MBT worthwhile for a CPA who is an international? (degrees, cost, school)

[hsdo95]

I'm a CPA, a Korean national female, focusing on taxation in LA.

I spent considerable amount of money and energy to reach at this level. While coping with a lot of professional barriers, I found that the issue might be my educational background that took place in Korea only (not 100% sure).

Here is my brief bio.:
- Licensed CPA in CA: passed the exam like anyone else.
- Have 2-yr public accounting practice experience in LA & 3-yr investment banking industry exp. in Korea.
- Hold a BA in business from a Korean Univ. and completed master-equivalent accredited accounting courses in Korea.

So I'm thinking of pursuing a MBT for my career. If I save money as much as possible, I can afford to the tuition for MBT in USC...but it might take appro. 3 years in my case; most loans are not available for aliens.

I'm trying to figure out how cost-effective it would be. If you met a foreigner with a CPA designation yet only foreign education background, what would you feel? Do you think you could professionally trust her in an initial setting?

I'm desparate for any opinion from you.

Thank you.

[123123]

Hi,

I am also a Korean and CPA, who has BS and Master from U.S. University. I have more than 10 years of public accounting experience with some years at Big 4. First, I can kind of understand where you are coming from, but I am not sure if you would like to go back to school just to get a MBT for the resume purpose, unless you really like to study for it.

It will be helpful, but with the years of public tax practice that you will lose in addition to the school tuitions, I would like to suggest you to consider what you like to become in the next ten years more seriously since it can help you to determine what you should do next.

Surely, your degrees from Korea is not going to help you much to get more recognizable accounting positions, like big 4 or public companies, at the beginning. However, I believe you can overcome this with years of U.S. tax practice under the reputable U.S. CPA firms.

So, if you are working for a small Korean CPA office, I would like to suggest you to try to find a good regional or local U.S. CPA firm over the next years. This will expand your credentials for the future career and might be more beneficial to you than going back to school for your resume. If you want to be a CPA focusing on local Korean Americans' tax returns, I suppose you don't have to worry about your background.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you a good luck in your career.