Reflections

Freshman Year

My freshman year as a student at Texas A&M University really helped me become an Aggie. I began my freshman year during the fall of 2022. During my first year, I was able to experience the college's great traditions, make new friends, and discover many helpful campus organizations.

At the beginning of my freshman year, I was reluctant to attend a football game. It was only when a friend of mine, who was visiting from another college, took me and my roommate to a football game that I understood the appeal of Texas A&M's traditions. It was so much fun to watch the football game and participate in waving the rally towel. I was very glad that my friend convinced me to join her, and I will be attending many more Texas A&M football games during my time as a student.

While I stayed with a high school friend during my year in an on-campus dorm, I still found myself making many friends in both my classes and my organizations. Talking to my fellow students, I was able to make at least one friend in all of my courses. I still am friends with many of them, even though we no longer take the same classes. As I begin to take more major-specific classes, I expect that I will make even more friends that will join me to graduation.

Lastly, I spent my freshman year finding and joining many organizations that will help me achieve my goals of being accepted into the PPA Program. One organization whose Texas A&M Chapter I joined was the American Business Women's Association. I attended meetings and events, which allowed me to become friends with a majority of my fellow ABWA members. I joined this organization in order to provide me with the experience needed to improve my chances of making it into the PPA Program. I also joined the National Society of Collegiate Scholars for similar reasons. Participating in these organizations gave me the opportunity to make new friends, impact my community in a positive way, and enhance my freshman experience.

Sophomore Year

I began my Sophomore year living off-campus, as I had moved into a new apartment sometime before the start of the Fall semester. This was a welcome change to my Freshman year (when I lived on-campus), as I now had more space and was closer to the Mays Business school.

For a majority of my Sophomore year, I was focused on the Professional Program of Accounting (PPA). I applied near the beginning of the Spring Semester, which consisted of writing short answers and essays. Another action needed when applying to the PPA program was to schedule a one-on-one interview with someone from a select group of people in the Accounting department. Lastly, a requirement that I had to complete in order to be accepted into PPA was to finish ACCT 327 with a grade of a B or higher.

I continued the application process for PPA throughout my Spring Semester, preparing for the interview and working hard in ACCT 327. Once I had completed most of the requirements for applying to PPA, all that was left to do was to continue doing well in ACCT 327 and wait as the end of the semester approached. I would hear back from the PPA department near the end of the semester, once grades were finalized.

Getting through ACCT 327 was tough, as I knew that my grade in the course would be a big factor in my acceptance into PPA, but I was able to complete the course with the required grade. As the semester came to an end, I finally heard from the PPA department. I was accepted into the program!

Being accepted into the PPA program was a great honor. With my new enrollment into PPA, I began taking required classes in the first Summer session, as well as attending many recruiting events for the Big 4 (and many other accounting firms). This Sophomore year culminated into receiving many job offers from upper-middle market and Big 4 firms, and I chose to accept an internship job offer from one of the Big 4, KPMG!