Elite faculty, students, alumni account for Top 25 ranking

For a barometer on a college or university's performance, don't forget employers. 

Allen Blay certainly doesn't.

"The employers who hire our students consider FSU one of their favorite places to recruit because our students outperform when they get into the field," says Blay, the EY Professor and chair of the Department of Accounting. "Our students outperform our competitor universities, because they're well trained, and they've got a fire lit under them."

When it comes to national status, the Florida State University College of Business continues to flaunt its flame, and that includes the Department of Accounting. 

The undergraduate accounting program stands at No. 24 among public schools in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, joining virtually every college program in the Top 25. That includes two in the Top 10: the No. 1 ranked Dr. William T. Hold/The National Alliance Program in Risk Management and Insurance and the No. 5 real estate program.

Blay and accounting colleagues attribute their program and department's success to familiar themes, including eager employers, engaged alumni, beneficial events, supportive administrators and world-renowned faculty members who boast professional experience as accountants and auditors and offer real-world examples and advice.

The faculty's reputation received a further boost recently when Brigham Young University released its prestigious 2021 Accounting Research Rankings. In the overall measure, the college's accounting department jumped to No. 21 among public universities and to No. 37 among worldwide universities, up from No. 36 and No. 60 last year. 

The results include six faculty members who rank in the Top 100 globally in their respective research areas. 

"We've been very lucky to hire what I think is the best faculty in the country," Blay says. "We care deeply about our research, as our rankings show, but we also care about our teaching. A huge percentage of our faculty members have been nominated or won university teaching awards, and I think it's because all of us care about our teaching and spend a lot of time thinking about the best way to prepare our students for rewarding careers in the field that means so much to us."

Says Dean Michael Hartline: "We're proud of our accounting program, especially for the elite students it attracts and the globally respected faculty that keeps our college climbing the rankings toward preeminence. We thank Chair Allen Blay and Chair Rick Morton before him for their commitment to give our students the education and training they expect and deserve."

Hartline appointed Blay department chair in August after the promotion of Morton to associate dean for academic operations and the Wells Fargo Professor of Business Administration. 

Blay eagerly accepted the appointment, he says, largely because of Morton's work to establish a spirit of collegiality and excellence.

"I knew that I was stepping into a place that was working really well," Blay says.

That includes Holly Sudano, assistant department chair and senior lecturer, whom Blay salutes for, among other expertise, her role in keeping alumni engaged and in establishing and building relationships with the companies that keep calling on the accounting department for new employees.

Sudano also directs the Master of Accounting, or MAcc, program and the Combined Pathway in accounting that gives undergraduate students a head start on a graduate degree.

She and Blay note the importance of the department's Professional Advisory Board, which Sudano says "allows us to work with alumni to ensure our program is continually evaluating the needs of the profession and making changes as appropriate."

She also trumpets networking events, such as student organization Beta Alpha Psi's Meet the Firms, and alumni who are "always willing to speak to current students, whether through recruiting events, classroom presentations or mentoring opportunities." In a Meet the Firms event in September, students networked with more than 20 employers prior to the campus-wide Seminole Futures Career and Internship Fair.

Alumnus Will Amouzou, who earned accounting and finance degrees in 2020 and a MAcc in 2021, credits FSU for his job as a Tampa-based audit associate at PwC. He learned about the opportunity though his Introduction to Financial Accounting course and Beta Alpha Psi, and he established relationships that led to two internships and a job offer from PwC, he says.

"The rigor and comprehensiveness of my undergraduate and graduate accounting courses have prepared me well for the intensity of 'busy season' as an auditor," says Amouzou, who benefited from the combined pathway option. "I continually use the time-management skills that I honed while in the program."

Faculty members and department leaders hail stories and experiences such as Amouzou's as motivation to stay the course.

"It is fulfilling to see all their hard work pay off," Sudano says. "We get to follow students on their journey as they go through the recruiting process, land a job with an employer they are excited about and prepare and sit for the CPA exam while juggling classes and building lasting friendships. To be able to be a small part of that or to even just watch from the sidelines is amazing."

That goes to the individual attention and spirit of community and cooperation for which FSU is known and respected. 

"I love it here," says Blay, who earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Florida. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, and a lot of that has to do with the nature of FSU. We are different."

-- Pete Reinwald