Hey,

Yeah Florida is so unclear about this. I am kind of in the same situation. I have a bachelor's in acg from FL, and want to take the exam prior to completing my MSA. I have gone ahead and applied to CAL to sit for the exam, but I'm not sure if FL will take my CA exam credits as I will not be elligible to sit for FL cpa exam at the time I do sit for the CA exam. When I called the FL board of accounting today to ask about this matter the only person who apparenlty knows the answer was gone. Only Florida, lol.... Anyone have a definite answer?

Mike

I'm in Florida. As long as you have a bachelor's degree(24 hours in accounting) with a major in accounting, you are eligible to sit. But, you won't get your license until you have 1 year work experience and 150 credit hours with 36 being in upper division accounting.

Yes, but I have a bachelor's degree in accounting with only 21 hours in upper level accounting (and I dont have the required 6 hours of law). So having a bachelors in accounting does not definently qualify one as elligible to sit for the exam.

Be careful about this one, if you don't qualify to get licensed in the state where you take the exam.  Generally it is best to qualify and get licensed where you are living instead of taking short-cuts.  Otherwise you have the risk that your license, your exam credits, or both will be rejected by your home state.

Texas, for one, will not accept completed exam sections unless you already met Texas requirements to take the exam in your "other" state.  Texas also has some of the toughest pre-exam qualifications in the country.  Transferring in exam credits is almost impossible.  Transferring in a license, however, is fairly easy.

Louisiana demands you meet detailed qualifications in course work before taking the exam.  Afterwards, getting the work requirement completed is much easier.  Your work must be signed off by any active CPA, but they have no requirement that it be a Louisiana CPA.

Pennsylvania, on the other hand, will let anyone who has a 4-year accounting degree from a Pennsylvania institution sit for the exam, whether or not they live in the state.  Getting an actual Pennsylvania license is a different matter; your supervised work must be done under a licensed Pennsylvania CPA.  That almost demands you live in state.