Ole Miss Giving Day

The stellar achievements of the University of Mississippi’s Patterson School of Accountancy (PSOA) are possible because of loyal alumni and friends joining together with support. 

Today, you can again invest in scholarships, programming, faculty or a new building to help transform the lives and career opportunities for our students. Your continued support will place the PSOA in a position of strength for decades to come.

When you make a gift to the Patterson School, you make an investment in a proven program of excellence:

• The PSOA had six 2020 winners of the Elijah Watt Sells Award, the most prestigious CPA Exam Award worldwide. Criteria include passing all four parts of the CPA exam on the first sitting and averaging greater than 95.5 across the four sections. The Patterson School ranked No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 nationally this year in number of Sells Award winners. There were 13 winners from SEC universities – six from Ole Miss and seven from all the rest of the SEC institutions combined!
• While the Public Accounting Report annual national rankings were not conducted for 2020 due to COVID, one or more of our programs have been ranked in the top 10 nationally for each of the past nine years of rankings (and in the top 20 nationally for 12 continuous years of rankings). Over the past nine years, our undergraduate program has been No. 1 in the SEC four times and No. 2 four times; our master’s program has been No. 1 in the SEC five times and No. 2 twice; and our doctoral program has been No. 1 in the SEC six times and No. 2 twice.
• We granted 547 degrees at the 2020 Commencement, an all-time high and as a comparison, more than double the 265 degrees granted in 2015. The total consisted of 346 BACCY degrees and 201 graduate degrees. Of the 198 master’s degrees, 94 were from our new graduate degrees in accountancy/tax and data analytics. Many of our graduate students accept full-time employment positions 16 months prior to graduation, with the job placement percentage approaching 100%.
• The PSOA’s internship program, now in its 17^th year, again enjoyed record results. We had 216 undergraduate interns in spring 2020 with 42 additional master’s interns during that same time. Our interns gained valuable experience working in 22 different states and three countries.
• PSOA students reached another record-high average ACT score in the 2020-2021 academic year. Our freshman ACT average was 27.9, increasing steadily since the 24.1 average in the 2012-2013 year. Similarly, our overall undergraduate student body has an average ACT of 27 this fall, up from 24.4 in the 2012-2013 year by comparison. We now are second at the University in average ACT scores, behind only the School of Engineering. We admit all students into the PSOA who are admissible to the University as a whole. Scholarships funded by alumni and friends play a critical role in our ability to recruit outstanding students to the Patterson School.
• Professor Emerita Dr. Tonya Flesher remains active professionally and received the 2020 AICPA Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award. This honor recognizes one faculty member annually and is essentially the AICPA National Outstanding Educator Award. There have been 36 total award recipients, with six from SEC schools. Ole Miss is the only SEC university with more than one recipient; Dr. Dale Flesher also has won this prestigious award.  
• COVID slowed progress on our new stand-alone PSOA building. Planned to be “Grove facing” in a prime “gateway to campus” location, the building will be constructed on the corner of Grove Loop and University Avenue (where the Yerby Center now sits). The projected building cost will be $65 million, and the PSOA is responsible for raising approximately $30 million. The groundbreaking will take place when the majority of funds has been raised.

On Giving Day, we prove that the University of Mississippi family is better together. Let’s all work as one to support the Patterson School of Accountancy. Together, WE are Ole Miss. 

Please celebrate Giving Day by making a gift! Thank you!