Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm going to give a couple minutes for our students in and everybody to join us today, but we'll be starting here in just about 2 to 3 minutes. Thank you.
Aaron Boettcher
12:00:53 PM
Hi everyone. We are glad to have you with UIS today. We will be starting in about 2 minutes.
Matilda Kotei
12:00:54 PM
Hi AAron
Timothy Ajibola
12:01:09 PM
Good day Mr. Aaron
Aaron Boettcher
12:01:10 PM
Hi @Matilda, thanks for joining today!
Aaron Boettcher
12:01:27 PM
Hello @Timothy. Great to have you with us!
Matilda Kotei
12:01:42 PM
Thanks Aaaron. Good to see you again.
Well, thank you everybody for joining today. We're going to wait one more minute. I know we had a few people sign up and and I know sometimes logging in and connectivity issues from all over the world can take just a minute or two. So we're just gonna wait here just a minute and get started here really shortly.
Franklin Baidoo
12:03:00 PM
Good day @Mr. Boettcher
Aaron Boettcher
12:03:23 PM
Hi @Franklin. Thanks for coming. I hope you get some great information.
Welcome, everybody. My name is Aaron Betcher, and I'm part of the admissions team here at the University of Illinois Springfield. Before we get into the presentation today, I've got a couple of housekeeping things to go over so that you are all aware this webinar is being recorded, so there's no need for frantic notes. We will make this available for viewing afterwards. Within your share screen, you'll see that there's a closed captioning option. It's in the bar at the top right.
Corner the little CC button. Right next to it is the option to make the video full screen if you would like that as well. If for any reason you ever need to resync your audio or video, just refresh your browser and this should clear things up. Questions? We'd love to hear those from you in the chat. Feel free to post throughout. We will be looking at questions at the end of the session so we will put those on pause.
Until later and then we'll go through those. I know that there's a a lot of people on today, which is wonderful. We are happy to have you. And with that, I'm going to first introduce myself, Aaron Betcher as one of the admissions counselors and we might be having Aaron Hartnett from the accountancy program joining us today and.
But we're going to have a lot of fun. We're gonna talk about the accountancy program, things that that you really need to know. And also please, please, please. Like I said in that opening, use the chat, ask your individual questions and and we'll definitely make sure that you're getting everything you need. Aaron, if you are here, please put something in the participant or in the chat. I didn't see you right away, so if you're here, just just put a quick high.
In the chat and I'll turn it over to you, but.
Accountancy in the Masters program at the University of Illinois at Springfield is really designed to enhance communication and critical thinking skills. We understand that most students looking to go into accountancy are looking at possibly sitting for CPA exam or go into some important roles in the public, private or governmental sectors and so with our graduate program.
Accountancy we really spend a lot of time developing you in both the communication and critical thinking skills, as well as what you're going to need to know to be prepared for the CPA and some of the roles that businesses, governmental organizations and others in the tax industry are really looking for when somebody has a masters in accountancy as a part of the program.
Aaron Boettcher
12:07:26 PM
https://www.uis.edu/aef/accounting-ma
One question we get a lot, and so I just want to start off with this, is how can I get funding for anything dealing with Graduate School? I think that's a really important part. And so in the chat right now I'm putting a link and I know many of you might click on it and start checking this out, but this is our accountancy page. As you Scroll down on this page, it will list two different types of funding our graduate.
Public Service internship program and our graduate assistantship program.
Both of these programs will cover the cost of tuition for a student while they attend Illinois Springfield for their Masters degree. This is the best source of funding when it comes to getting your graduate degree paid for.
Both of these are a little bit different. The GPSI or what? That's what we call. But what it's known as is a graduate public service internship program.
You will work for a governmental agency.
And since we are in the state capital of Illinois, there's about 80 to 100 different job opportunities for all of our graduate students in in that program. And so you work for a governmental agency, you get grad school paid for, you're able to build your resume, you're able to get some professional development funding, and it allows you to work a job off campus while you're a student.
The GA position or otherwise known as Graduate Assistantship, is an opportunity for you to work for an an office, a department, or someplace on campus at Illinois Springfield while you obtain your Masters degree, again providing you tuition assistance, basically covering that tuition for you and also giving you in both cases a monthly stipend so that you're able to have spending money or living money.
While you are going through the university, so I hope you have a chance to to go to our county page and really take a look at those professional internships and assistantships. And there is a link to our graduate interns program page on our accountancy.
In addition to that, and something that I think is is a really strong selling point when it comes to accounting and accountancy at the University of Illinois, Springfield. There's the fact that the city of Springfield has every type of job when it comes to accountancy in town.
First, because we are in the state capital.
Matilda Kotei
12:10:26 PM
Is the GPSI considered as CPT?
