ACCT 5800: INTERNSHIP Summer 2010

Applied professional experience or experience with the profession in another culture. David Harvey

Course Syllabus
OBJECTIVES: By the end of the course, you should have participated in an internship in which you have been directly involved in addressing one or more substantive accounting issues or have studied one or more substantive accounting issues with which your employer recently has been involved. At the end of the course, you should have reflected on the internship work assignments, responsibilities, benefits including skills acquired and insights gained, benefits to the employer, and ways in which the internship could have been improved upon. ELIGIBILITY: Get permission to enroll by contacting Barbara Musengo (Brooks 226, bmusengo@uga.edu). Permission is granted for internships in the private or public sectors in jobs primarily involve accounting tasks. Internships with CPA firms, accounting offices of industrial firms, and internal audit departments are presumed to qualify for credit. In all other cases, you need prior approval. For credit, you must enroll in ACCT 5800 for the semester in which the internship falls. CREDIT HOURS: Upon successful completion of the course requirements, you will be granted three (3) hours of credit. If you are admitted to the MAcc program, you may enroll in ACCT 7800 and do another internship for an additional three (3) hours of credit. However, ACCT 7800 internship credit will not be granted for an internship with the same firm for which ACCT 5800 internship credit has already been granted. GRADING: Satisfactory/unsatisfactory grades are assigned based on the completeness, insight, and technical writing quality of two completed assignments, described below. I determine the weighting of these factors. You must e-mail me your preferred e-mail address by the end of the first week of your internship. My address is dharveys@terry.uga.edu. ASSIGNMENTS: The course has two written assignments. I must receive them at my e-mail address by their respective deadline dates and in the form described below. Assignment 1: Issue and Solution Paper Subject of the paper: Identify an accounting issue (or issues) that you have been directly involved in addressing during the internship. Describe in detail the issue or issues. Examples include: the use of sampling in auditing; problems with a new software application; allocation of overhead in product costing; difficulties in personnel scheduling. Describe the alternative solutions considered by the firm. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative solution considered. Describe in detail the final solution implemented. More discussion should center on this alternative than on the ones not implemented. Explain in detail the reasoning for the chosen solution.

Technical requirements: The paper must contain at least ten full, typed, double-spaced pages of text in 12-point, Times New Roman font. It should be included as an attachment to an e-mail message to me. The ten-page minimum excludes references (in good form) and exhibits, which should be included if appropriate. I must receive the electronic paper by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, July 26, 2010. Put your name (last name, comma, first name) on (1) the paper itself and (2) as the first words in the title of the word processing file you send me. Additional technical requirements are included in the Dear 2010 Accounting Internship Students letter. Assignment 2: Internship Evaluation Paper Subject of the paper: Write an evaluation of your internship experience. Describe your internship job, major responsibilities and major work assignments. Enumerate and discuss the ways in which you benefited from the experience. Enumerate and discuss the specific skills you developed and insights you gained from each major work assignment. What were the most positive and negative aspects of the internship? In what ways did you add value on behalf of your employer? What did you find most surprising and most disappointing about your internship experience? What specific suggestions would you make to your employer for improving the internship for students following you? What specific suggestions would you make to the Tull School of Accounting for improving the internship experience? The key to success is to keep a daily diary of your primary tasks for each workday. When it comes time to write the paper, much of your work already will be done. Technical requirements: The paper must contain at least five (5) full, typed, double-spaced pages of text in 12-point, Times New Roman font. It should be included as an attachment to an e-mail message to me. The five-page minimum excludes references (in good form) and exhibits, which should be included if appropriate. I must receive the electronic paper by 4:00 p.m. on Monday July 26, 2010. Put your name (last name, comma, first name) on (1) the paper itself and (2) as the first words in the title of the word processing file you send me. Additional technical requirements are included in the Dear 2010 Accounting Internship Students letter. Difference between the ACCT 5800 and ACCT 7800 internship course requirements: The issues and solutions paper for the ACCT 5800 course is essentially a descriptive report that does not require research beyond what might have been required by the employer during the internship. The ACCT 7800 issues and solutions paper must document independent research into a single topic and proper documentation of source materials used. It must demonstrate a students ability to use standard professional source materials to form opinions and conclusions about the issue discussed. The required use of professional source materials, the requirement that the student must analyze and integrate the source materials in forming conclusions, the greater length of the paper, and the requirement of citations and a bibliography differentiate the graduate course from the undergraduate course.