The Zicklin School of Business has achieved yet another ranking that they can be proud of. The graduate school's Accounting program has moved up four places to the rank of 20th this year. This ranking was done by the Professor's Survey Public Accounting Program (PAR) which surveys 700 universities nationwide.

This is an increase of four spots from the 24th position that the program held last year.

Remaining at a steady ranking of 23rd on the list was the Undergraduate Accounting Program in the Zicklin School of Business.

"Our goal is to support our students who seek opportunities in accounting and external validation such as the PAR assures the Zicklin School and our students that we are doing the right things," said Dean of the Zicklin School of Business, John Elliott.

These rankings beat out some of the highest-ranking competitors, including Penn State University and New York University.

" I'm not surprised at all. Baruch's undergraduate accounting program expects nothing but the best from its accounting students. But along with that prestige comes a very rigorous curriculum. You can easily fall behind if you don't set time aside to study and keep up with the classes," Mikhaela Maningas, president of the Transfer Student Organization said."If you really want this and if you're truly determined to stay in the program, it's not impossible."

Elliott is pleased with the results of the rankings.

He noted that this will have a low impact on students currently at Baruch, but will serve to benefit students that will be admitted to Baruch in the upcoming years.

"I would expect students to choose the Zicklin School and Baruch on our overall reputation and this ranking assures people that accounting is a good choice for students who come here," said Elliott. "It might encourage high school students who seek accounting opportunities to focus on our programs."

The Accounting program, like many other programs, are continuously assessed and changed, but Elliott maintains that these are in no way linked to the PAR ratings.

"Continuous improvement is a goal independent of the year to year changes in specific rankings," stated Elliott.

"I feel motivated and optimistic about what kind of job I will be able to obtain from graduating from a college that ranked high on that survey," said Eder Jaramillo, an accounting senior at Baruch.