Busy Season

They say that tax season is the busiest season for accountants. Well, I am here to disagree. I have now applied to 16 different firms for a job and just scheduled my first interview on Tuesday. While its all so intimidating, I am learning so much about the real world. EMU offered me great benefits with friendships and quality teacher-student relationships. JMU offers the slogan "Work Hard, Play Harder". I haven't really seen the "play hard" part of that slogan yet but I keep watching for it out of the corner of my eye. I am also about to enter the month of October which means midterms, midterms, and more midterms. And these are no ordinary midterms, they are the devil disguished as a piece of paper. I had my fraud teacher tell our class yesterday that his tests are almost impossible to pass, the average is usually a low B and only about 3 people get A's on his test. He used to write questions for the CPA exam though so he prepares his tests in the same fashion...oh goody. If that isn't enough to stress me out, I have a group presentation for that same class next Wednesday, 20 minutes of explaining how the Baptist Foundation of Arizona posed as a ponzi scheme and resides as the largest religious fraudalent scheme to occur in history. This class has made me look at everything around me with criminal eyes which is sorta annoying due to the lack of trust in my body now. Following Wednesday, I shall go into a Governmental Accounting and Reporting exam on Friday. This one shouldn't be too bad except accounting for governments and non-for-profit companies is unlike anything I learned for the last 4 years. So its like being a freshmen all over again. Speaking of which, I got a call yesterday to tutor a sophomore in their beginning accounting class. I can only hope that explaining debits and credits to her isn't as hard as I think its going to be but 20 bucks an hour is too good to resist. After those tests, I have my Advanced Taxation test to look forward and rounding out exam month is Financial Management which at this point is the least of my worries due to me having taken multiple other finance courses. Tax will be a killer but I know that I can retake that exam at least 3 times...well you have to take it until you get an 80%! I am at work this morning as I have been for the past 45 minutes. I was just telling my mother how being here in grad school has to be harder than the real world actually. Watching my friends who graduated complain about their life, I just want to punch them in the face. I have a full schedule, work over 20 hours each week in the office as a graduate assistant, take 4 grad classes, pick up shifts at Chili's, and now I'm tutoring. All of my classes require many hours of studying/meeting with groups after class too so when 11:00 rolls around, I fall into my bed exhausted. But with that being said, I'm LOVING it here! I have made several friends who I enjoy very much. It always throws me when I make a joke and these people understand it. Sitting in a class with 70 other people who are just as smart as you and half of them much smarter, its a very different mind set. I am still adjusting to the fact that I'm no longer one of the smartest ones in my classes...I now sit on the lower of the todem pole! :) Anyway, I would tell you stories about my social life except I don't have one. Its slightly depressing to type that but its the truth. Even if a boy wanted to date me, I honestly don't know when I would have time to schedule them in. I penciled several EMU friends in my planner for social time last Friday night and they were appalled that I actually put them in my planner. How to explain to them that's reality for me...well I just gave up. I need to be studying right now rather than typing more since class is coming up quickly but I thought I would end with this list. Who is on the list you may ask...well just take a guess:

Veris Consulting - Denied
Clifton Gunderson LLC
Chess Consulting - Job I REALLY want
Keiter, Stephens, Hurst, Gary, & Shreaves P.C.
Deloitte
LarsonAllen LLP
Baker Tilly
Ernst & Young
Deloitte Consulting
Reznick Group
Grant Thorton LLP
BDO USA LLP
Hantzmon Wiebel LLP
Matthews, Carter, and Boyce
Mitchell, Wiggins, and Co
Yount, Hyde, Barbour CPA
Aronson & Co
Calibre CPA Group
Kearney & Co - Got an Interview on Tuesday!!

Loves,
Ash

Job Hunting

After a stressful weekend at working at Chili's...I'm now debating whether I can handle the second job on to of a full school load as well as 20 hours working here at JMU. I once thought I was wonder woman, that dream has died. I did just get told by my boss here how much she has enjoyed my effort and that it is a show of my ability. That made me smile at least! :)

I have my first large size quiz in Advanced Tax this Friday and boy, am I stressing about it!!! I have been studying and making my tiny notes on a piece of paper so I can fit everything on one piece of paper. I baked chocolate chip cookies last night for Joel and Natalie as we watched Gossip Girl. Natalie was in awe of the fact that I actually baked something from scratch. It's such a different world that I come from at some times.

Tomorrow is Meet the Firms night. There will be around 45 firms here in a ballroom so I'm donning my suit and giving it my best! Hopefully I'll at least have some interviews scheduled. I applied to Ernest and Young yesterday which was intimidating as its one of the big four accounting firms. Sometimes I pinch myself just to make sure that its really me going to school here!! These opportunities would never come my way otherwise.

