Accelerated 3-Year Accounting Degree

Students will learn the fundamental principles of financial transaction recording and how they impact financial statements; the relationship among the financial statements; and how to use accounting information in the managerial decision-making process. By applying these principles in real-world contexts, students will gain insight into how accounting information influences organization management in the decision making process.

Students will discover and develop the entrepreneurial mindset that is critical to succeed in today’s dynamic business environment so that they will be able to imagine, create, identify, assess, and act on business opportunities in a variety of contexts and organizations. Through real-world examples and hand-ons activities, students will embrace an entrepreneurial and strength-based mindsets that will facilitate their understanding of the major functions of business and the relationships between them, as well as the importance of self-inquiry and teamwork.

Teaches a statistical approach to decision making under uncertainty. Topics are descriptive statistics, probability distributions, inferential statistics, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, linear regression and correlation.

Why go to college? What does it mean to be educated? In this course you’ll begin to answer these questions. We’ll explore the academic expectations of higher education, college as a diverse community, and the significance of education around the world. By examining how these issues are negotiated and implemented at Champlain and elsewhere, you’ll gain perspective on your own education and a deeper understanding of the ways that the college experience can be both liberating and transformative.

Inquiry is about learning how to ask the right kinds of questions, and figuring out how to answer those questions through discussion and reflection. This course introduces you to the types of inquiry necessary to succeed at Champlain and beyond. You will explore the intersections of reading, writing, and thinking by focusing on a specific topic or theme. You will approach that focus through the interrogation of relevant texts and analysis that draws upon multiple analytical frameworks. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Accounting is the language of business. This course introduces the student to accounting from the point of view of the user of financial reports and is appropriate for personal as well as business applications. Students explore the impact of transactions on the financial position and profitability of a business, and analyze financial reports of real-world corporations.

Business decisions begin with a fundamental understanding of the marketplace. From target market to competition,globalization to industry analysis, businesses must evaluate the marketing, organizational management, and international implications of decision-making. Students explore the behavioral and business decision-making process for marketing and management as they are introduced to these strategic processes critical to business success. Students will learn how to build and function within successful teams as they engage with Vermont-based businesses to analyze and recommend solutions to real-world business challenges and opportunities.

This is a first course in corporate finance. The course is designed to introduce students to the concepts and techniques necessary to analyze and implement optimal investment decisions. The course covers the effect of time and uncertainty on decision making. Topics include discounting techniques and applications, stock and bond valuation, diversification and portfolio choice, and capital budgeting.

What makes an argument good or bad? What counts as evidence in our post-truth world? How can you understand and assess the truth value of a claim when you’re not an expert? In this course you’ll learn rhetorical strategies about how to examine arguments and types of evidence in different disciplines and fields of study. To help learn these strategies, you will do close readings of texts from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, popular culture, and social media.

This course introduces you to interdisciplinary inquiry using applied, project-based, and/or experiential methods. Regardless of the specific course focus, you’ll have opportunities for making and doing interdisciplinary knowledge creation through a variety of approaches and activities. You will collaborate with other students, iterate on ideas, and work to develop a project. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Cost accounting presents the behavioral aspects of accounting and identifies essential data that managers use for planning and controlling, costing products and services, and performance measurement. Students study the basic concepts, uses, and procedures related to types of costs and costing systems and uses this information to solve business problems. They will develop quantitative and qualitative analytical skills to analyze and interpret raw data that support the business decision-making process and inventory costing.

Provides an overview of the entire legal system, with an emphasis on contract rights. Discusses the essential elements of a contract, the breach of contracts and the remedies for breach. Presents business and consumer laws, including white-collar crime, landlord-tenant rights, real property interests and administrative law.

Science holds an elevated place in society. The knowledge and meaning that science makes are seen as having a particular and special value. This course explores knowledge and meaning making in order to allow a thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, science as a way of knowing, and then engages with the methods and theories of the sciences themselves, to understand the analytical, creative, and generative possibilities of science.

While each section of COR 202 addresses a different problem, issue, or topic, they all focus on interdisciplinary research. You will collect, analyze, and assess information from different disciplines in order to recognize patterns, contextualize arguments and synthesize ideas while collaborating on a project. Emphasis will be placed on helping you translate and apply what you learn about interdisciplinary research to other professional contexts. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

This course is the first in a two-part sequence of courses focusing on financial reporting. In this course, students will develop an understanding of the theory, concepts, principles, and practices underlying the preparation of external financial reports. This course begins this process by considering broad issues like the environment of financial reporting, the role of financial reporting, the users of financial reports, and the accounting standard-setting process. The focus of this course will examine more intensively the application of generally accepted accounting principles for financial reporting and disclosure of current and noncurrent assets and principles for revenue recognition on the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Statement of Retained Earnings.

This course explores how business can be a force for positive change in the world. Students examine how CSR is more than simply being ‘less bad’, but rather how being ‘good’ involves creating sustainable value both within a company and beyond. Through theoretical and hands-on exploration with CSR-minded companies, students learn how to balance the needs of a wide array of stakeholders, from shareholders to customers, local communities, and even the natural environment to change the world through business.

