Admission Requirements

Follow your passion for forensic accounting

The forensic accounting certificate program at Missouri State offers you a unique opportunity to specialize in this growing discipline of accounting. The School of Accountancy offers you two options for pursuing this certification—as a stand-alone program or as an addition to your graduate program of study.

Apply to the forensic accounting certificate program through a central application: GradCAS. Also, you must meet the minimum admission requirements for the Master of Accountancy:

Certificate in Forensic Accounting

Kimberly Church, Graduate Program Director
Glass Hall, Room 439, Phone: 417-836-5414
Kimberlychurch@missouristate.edu
MissouriState.edu/SOA

Program description

The Forensic Accounting Certificate program provides a 9 hour graduate-level experience in the forensic accounting field. The program involves in depth study of forensic accounting and information technology topics, including fraud examination, litigation support, financial expert witnessing, business valuation, investigative data mining and others. Contact the Director of the School of Accountancy or the MAcc Program Director for additional information.

Entrance criteria

Candidates for the certificate program must be admitted to the University as a graduate student. The candidate should have a bachelor’s degree in accounting and meet minimum admission criteria for the Master of Accountancy program. All course work must be approved by the MAcc Program Director.

Required courses (9 hrs)

Course Code Course Title Credit Hours
ACC 754 Forensic Accounting: Litigation Support and Expert Witnessing 3 hrs
     
  Select two of the following:  
ACC 741 Advanced Accounting and Management Information Systems 3 hrs
ACC 750 Advanced Auditing 3 hrs
ACC 752 Fraud Examination 3 hrs
ACC 751 Computer Forensics and IT Auditing 3 hrs
ACC 790 Current Topics in Corporate and International Accounting 3 hrs
ACC 794 Internship (Forensic Accounting related) 3 hrs
ACC 796 Independent Study (Forensic Accounting related) 3 hrs

GPA requirement

A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required to earn this certificate.

Pursuing certification only

If you are a new student pursuing only the forensic accounting certificate, follow the steps below to be successfully admitted into the program:

  1. Apply through a central application: GradCAS. An application fee is required. 
  2. Gain admittance to the Graduate College.
  3. Meet with the graduate program director to complete a plan of study to submit to the Graduate College.

Adding the certificate program

If you are a current graduate student who wishes to add the forensic accounting certificate, follow the steps below to successfully add the certificate:

  1. Apply through a central application: GradCAS. No additional application fee is required.
  2. Meet with the graduate program director to complete a plan of study to submit to the Graduate College.

Please note that any alterations to the approved plan of study must be noted on a request for certificate plan of study change form and submitted to the Graduate College.