davidson students who should consider the Vanderbilt MAcc program, Strauss “would say most Davidson students could take a look. Obviously, you want to have some kind of an economics background, and a business-oriented mind, but you don’t have to know much about accounting beforehand.”
In fact, during the Big 4 recruiting process, Strauss learned “that they love people who have a unique background. Being a French major was cool for them. Having accounting major after accounting major isn’t something that’s going to spark diversity in their workforce. They want people from different places having different experiences.
“Don’t be nervous that you don’t have an accounting background, even if you’re just an economics minor,” she continued. “For those people, this can be a good place for you. (Show) that you’re a unique person but interested in this opportunity and the doors it will open. There’s no bad thing about starting your career in public accounting.”
To learn more about the Vanderbilt Master of Accountancy (MAcc) degree, visit the website pages for the MAcc Assurance or MAcc Valuation programs.