This course covers the basic microeconomic theories within a business context as they apply to markets, analysis of cost, producer and consumer behaviors, industrial organization, strategic thinking, and pricing strategies. These economic concepts will be continually applied to current events, policy issues, and business situations.

Culture impacts everything we do, experience, and learn, but what is culture? Where does it come from, how does it form, and why does it have such a wide and deep impact on people’s lives? This course explores culture as a system of meaning and meaning-making in order to allow for a more thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, cultural texts and media using different methodological approaches.

In this course, you will go in depth about a theoretical perspective that asks you to interrogate systems of power and power relationships. You will learn about the history of that perspective, including how it too was shaped by multiple contexts and compares with other viewpoints. You will use that perspective to analyze a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Building on the knowledge and skills gained in Intermediate Accounting I, students will examine more intensively the application of generally accepted accounting principles for financial reporting and disclosure of current and noncurrent liabilities and stockholders’ equity. Students will gain skills related to the advanced measurement, recognition and reporting of these select topics in financial accounting as well as the Statement of Cash Flows.

Where we are shapes how we understand ourselves and each other. In this course, we will dig into the relationship between place and identity. We will learn how to think spatially, recognizing how one’s identity is situated within and constructed through movement through different spaces–be they natural and built environments, rural and urban, or actual and virtual. COR 301 will help us understand the complex meanings of identity in a world defined by movement and change.

Field methods are a collection of practices used in the sciences, arts, and humanities to understand phenomena in situ or as it is happening in a specific time and place. In this course, we will apply one or more field methods to research a topic, theme, or question that varies by section. We will learn practices associated with research in the field including but not limited to participant observation, data collection, and experimentation in order to navigate an uncontrolled environment. We will also examine the power dynamics between the researcher, informant, and subject matter to help us understand how, if not practiced ethically, field methods can create or reinforce biases rather than helping us learn with and make sense of the world around us. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-three

This course acquaints students with the fundamentals of the accounting information system and how it functions and fits into the organization. Using a cycles approach, the course introduces internal control procedures, covers the basic elements of the revenue and expense cycles, and enables students to become proficient with documentation techniques, such as flowcharting. The course focuses on the needs and responsibilities of accountants as users and developers of information technology, and as auditors. Students will explore the capabilities of different types of accounting software by using computerized accounting software, as well as undertaking a software research project.

As an intern, students will secure on-the-job opportunities to develop knowledge, skills, and experience directly related to their prior coursework bridging the gap between academic success and real-world experience. Student interns will engage in reflective learning techniques including weekly reports, presentations and discussions of experiences and challenges faced in the course of their internship. Eighty internship hours will be required for this course.

The study of selected advanced topics in financial accounting, including accounting for income taxes, post-employment benefits, earnings per share, accounting changes and errors, business combinations, consolidated financial statements, accounting for foreign currency transactions, and ethical issues in accounting.

In this course students will investigate a comprehensive set of personal and corporate tax concepts, structure, and planning strategies. Students will learn a broad-range of tax laws, concepts, and research approaches for different types of taxpayers, with emphasis given to the role of taxation in a business decision-making environment.

Students will be able to analyze country-specific socio-cultural, economic, and political forces and the myriad of opportunities and challenges they present to international businesses and organizations. Students will apply theories and strategies of international business and related macroeconomic principles to real-world issues and cases by conducting country risk assessments and developing foreign market entry strategies. Students will also be challenged to identifY their own sense of cultural identity through comparisons with differing country-level and individual cultural perspectives.

Students will discover how to answer vital business questions using data. Working at the intersection of the fields of Business Analytics and Data Analytics, students will apply data cleaning and data analytic techniques using professional tools and software to produce the kind of visual, written and verbal information that helps decision makers evaluate and optimize business operations.

By learning from the past, we can make sense of the present and prepare for the future. In this course, we will learn how the 21st century has been and continues to be shaped by past social practices, ethical frameworks, power relations, and discourses. COR 303 is a course about how we know what we know about the past, and the ways different narratives about the past shape the present. Making connections between past and present will help us better understand how to live and make decisions in a globalized world defined by constant change.

In this course, you will go in depth about a theoretical perspective that asks you to interrogate systems of power and power relationships. You will learn about the history of that perspective, including how it too was shaped by multiple contexts and compares with other viewpoints. You will use that perspective to analyze a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Students complete classroom instruction in tax law and 40 volunteeer hours of tax preparation for individuals. Upon becoming IRS-certified, students engage in field experience preparing tax returns for elderly and low-moderate income individuals through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

An introduction to auditing theory and practice as governed by generally accepted auditing standards and accounting principles. Topical coverage includes the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Code of Professional Conduct, auditors’ legal liability, planning an audit with emphasis on the study and evaluation of the internal control structure, audit evidence (what kind and how much), working papers, the various types of audit reports and a practical audit case. Class discussions delve into problems from recent CPA examinations, case problems and actual work experiences. (Spring only)

The college capstone is an opportunity for students to pursue a self-directed experience in their professional program that intentionally integrates their liberal learning in the Core curriculum with their program learning. In addition to the substantive professional-based hands-on project in this class, the capstone will include a professional ethics component and a self-evaluation/self-reflection component.