Anyway, I was just bored at work so thought I would write a little note to you all to pray for me and that I find a job!!! I have to go to Governmental Accounting and Reporting now. I know I know, it sounds like so much fun that you're incredibly jealous of me ;)

Loves,
Ash

Pop Culture Week

This week persisted of pop cultures coming out from all around me. Tuesday I was at the Lady Gaga concert which was amazing and another subject just on its own. Last night, The Vampire Diaries season 2 premiered to which Natalie came over and we watched it together. I feel a lot more confident that I may be making a few friends. Definitely didn't make my 5 for the week but if I strengthened the friendships that I'm making...eh, who needs the others? I'm actually writing this as fast as I can due to the fact that I'm going with one of my professors (Dr. Copely) to EMU this afternoon to recruit their students. I haven't been back since graduation and feel so different from that time in my life that I don't even know what to do with myself. Joel's also going, he convinced Dr. Copely that two students was fine and not too many. *insert roll of the eyes* As I sat down in my financial management class last night, Matt (one of my co-GAs) turned to me and began to talk. I know, not a significant event but considering that two weeks ago we didn't even know each other, it made me feel good. I was telling him how I just lay in my bed at night with lists of things to do running through my head. He started laughing and said "yes, but I can't ever finish one of my lists". It was just creepy to have a conversation with someone who makes lists as much as me. Its like that in all of my classes though! All of these students have the same personality traits/characteristics as me! It makes group projects ten times easier, I will tell you that.

I work tomorrow and Sunday for lunch at Chili's. Between that job, and fitting in hours for tax studying...my weekend is once again spoken for. A couple friends called me to go out with them tonight for a birthday but I had to reply and say no. Do you know how depressing that is? This is when my parents can be relieved that I'm actually studying and not wasting my time. Social calendar = 0, Grad school =1.

Anyway, I need to hop in the shower as I slept in today considering I never can and while it felt amazing, I already feel like I'm hours behind in my day and there's no catching up. You just can't let yourself get sunk into the black hole they call overwhelmness otherwise I wouldn't even be able to see straight. I must throw this in (especially for you Cassi, you're reading this), I could go for a black and white pizza from Coco Bollo's hardcore right now. So make Dave take you there!

Love you all!

Ash

Week One Down

Well...I MADE IT. I accomplished my first week at grad school. I'm not going to lie to you all and say it was easy or horrible or boring. It was a mixture of all three of those. For this blog...I'm thinking a list will do:

1. Talked to my advisor and realized that a Masters course I had taken at EMU is transferring over to JMU leaving me with only needing to take 9 credits next semester which will all be paid for by my graduate assistantship. Yay!!!

2. Speaking of graduate assistants (GA), I am now friends with my co-workers, all three of them. So out of the program which exists of about 70 students, I have 5 friends. I guess 5 friends per week isn't too bad. At this rate, it will only take me around 14 weeks to make friends with everyone...so the whole first semester I'm going to be a loser with no friends. Great. Just great.

3. Two of my classes are relatively easy which leaves me time for my third class, Tax...which I hate and don't understand. The advisor has a different method of teaching though so I think I'll make it threw somehow.

4. Today I registered on the recruitment site for JMU and started applying for jobs. I forgot how long and difficult applications can be :( I'm still attempting to decide on what area/region will be the best fit for me...a fight to the finish for sure.

Still love my apartment...and still miss home on occasions. Besides that, not much is new here. I do need to end this though as I have to do double homework tonight as Kat (my roommate) and I are attending a Lady Gaga concert tomorrow evening in Washington DC. Its still weird to write that after living here for 4 1/2 years...I'm super excited for the concert though and while I'm sure none of you are jealous...you most definitely should be!!!

Love,

Ash

No Long an AIS...

Well folks, its official: I am now a General MSA student rather then one with a concentration. I have picked up a Tax II class which sucks and I now have to be at work by 8 three mornings a week. So besides all of that unpleasant news that came my way today, there were positives also. I discovered that a graduate class I had taken at EMU will count for 3 credits at JMU allowing me to save a LOT of MONEY. Yay!!!! This weekend I go back to work at Chili's and deal with the annoying people of America who come in and complain...can't say I'm looking forward to that one at all. Besides that, just thought I would update you all!

Love,

Ash

Grad School

Due to recent happening at grad school, I realized that I have stopped writing emails to everyone to update them on my life. Thus, I am going to give this blogging thing a chance. I shall start by telling everyone that I started school on Monday (hopefully for the last time) and am having an interesting time to say the least. I went from being an Accounting Information Systems (AIS) concentration to general in the first week as well as having met several new people there. More information shall come later on those people as I am still getting to know them and wondering if we'll ever become actual friends. I also discovered today that my advisor had missed something in my transcript so I had to pick up a Tax II class which while that doesn't sound that bad...believe me when I say its going to be just awful. I get asked all the time where I'm from since people who are in the Masters program at JMU but didn't do their undergraduate studies there are rare. When they find out that I'm from Kansas, then I get a whole separate set of looks. Its like they don't even believe that the midwest has been discovered yet. I am starting to interview with several companies these next few coming months so pray for me that I'll finally decide where to accept a position. And that's assuming that I'll hopefully get a position offered to me! Well, as this post is probably going to state, its 6:00 AM here. So while many of you are already up and going or if you share my Nisly blood, still safely sound asleep in your bed, I have been up for an hour already revising several documents due to my ability to not sleep tonight. I foresee myself hitting up the Starbucks coffee machine on 2nd floor in my building quite a few times today. I mean, a fresh brewed cup of coffee for only $1.65? BARGIN. I do love you all and will try to keep writing to keep you informed!

Love,

Ash