Hi there. Take all what I'm about to say with a grain of salt...I have an Econ degree, and am currently working as an accountant for a law firm, and studying for the CPA exams to be taken this year. I found that the Econ degree was versatile, and while you won't be working for a CPA firm straight out of college, you can find accounting jobs (like bookkeeping, a/r, a/p) without the BA in accounting. The Econ degree certainly doesn't pigeonhole you into any jobs, but I will admit, if your aim is to be working in accounting, the degree is helpful.

I didn't know that I wanted to be an accountant straight out of college. I only gained that perspective after working in the field for many years, and realized that I ultimately wanted to be a controller or accounting manager someday (hopefully for an industry I feel passionate about). For me, I cannot advance any further in my career without the CPA...it simply opens many more doors than it closes. In my opinion, I would value the CPA over the Masters in accounting. You can pass the CPA exam without the Masters, and the CPA is much more marketable.

Have you thought about staying an extra five to six quarters in school, and double major? However, you wouldn't necessarily need the BA in accounting to sit for the exams though. I got my employer to pay for my accounting classes while I worked, and took one at a time online (10 classes in all) until I was qualified. You could go from not having taken any accounting courses to qualifying for the exam in about 5-6 quarters if you were going to school full time...and you could be done with the CPA exams in anywhere from 3 - 18 months after that.

Where would you like to be working in 5-10 years? Would you want to head an accounting division at a company? Or would you want to work for a public accounting firm doing audits and/or taxes for businesses?