Sara Khan, '13
About one year after she graduated, Sara Khan, ’13, blazes a promising trail into her career. This spring she received the sixth highest Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam score in Pennsylvania for 2013. She was the only female to score in the top 10 for the state.
Khan, who earned a bachelor's degree in accounting with a finance concentration, shared, “Like many Robins School of Business graduates I used Becker Professional Education’s CPA Exam Review course. I found that in preparing for the exam it was important not to stress too much about studying and to make sure I took time for myself. This meant spending quite a bit of time at the beach and pool,” she said, having lifeguarded the majority of her summers at the beach in Margate, New Jersey. “In the end my process paid off when I received the email from the CEO of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) with the news of my score. I couldn’t be happier.”
She explained, “Throughout my preparation I followed the 80/20 rule, which means if one knows 80 percent of the material one doesn’t have to stress over knowing the other 20 percent. Professor Clikeman, Professor Hoyle, Professor Rohrbach and Professor Conover did an amazing job teaching me what I needed to know in my classes at the Robins School, so I was able to meet this standard faster than I’d anticipated. I have to admit preparing for the CPA exam was considerably easier than preparing for one of Professor Hoyle’s exams.”
At first Khan did not pursue accounting. “After I finished the fall semester of my freshman year the only thing I knew for certain was I wanted my future to involve economics. My advisor suggested I pursue a major in business administration, and that is how I landed at the Robins School. In the fall of my sophomore year I took my first accounting class, and I really enjoyed it. I decided to major in accounting with a finance concentration, and I never looked back. The professors at the Robins School are brilliant and willing to share their experiences with their students, so this made my academic experience all the more enriching.”
Khan works in the assurance service line at EY in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “I’m approaching my one-year anniversary, and with the news of my score it’s truly been an incredible year. I hope to soon obtain my CPA license once I have the required year of work experience.”
She shared, “I’ve been on several different engagements, some of which have allowed me to travel to cities I’ve never visited before such as Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, West Virginia, and I hope to soon find an opportunity to work abroad. All in all I’ve really enjoyed working at EY, and I look forward to my future here.”