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How to Become a CPA Without an Accounting Degree

8/23/2026

You can become a CPA without an accounting degree. You cannot become a CPA without a degree. That distinction is the whole article in one line, and getting it wrong in either direction costs people years.

Every US jurisdiction requires a bachelor's degree for licensure. What most do not require is that the degree be in accounting. The model law that state boards draw from, the Uniform Accountancy Act published by NASBA and the AICPA, describes the education requirement as a bachelor's or higher degree from an acceptable college or university, with "the total educational program to include an accounting concentration, or equivalent as determined by Board rule." The degree title is not the test. The coursework on your transcripts is.

So a history graduate, an engineer, a former teacher or a finance major who never took intermediate accounting can qualify. They have to add the accounting and business coursework their board requires, then go through the same exam, experience and ethics steps as everyone else. This guide covers how to measure that gap, the cheapest reliable ways to close it, and how to sequence the rest of the path so the extra coursework does not add more time than it has to.

What "Without an Accounting Degree" Actually Means

There are three different situations hiding behind this search, and they lead to different plans.

You hold a bachelor's degree in something other than accounting. This is the common case and the one this guide is written for. Your degree satisfies the "bachelor's degree" part of the requirement. What you are missing is the accounting concentration, or its equivalent, and possibly some business coursework.

You hold a business degree with an accounting minor or a few accounting courses. You are much closer than you think. Many business majors already meet the business-course requirement and need only a handful of upper-level accounting courses. Get your transcript evaluated before you assume you need a second degree.

You do not hold a bachelor's degree at all. There is no CPA route that skips the degree. If this is you, the plan is to finish a bachelor's, ideally one that builds in the accounting coursework from the start. In the meantime, other credentials in the profession do not require a degree, which we cover near the end.

The Requirement You Are Measured Against

State boards set their own education rules, but most are built on the same model, so the shape is predictable.

A bachelor's degree from an acceptable, accredited institution. Boards care about accreditation. Credits from an institution the board does not recognize may not count at all.

A minimum number of accounting credit hours. NASBA's model rules have described this as introductory accounting plus a block of accounting coursework beyond the principles level, with 24 semester hours as the model figure. Coverage areas named in the model include financial accounting and reporting, auditing, taxation, managerial or cost accounting, accounting information systems and governmental and not-for-profit accounting. Your state may use a different number, require specific courses by name, or require that some hours be upper-division.

A minimum number of business credit hours. The model rule uses another 24 semester hours in business subjects other than accounting, drawn from areas like business law, economics, management, marketing, finance, statistics and information systems. Many non-accounting graduates already meet part of this, especially those with economics, finance or quantitative degrees.

Total hours for licensure. Traditionally 150 semester hours. A growing number of states now also license through a 120-hour pathway: a bachelor's degree with the accounting concentration plus two years of experience instead of one. The Ninth Edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act, released in July 2025, sets out three routes: a post-baccalaureate degree plus one year of experience, a bachelor's plus 30 additional semester hours plus one year, or a bachelor's alone plus two years. States are adopting the third route on their own schedules. Among recent adopters, Maryland's takes effect 1 October 2026, Alabama's 15 October 2026 and Colorado's 1 January 2027.

Notice what is common to all three routes: the accounting concentration. The 120-hour pathway reduces total hours. It does not waive the accounting coursework. For a career changer, that coursework is usually the real gap.

Step 1: Pick the State Before You Pick a Course

The single most expensive mistake career changers make is enrolling in courses before they know which board will evaluate them. Requirements differ on the number of accounting hours, which subjects are mandatory, whether community college credits count toward upper-level requirements, and whether online coursework is treated differently. A course that satisfies one board can be useless to another.

Choose the jurisdiction where you expect to live and work when you apply for the license. If that is uncertain, pick the state where you live now and keep the transcript evaluation for any second state you are considering. Our CPA licensure requirements overview and the accounting licensing FAQs explain the common requirements. Your board's own rules are the only authority on how your transcript will be read.

Step 2: Measure the Gap Precisely

Pull unofficial transcripts from every institution you attended, including community colleges and courses taken years ago. Then build a simple inventory:

  • Every accounting course, with credit hours and level (introductory, intermediate, advanced)
  • Every business course, sorted into the categories your board lists
  • Total semester hours (convert quarter hours: one quarter hour equals two-thirds of a semester hour)
  • Any graduate credit

Compare that against your board's published course list. Where a course title is ambiguous, for example "Financial Management" or "Quantitative Analysis", note it as uncertain rather than counting it.

Then get an authoritative answer. Many boards, or the evaluation services they use, will review transcripts before you apply. Some university accounting departments also advise prospective students on whether a plan will meet the board's rules. A written evaluation before you enroll is worth more than any advice in a forum thread, because it is the board's reading of your transcripts.

Candidates with degrees from outside the United States add one more step: a credential evaluation by a service the board accepts. NASBA's International Evaluation Services is used by many boards, and the board will tell you which evaluators it recognizes.