All the tax law in the state of Illinois is being made in Springfield. And so many times big CPA firms or other tax firms who have offices or departments in Springfield to start to learn about what some of these changes might be. So this gives you a great way to network and to work with some of these top opportunities.
Timothy Ajibola
12:10:39 PM
I have started my application Fall 2023 but got stuck at Application fee waive code. Do we get code here? If not, how do I go about it?
In addition to that, we also have the governmental sector.
And what that allows you to do is work as a state auditor.
Many times these auditors, they're looking for students with accounting backgrounds to go through different organizations, different departments, different things that are state-run and make sure that the money is being used the right way, making sure that everything balances. And so that is a major source of employment for many people in the Springfield area with an accountancy background. Many like it too, because they're getting governmental benefits.
Along with a very nice salary.
Finally, there are some jobs that most people don't think about when they think of accounting, and one of those is working for an organization like the FBI. The FBI does have an office in town, and that's our Federal Bureau of investigations. That's more in criminology than accounting in, and most people are surprised to find out that the FBI hires more accounting graduates than any other major because most of their work is tracking money, is trying to figure out who is connected.
And having that background in accountancy can be really powerful. The FBI is actually one of the 20 employers every year that comes out to our specific accounting grad, accounting, job fair for our graduates from accounting. So I I want you to know that our accounting program really puts the effort in to helping you find a job as a graduate.
They are going to work with you to not only get you those classes and that instruction in the classroom, but they also do so many things to try to connect you with that next step and.
As a student, I really think that's all you can ask for when you have professors, when you have a department that cares, that is, that's working to connect with employers, that are working to find out what employers are looking for, so that when our graduates get into the real world, they're ready to be successful.
They're ready to take that knowledge that they've learned from their undergrad. Sometimes some of our graduate students have also got some work experience 1st and finding that next step up, whether that's with your current employer or maybe you're looking to switch gears a little bit in this amazing field.
Another big strength for the University of Illinois Springfield when it comes to accountancy when it comes to finding employment once you're done is Springfield's kind of located within a few major urban and metropolitan areas in the Midwest.
The City of Chicago is about 3 to 3 1/2 hours N it is a major hub for accounting with many of the top firms anywhere in the world with offices and with headquarters. And so because that's the the largest city in the state of Illinois, we have a strong connection with many of those different firms and organizations in the City of Chicago.
We're also just 90 miles north or about an hour and 10 minutes north of Saint Louis, another major metropolitan area in the Midwest. And so that's another strong Ave for our students to find employment.
Where and then we're about 3 1/2 hours away from Indianapolis, the third major city in the Midwest. And so with those three cities kind of forming a triangle around our university, along with really large cities of Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, Urbana, Springfield and some others here in the state of Illinois, if you are looking to stay local once you graduate, we have some.
Amazing opportunities to open those up for you.
I'm starting to see questions come in. Don't worry, we're going to get to those. So please, please, please continue your questions. The other thing that I do want to let you know.
Is that the one thing you will see with our faculty and with our staff is that they really get to know students?
I've been, uh, you know, privileged to get a chance to to meet many of our accounting professors at my time here at Illinois Springfield. And the one thing that I love is they want to be more than just your professor. They want to be a resource for you. They want to be somebody that you can come to with questions, with things like, hey, this is sort of the career that I'm looking to take this knowledge into. What are the right electives? What are the right courses within this program that are going to help me?
How can I do little things as a student?
With homework, with with different opportunities with projects to increase that knowledge and they're going to work with.
They're they're gonna get to know who you are, but not just your name, your interests, where you want to go, your style and and how you think. And I think that's a huge strength for our students to really be able to set them apart.
As an applicant for these jobs, because many of our professors work very closely with large organizations with employers.
And they're talking to them about who do we need to look at? Do you have any students right now at Illinois Springfield that would make sense for us? And when they can go into detail about who you are, about some of the projects you've done, some of the papers you've written, that can really give you a leg up on finding that dream career when you get out. And so it's something that I think the accountancy program does really well. Now, real quick, I want to go through a little bit of the application process.
As I know we have students from really all over the world.
As an international student, because right now, from what I'm seeing as a part of this presentation, almost everybody on here right now is an international student. If you're not an international student, please put it really quick in the chat. So I make sure that that I touch on that for you, but international students with your application.
We have just made a huge change.
You can do a Macy's transcript evaluation and if you're not aware of that, I'll post some links here in the chat here in just a minute as we start going through questions or we are now starting to do transcript evaluations in-house, so there is an application fee for international students when they apply.
