An accounting alumnus from the Naveen Jindal School of Management has won a highly competitive award that recognizes only the top echelon of performers in a rigorous assessment exam.
Justin Briggs, BS’21, MS’22, was one of 50 winners of the 2022 Elijah Watt Sells Award, an honor bestowed annually by the American Institute of CPAs on individuals who are exceptional performers on the Uniform CPA Examination® — a 16-hour, four-section assessment that requires a minimum score of 75 for an individual to become a licensed certified public accountant.
To qualify for the award, CPA candidates must go one step further. They must get a cumulative average score above 95.50 across all four sections of the CPA exam and must pass it on their first attempt. Approximately 67,000 individuals sat for the exam in 2022. Of these, just 50 individuals, including Briggs, met the criteria.
Briggs received his Bachelor of Science in accounting in 2021 and his Master of Science in accounting in 2022. During his time at The University of Texas at Dallas, Briggs was a member of the Professional Program in Accounting (PPA), a group for highly motivated JSOM accounting students pursuing top careers.
Tiffany Bortz, PPA director, said that the program is designed to help prepare students to sit for the exam.
“We have them take certain classes as a PPA Cohort and ask the faculty in those classes to challenge the students to help them get ready for the CPA Exam,” she said. “PPA students take CPA review courses in their final semester of the master’s program and begin sitting for parts of the exam before graduation.”
Bortz, a professor of practice and associate area coordinator of the Accounting Area at the Jindal School, said that Briggs was an outstanding student.
“Top of the class in every class,” she said. “Just completely gifted as a student.”
Briggs agreed that his time in PPA prepared him to become a top performer on the CPA exam.
“The PPA was fantastic,” he said. “All of the professors that I had there were great.”
Briggs gave special thanks to Bortz and other accounting professors Dr. Joseph Mauriello, Jennifer Johnson, Chris Linsteadt and Steven Solcher, all of whom he says were highly influential.
“They were outstanding professors who really helped relay the information in a way that’s easy to learn,” he said. “They were a huge part of me getting to the Elijah Watt Sells Award and doing so well.”
Briggs, who currently works in a business analytics role at Capital One in Plano, is grateful for the time he spent in the PPA and the accounting program.
“They taught me a lot through accounting which has actually translated to my career now.” Briggs said. “They all do a great job of preparing students to succeed on the CPA exam. I think any student at UT Dallas, with the great support system that they have, should definitely be able to pass the CPA exam and if they really want to work hard then they could also make Elijah Watt Sells.”
