Boise, you are correct about Becker, I misspoke:

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Newton D. Becker, a name little known outside the accounting field, is one of America's most successful entrepreneurial educators. Founder of the Becker CPA Review Course, he is both an educator and a certified public accountant. In fact, Becker is an educator of CPAs.

Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, Becker's course has prepared more than 105,000 American accountants to pass the grueling 2-1/2-day, four-part CPA exam....

Source:  http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-4444109.html

Hmm...$12,000/yr is way too high. I plan to get my MAcc degree from a brick & mortar school and the tuition is only $8,000 for one year. I can finish the degree in 12 months if I want to. It is a public university and is well known. Plus, the classes are at night which means, I can still work my 40 hour per week job without complications. I tried to do the online thing but I like the human interaction and it opens opportunities for networking. It also exposes me to recruiting.

Online programs in my opinion are good for a person who wants to grow in the company they already work for. But if you're trying to go out in the world, it may be difficult.

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Online programs in my opinion are good for a person who wants to grow in the company they already work for. But if you're trying to go out in the world, it may be difficult.

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I think that's a great synopsis. Although I think saying it 'may' be difficult could be undertstating it a bit.

I can see what you mean regarding an MBA degree alone.

I guess what I am really wondering is what, specifically, do you guys mean?  If someone earns an MBA from Harvard and passes all 4 parts of the CPA on the first attempt, and someone else earns an MBA from Keller and passes all 4 parts of the CPA on the first attempt, can one explain the differences in the level of preparedness to work in public accounting?

Both students probably read the exact same textbooks in college and do the same speficic homework questions, and took the same Becker CPA review course and put the same exact amount of study time in during their exam prep.

Why is it that so many people who pass the CPA say that a large percentage of each test consists of questions they would never have been ready for without a professional CPA review course?  And I mean, students with a 4.0 GPA in college and who earned a MA in Accounting? 

I think that literally all students are on the same playing field at the "start" of the professional CPA review course, as long as they took the basic accounting courses required by their state board of accountancy.  (And, as long as they receive at least a 3.0 and did not cheat in their accounting courses to date.)

I am confused, and I am not trying to be facetious, seriously.  Please explain, thanks!

If your goal is simply to pass the CPA, then all you need is a review course. If that is your only goal, why spend the money on an MBA, you can fill the requirements with all undergrad courses if need be.

I'm more confused than you are at this point. You seemed to want to argue that Keller is a great MBA program, and a good investment. That was where you found resistance. Now it seems you are trying to argue that a student from HBS and a student from KGSM are equally prepared for the CPA exam. The fact is that an MBA from anywhere isn't great preparation for the exam, a review course is. Secondly, it depends on the student. You get out of a degree exactly what you put into it in terms of knowledge. Harvard is a much better education but I'm sure you could show me someone from Keller who is more prepared than someone from Harvard but its a rare case.

So the question you posed is how are KGSM and HBS different if the book is the same and the homework problems are the same. The answer is simple. The instruction and learning environment. Harvard professors engaging a highly intelligent student body to engage in group related work (in the same room) is something that cant be duplicated. In all seriousness, if you really think a Keller student gets the same education as a Harvard student you need to examine the variables again.

That being said, neither MBA is great prep. A review course is... If you took two students who took a review course and passed all four parts of the CPA exam they are both prepared for public accounting. They are prepared because they passed the CPA, not because of any MBA degree. So if one of these students went to HBS and the other to KGSM the only difference would be that one's resume would open doors and the others wouldn't.