But we can save you a lot of money in terms of evaluating your foreign credentials. You will need to have those foreign credentials sent directly from your school to the university. We are not able to accept anything that comes to you first. It's got to come from your former institutions of higher learning, from college directly to Illinois Springfield, if you attended multiple universities, not high schools, multiple universities.
We will need official documents from a mark sheets from both of those institutions. We do have a page when you go to our international application page that will lay out exactly what we need from specifically countries that we get a lot of international students from. So I want you to be aware of that. That is why we have an application fee and that's why we're not able to waive it. I did see that that question come in the chat. We are not able to waive our international application.
The four students, or any students looking at A at a Masters degree at Illinois Springfield.
Now, um, GSI is really more considered AG a position or or more of a graduate assistantship type position not necessarily some of the questions that that we've got now.
Aaron Boettcher
12:19:17 PM
aboet1@uis.edu
If you want you can always e-mail me and I'm going to put my e-mail in the chat right now so that you have it. You can reach out to me. My first name again is Aaron and I can get you more information if you've got questions on on CPT's and and different things like that. But you know really what you're looking for is this is going to be more of a.
It's it's it's an internship, but it's really more of a way of of paying for college, not not in some of the ways that you see an internship as.
As a graduate student, regardless of your international or a domestic, you went to a United States University. We will need mark sheets or transcripts from every single institution you have attended. I know sometimes we'll have students that got their bachelors degree at one school, but maybe attended two or three other universities. As a student, we will need that information as well. We need every single transcript from every school you've attended.
Once those things arrive to University of Illinois Springfield, your application application fee and your former transcripts, we will start the evaluation and decision process. The decision is made by the accountancy program, not by the Admissions Office, but we work with our processing team to go through and evaluate the transcripts to stay in contact you while this process is going on.
Nolan Trinh
12:20:49 PM
what credentials are required for application?
If you are looking to come to the United States for an upcoming semester, we do not have a deadline. But the sooner you apply, the sooner you get things in, the better chance you have to be able to get your student visa. For a domestic student or a U.S. citizen, that process isn't as important. But for some of the students here on this webinar, that process can take months and it really depends on what country you live in.
And so please work to get everything to US as soon and as quickly as possible to give yourself enough time to start the semester you want.
Timothy Ajibola
12:21:25 PM
I asked about application fee waiver cos of the notification of graduate week i got on my Tweeter - I goes thus - Thinking about earning a master's degree? Attend UIS' virtual Graduate School Week Sept. 26-30 to learn about our programs. Those who attend can apply for free with no GMAT/GRE scores required. #UISedu
I'm looking on the chat to make sure that I'm getting all the the the questions.
So I'm reading all the different things.
OK, Yep. Uh, Timothy, um, definitely. If you want, you can send me just a quick e-mail with that on your on your last question. I know I put that in there and let me double check on things that way for you. You are right, we don't need a GMAT. We don't need a GRE when it comes to an accountancy masters program. But definitely let me check on that for you and I'll make sure that that you're getting everything you need on on that side. Does that sound good?
Finally, I just wanted to touch on a couple other things for you as a student at Illinois Springfield like I was, I actually got my masters in business administration.
Timothy Ajibola
12:22:53 PM
Alright sir. Thank you
I really felt that the university did a ton for me to help me not only just grow academically, but grow as a person. To be able to go into class with a professor in 15 to 20 students. I haven't had a class as small as four in my graduate degree. And to be able to to get to know professors for them to be able to to see my work and give individual feedback on what I'm doing, not just.
Kind of a a generic overview. That's something that that I've that I've really taken pride in. It's something that I think is is really important to who I am and and how much I grew during the program.
Illinois Springfield has amazing opportunities for you to live on campus if that's something you're looking for. But if you want to live off campus, there are some really nice places to live in Springfield. Springfield is a pretty big city of 120,000 people, and so we've got that conveniences of a larger city.
But I'm not going to lie. We're surrounded by cornfields around campus. Campus is a little bit quieter. We own all the land around our campus, which actually makes us one of the safest college campuses in the country. And you can always look at that. We publish those, those data points. But it's a it's a really safe, calm environment that can allow you to focus in on what you need to focus in on and still be great and have that bigger city atmosphere right there for you.
Oluwaseun Joseph
12:24:13 PM
Hi Aaron.
I'm going to give just a couple minutes for some questions to come in. I'm going to put a couple links onto the chat right now, one about international students and the application process.
And I'm, I'm gonna, uh, also be here to answer questions for you. But thank you again for joining us. And if you've got any questions that I have not answered yet, please put those into the chat.
Aaron Boettcher
12:24:32 PM
https://www.uis.edu/international-applicants
Oluwaseun Joseph
12:24:34 PM
Please when is the deadline for application for spring 2023 semesters
Aaron Boettcher
12:24:50 PM
https://www.uis.edu/international-applicants/international-transcript-submission
Timothy Ajibola
12:25:22 PM
Thank you Mr. Aaron.
