Guest Blogger Daniela: The CPA Exam Application Process

Daniela resides in the great state of Pennsylvania. She begins her CPA Exam journey with the perspective of a Masters in Accountancy and a new job as a Tax Staff Accountant with a top 100 accounting firm. She’s beginning with FAR and we know she’ll go far!

My application for the CPA Exam is in process!  I just registered for the FAR and AUD sections boy was that a nice chunk out of the old wallet! 

I don’t think that I mentioned that when I accepted my new job here in Pittsburgh, I had to relocate from Ohio.  So, my first order of business was to get a Pennsylvania drivers’ license.  I wanted to make sure that my current address was on my identification that I will later use at a Prometric Test Center.  I remember having to go to a testing center for the GMAT and those people do not mess around they mean business. 

Once I had my new drivers’ license I decided to apply for the exam.  The online application was pretty standard.  It asked my for my contact information, education background and employment history for the last ten years.  I payed for the application with my credit card and was given a nice PDF of my reciept to print out and save.  But there’s more

I was expecting to have to submit my transcripts and luckily I could order my transcripts from both of my schools online.  What I wasn’t expecting was the Pennsylvania Moral Character Reference Form.  This form is to be submitted (by mail) by first time CPA examination applicants in PA.  It asks for three references, listing name, address, occupation and length of time they have known you.    Fun fact: there is no spot on the form for occupation and length of time they have known you so I guess you are just supposed to squeeze it in somewhere. 

Also, you need to have the signatures of these references.  One of the references has to be a CPA and they all must have known you for the past three years and are residents of Pennsylvania.  The form states that if any of the references do not meet these requirements that you are to attach a separate sheet with a brief explanation of the exception.  So as a new resident of Pennsylvania I wrote a brief explanation that all three of my references were from my new job and that I had only known each of them for the past 2 months.  Hopefully this explanation will suffice and I will have my NTS soon!