Step 3: Choose How to Close the Gap

Once you know the number of accounting and business hours you need, there are four common routes. They differ in cost, speed and how much of the 150-hour total they cover.

Route

What it is

Best for

Community college coursework

Introductory and some intermediate courses at low per-credit cost

Filling lower-level and business prerequisites cheaply, where the board accepts them

University post-baccalaureate certificate

A set of undergraduate accounting courses for degree holders

Career changers who need only the accounting concentration

Master of Accountancy for non-accounting majors

A graduate program with built-in foundation courses

Candidates who also need hours toward 150, or want a structured cohort

Individual courses from an accredited online institution

Course-by-course enrollment

Working adults filling a specific short list

 

Community college is the cheapest per credit, and introductory financial and managerial accounting are the usual starting point. The catch is level. If your board requires a set number of upper-division accounting hours, community college courses usually will not satisfy that part. Use them for prerequisites and business courses, then take intermediate and advanced accounting at a four-year institution.

Post-baccalaureate accounting certificates exist precisely for this audience. They package the courses most boards require, often in evenings or online. Check that the certificate's course list maps to your board's list, course by course.

A Master of Accountancy designed for non-accounting undergraduates is the most expensive option and the most complete. It typically includes foundation courses, then graduate accounting, and can carry you to 150 hours in one program. For someone who has a bachelor's with relatively few total credits, it can solve two problems at once. With the 120-hour pathway now available in many states, it is no longer the only way to reach licensure, so weigh the cost against simply adding a second year of experience.

Individual online courses work well for a short gap. Confirm that the institution is accredited in a way your board recognizes, and that the board treats online credits the same as classroom credits.

Whichever route you use, take the courses for credit on an official transcript. Noncredit training, however good, does not count toward the education requirement.

Step 4: Decide Between the 150-Hour and 120-Hour Routes

For career changers the pathway choice has real money attached.

On the 150-hour route, you need 30 or more hours beyond the bachelor's degree. If your degree carried few electives you could convert to the requirement, you may need a full year of additional coursework, and the accounting courses you add to close the concentration gap count toward that total.

On the 120-hour route, where your state offers it, your existing bachelor's plus the accounting and business courses you add may already be enough education. The trade is a second year of qualifying experience. For someone who is already working in an accounting or finance role, a second year of experience is often cheaper than a year of tuition.

Two cautions. First, the 120-hour route is not available everywhere, and in states mid-transition the rule that applies is generally the one in force when you file the license application, so confirm it with your board. Second, the route you license through can matter later if you move. The UAA's new model shifts mobility to an individual-based practice privilege, but each state adopts that on its own timeline. Our post on holding a CPA license in multiple states covers the mobility side.

Step 5: Find Out When You Can Sit

Many boards let you sit for the exam before you finish every hour required for licensure. Under the UAA's current model, a bachelor's degree with an accounting concentration is enough to sit. Some states still require more.

For a career changer, the practical question is whether you can sit once the accounting concentration is complete, or whether you must first reach some higher hour count. If your board lets you sit as soon as the required accounting and business courses are on your transcript, you can start the exam while you finish any extra hours or accumulate experience. That overlap is the biggest time saver available to you. Our post on how long it takes to become a CPA walks through the sequencing in more detail, and how to register for the CPA exam covers the application itself.

Step 6: Prepare for an Exam Written for Accounting Majors

The Uniform CPA Examination does not adjust for your background. Under the current CPA Evolution model, every candidate passes three Core sections, Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) and Taxation and Regulation (REG), plus one Discipline section of their choice: Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR), Information Systems and Controls (ISC) or Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP). Each section is four hours.

Career changers often have two advantages and one disadvantage.

The advantages. Your accounting coursework is recent, so the technical material is fresh in a way it may not be for someone who graduated years ago. And people who came from engineering, IT, analytics or law often find specific sections easier: ISC for technology backgrounds, REG and TCP for people with legal training, BAR for finance and analytics backgrounds.

The disadvantage. You have had fewer semesters of practice with the volume of financial reporting content FAR covers. An accounting major has typically taken two or three intermediate courses plus advanced accounting. A post-baccalaureate certificate may compress that. Budget extra time for FAR, and consider whether to take it first while coursework is fresh or later once you have built exam technique on a narrower section. Our post on which CPA exam section to take first lays out both arguments.

A full-set review course makes sense for most career changers because it gives you a single, consistent structure across all four sections rather than four separate approaches. The CPA Exam Prep All Parts Bundle covers the full exam. If you would rather buy section by section as you go, the individual courses for FAR, AUD and REG are available on their own, along with the Discipline sections.

Step 7: Line Up Qualifying Experience Early

Experience is where career changers can actually be ahead. Under the UAA model, qualifying experience can come from public accounting, industry, government or academia, and must involve accounting, attest, compilation, advisory, tax or consulting skills. It must be verified by a licensed CPA, although under the model it may be supervised by someone who is not one. States vary on all of these points, and some require more public accounting or attest experience than others.

