Unlike many students entering one-year professional programs, Trevor Brown went to work before he went to business school. After earning an undergraduate degree in accounting in three years, says the Colorado native, “I decided to take a gap year and gain work experience so that the graduate degree would be more practical and I would have a relevant perspective to the problems that businesses face. As an accounting major, the decision to spend a fourth year to gain a master’s degree and become eligible for the CPA qualification made sense.”

Trevor was drawn to Vanderbilt not only for “the prestige of the program” but for the small, close-knit community that would simultaneously be supportive yet push him to excel. “As a very competitive person, I wanted to be around other like-minded, driven people, a cohort, faculty, and staff that challenged me on a daily basis,” he says. “I wanted to be surrounded by future leaders, encouraged by strong alumni, and go to a school that could open doors in every aspect of business.”

In the classroom, Trevor found he was able to go far beyond the skills he had gained before. “The faculty are wicked smart, challenging, and thoughtful,” he says. “In class and in conversations, I have been pushed in the way I perceive business problems and global problems.

“Specifically, I am incredibly proud of the prowess I have achieved in financial modeling. In previous work experience and school, I had difficulty conceptualizing pro forma assumptions, making changes to the financials of companies to accurately reflect and then project. Vanderbilt’s faculty has a way of making the difficult nuances in finance easy to understand and to practically apply.”

And the community was just as collegial as he had heard. “They went above and beyond in supporting and encouraging me to take the next steps in my life and career,” Trevor says. “The alumni have been incredibly generous, from taking time to even pushing to recruit me to where they work. I was blown away by the willingness of alumni to encourage and advocate for me.

“The MAcc program has surrounded me with a foundational cohort of people I will be able to rely on throughout my career.”

Fun Fact: An outdoors enthusiast, Trevor has a passion for hunting, fishing, and backpacking.

Vanderbilt’s faculty has a way of making the difficult nuances in finance easy to understand and to practically apply.