Aaron Boettcher
12:25:22 PM
US Citizens - please use this application: https://www.uis.edu/graduate
I see we had a question come in about the deadline for applications for spring semester.
Matilda Kotei
12:26:19 PM
I finished with my applications quite early for spring 2023 semester and also put in an application for GA/GPSI position but one of my referees delayed in sending my recommendation, Is this going to affect my admission decision?
As a university we do not have a deadline, but as a student in your situation where you would be needing some sort of visa, the F1 visa in your case, that is the process that takes time.
And so that is where the deadlines come in, but they're not necessarily with the university, they're with the government, they're with your countries, you know, system for getting that F1 visa. And so you're running pretty close to where you need to get that application completed.
That's either your niece's transcript evaluations. I put a link in there about international transcripts submission. That's something that that you definitely want to look at.
Franklin Baidoo
12:27:00 PM
Thanks for this opportunity. if i heard you right, applicant need not to submit unofficial transcript during the application progress but UIS only accept official transcript directly from one"s university.
Yeah, so great question about, uh, references.
Timothy Ajibola
12:27:20 PM
When will i have admission decision for fall 2023 if i submit my application now?
GSI and the GA office will start to work with you and your application once you have been officially accepted to the university. Once that once you're officially accepted, they will then start the process for your GPSI and GA applications.
At this point I can tell you that it looks like.
Aaron Boettcher
12:27:51 PM
aboet1@uis.edu
GPSI application is in Matilda, but I want you to e-mail me when we get done. Today there's some I want to look at just so we can make sure that you are getting through the process as quickly as possible.
Oluwaseun Joseph
12:27:58 PM
I submitted my application but WES got my academic transcripts late and i was told my evaluated transcript would be sent to UIS on the 5th of October
OK, no, Franklin, never submit any unofficial transcripts. We don't do anything with unofficial transcripts. Unofficial transcripts and in the short version will just be a complete waste of your time. Don't submit them. We cannot use them. We either need you to submit official documentation from your university directly to UIS, or we need you to get those evaluated by a NAACP's transcript evaluation service and have the NAACP's transcript evaluation service send those directly to the university.
Oluwaseun Joseph
12:28:28 PM
The deadline for spring semester is October 1st
Franklin Baidoo
12:28:36 PM
Okay. Thank you very much Sir
Uh, yeah. If you submit, uh, your application now, Timothy, it will all depend on how quickly we can get your completed application. That is all your official documents in. Once all your official documents are in, we will turn around that application. It can take anywhere from two to four weeks, just depending on when you submit that and how many applications we're getting at that time. So great question.
Ohh, you're perfect. If we get your, your transcripts on October 5th, you know we'll be able to start that decision process. You are perfectly fine, great timing on that at that point. Then we will start that that clock of of two to four weeks.
Matilda Kotei
12:29:44 PM
Thanks so much Aaron
If for some reason you're not able to obtain your student visa, we can defer your application one time, one time for up to a year. So you could pick on your application status page. You'd have to go there before the first day of class in January for the spring semester and say, hey, I would like to change my start date to fall 23. There's a link right on top that says term. Yours right now says spring 23. And then I'll say change or defer my start date.
That's where you can do that. And so yeah, if for some reason you get admitted, you don't have time to get that visa, that's that's the way to do that. Yeah. October 1st, yes, we utilize that as a deadline because typically if you're not in by then, it's tough to get your visa, but we will still make your admission decision and things like that.
Oluwaseun Joseph
12:30:20 PM
Perfect. Really appreciate your response
Great questions, everybody. Again, my name is Aaron. I'm part of our admissions team at Illinois Springfield. Not to confuse you, Aaron Hardnett will probably be contacting you with the accountancy program. That's a different errand at the university. My name starts with an A. Her starts with an E just so you can keep us both separate. But she is amazing. She's been at UIS for a long time and will really be able to to help you as you go through. So I want to say thank you again for joining us today.
And I hope I was able to give you some really great information in terms of not just the program, but also the application process and some of the funding solutions. And so if you need anything, you've got my e-mail reach out and we look forward to staying in contact. And I hopefully look forward to seeing all of you on campus in Springfield at the University of Illinois, Springfield soon. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.
Timothy Ajibola
12:31:16 PM
You have been with UIS for over 15 years thats great
Aaron Boettcher
12:31:46 PM
Yep, it is getting closer to 20 years at UIS now, but thanks @Timothy. Thanks for joining today and good luck with your application.
Aaron Boettcher
12:32:16 PM
Thanks everyone. Have a great day!!!