If you are already working in finance, operations or analysis, look at whether your role, or a move within your employer, could become qualifying experience. The key questions are whether your duties involve accounting skills your board recognizes, and whether a licensed CPA can verify them. A staff accountant role in industry is the most common bridge for career changers, and it often starts while the coursework is still in progress.

Step 8: Ethics, Then the Application

After the exam and experience come the remaining items: in many states, an ethics exam or a state-specific ethics course, then the license application. These are small steps that candidates forget about until the end. Our post on what to do after passing the CPA exam covers this stage.

A Realistic Sample Path

Here is how the pieces fit for a typical career changer: a bachelor's in a non-business field, working full time, in a state with a 120-hour pathway.

  1. Transcript evaluation confirms a need for roughly the full accounting concentration and some business courses.
  2. Business prerequisites and introductory accounting at a community college, two terms, part time.
  3. Intermediate, advanced, audit and tax courses through a university certificate, about a year, part time.
  4. A move into a staff accountant role during step 3, so experience begins to accrue.
  5. Exam sections start as soon as the board confirms eligibility, one section at a time.
  6. Ethics requirement and license application once the second year of experience is complete.

From the first course to licensure, three to five years is the common range for this profile. The variables are how many hours you need, how many you can carry while working, and whether experience runs in parallel with coursework and the exam.

Mistakes That Cost Career Changers the Most

  • Enrolling before the transcript evaluation. Courses that do not count cost both tuition and a term.
  • Assuming any accounting course counts. Introductory courses rarely satisfy upper-level hour requirements.
  • Paying for a master's program by default. In 120-hour states, a second year of experience may be the cheaper route.
  • Ignoring accreditation. Credits from an institution your board does not recognize may be worthless for licensure.
  • Delaying the exam until all education is done when the board would have let you sit earlier.
  • Choosing a job with no licensed CPA to verify experience. You can earn great experience and still have no one who can sign for it.

If You Do Not Have a Degree Yet

If you are not yet a graduate, the CPA path starts with a bachelor's. In the meantime, the Enrolled Agent credential is awarded by passing the IRS Special Enrollment Examination and has no degree requirement; see our comparison of the Enrolled Agent and CPA credentials. Bookkeeping and payroll certifications are another way into the field. Our guide to becoming an accountant and the accounting certifications page cover those options.

Start Your Exam Preparation

Once your coursework plan is confirmed and you know when your board will let you sit, the exam becomes the next long stretch. The CPA Exam Prep All Parts Bundle covers the full exam in one purchase, and the CPA exam review courses page lists every section course if you prefer to buy one at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you become a CPA without an accounting degree?

Yes, as long as you hold a bachelor's degree. Most state boards require a bachelor's from an acceptable institution plus a minimum number of accounting and business credit hours, not a degree titled "accounting." The model law calls this an accounting concentration "or equivalent as determined by Board rule." A non-accounting graduate closes the gap by adding the required courses for credit, then passes the CPA exam and meets the experience and ethics requirements like any other candidate. What no state allows is licensure with no bachelor's degree at all.

How many accounting credits do I need if my degree is not in accounting?

It depends on your state board. NASBA's model rules have used a figure of 24 semester hours of accounting beyond the introductory level, plus introductory accounting, and 24 semester hours of business courses. Individual states set their own numbers, name required subjects such as auditing or taxation, and sometimes require a portion to be upper-division. The reliable way to know your gap is to compare your transcripts to your board's published course list and, where available, request a transcript evaluation before you enroll in anything.

Do I need a master's degree to become a CPA with a non-accounting bachelor's?

No. A master's is one way to reach 150 semester hours, not a requirement in itself. Many career changers close the gap with a post-baccalaureate certificate or individual courses. Where your state offers the 120-hour pathway, a bachelor's degree with the accounting concentration plus two years of qualifying experience can replace the extra 30 hours entirely. A Master of Accountancy built for non-accounting majors is still worth considering if you also need total hours or want a structured program, but weigh its cost against the alternatives.

Can community college classes count toward CPA requirements?

Often yes, especially for introductory accounting and general business courses, provided the college is accredited in a way your board recognizes. The limitation is level: if your board requires a certain number of upper-division accounting hours, community college courses usually cannot satisfy that portion. A common approach is to take prerequisites and business courses at a community college, then intermediate and advanced accounting, auditing and tax at a four-year institution. Confirm with your board before relying on any specific course.

How long does it take to become a CPA without an accounting degree?

Three to five years from the first course to licensure is a common range for a working career changer. The biggest factors are how many accounting and business hours you need, how many courses you can carry while working, whether your board lets you sit for the exam before finishing all education, and whether your experience accumulates during the coursework and exam rather than after. Moving into a staff accounting role early, so experience runs in parallel, is usually the biggest single time saver.

Is the CPA exam harder if you did not major in accounting?

The exam is the same for everyone, and passing depends more on preparation than on your major. Career changers often find FAR the heaviest lift because accounting majors have had more semesters of financial reporting coursework. On the other hand, people with technology, legal or finance backgrounds can have an edge on ISC, REG and TCP, or BAR. Plan extra study time for FAR and use a review course that covers all sections with one consistent approach.