The numbers add up for accounting majors

SAN DIEGO — The weather is balmy, the local beaches are inviting, and so, naturally, San Diego State students are thinking about . . . accounting.

Yes, accounting. It's become one of the hot courses on campus.

Enrollment is up, one of the accounting lecturers has twice been named professor of the year, and several dozen students spent their summer mornings in a class poring over a 3-inch-thick tome titled "Federal Taxation."

The class is Accounting 321: Integrative Accounting Topics, chockablock with discussions of interest, dividends, municipal bonds and the perils and joys of partnerships. Informally, it's known as accounting boot camp. There were no spare seats.

Part of the answer to accounting's new popularity may be the inherent romance of business. Then there's this fact: Even in a downish economy, accounting students are finding jobs -- jobs that just might be the first step toward running their own companies, or getting that corner office in an established business.

"People think it's boring, but it's not," said Chris Tartre, 19, of Poway. "It tells you how business actually works. When you deal with numbers, it's either right or it's wrong."

The boom in accounting at San Diego State is part of a national trend. Enrollment in accounting classes is up 19% since 2004, according to a survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The increase in interest has left some campuses unable to accommodate all comers. In fact, the survey found that 13% of campuses had to turn away students who wanted to study accounting because of a lack of adequate classroom space or teachers.

Among other factors leading to the rise, the institute notes, is the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, which requires businesses to make more stringent financial disclosures. Last year, 64,221 students graduated with bachelor's or master's degrees in accounting, the most since the institute began its annual survey in 1970.

Anyone who thinks that an accounting class has to be a notch below a trip to the dentist's office has not met lecturer Will Snyder. In Accounting 321, he radiates excitement for getting the debits and credits straight, for only paying the tax you really owe.

"I think it's important to share the passion," said Snyder, adding that the green eyeshade view of the accountant is old-fashioned.

"The beans still need counting, but counting is not enough. You have to be a global thinker, an economist, somebody with judgment and ethics," he said.