Favorite first year class… Financial Accounting 1&2?

By: Jack Pelzer

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

At the end of last year, the resident statisticians at the Irish Echoes conducted an extensive survey of the Mendoza student body. Difficult questions were asked. Who is your favorite professor? What would you do differently if you could start over? Which bar is most likely to undercook mozzarella sticks? The results were, dare I say, eye opening. Perhaps most astounding was that a plurality of students selected Financial Accounting as their favorite class.

Yes. Accounting. The course in which one presumably learns how to wear a translucent, green visor and tell boring stories at cocktail parties. How on earth did this happen? Well, it turns out that our survey overlooked a significant lurking variable in the form of Professor Jeffrey Miller.

 Miller, who also took home ‘Favorite Professor’ honors, is equal parts accountant and philosopher. His class explores both the mechanics and the ‘why’ of accounting. Like a financial Jedi, Miller teaches students the ways in which ethical accounting can be used to provide valuable transparency, but also warns of the great social harm possible through fraudulent practice. For this reason, his first-year MBAs will study some of this past century’s most notorious corporate scandals and learn to identify the red flags. It is surprisingly interesting stuff, and by the end of the class, most students discover a new appreciation for the art of bean counting.

So, to all of you incoming CPAs out there, who will likely place out of Professor Miller’s class, I offer my sincere condolences. You are missing one hell of a class. The good news is that there are plenty of other amazing courses taught by some of the best and brightest in their respective fields. However, if you still feel like seeing Jeffrey Miller in his element, I hear that you can find him in the night clubs around South Bend playing a mean jazz guitar.

About Jack

Jack is the editor-in-chief of the MBA Irish Echoes.