[eddly]

I just wrote the UFE this past September (results to come December 2). As a CA student, my main concern is being able to get a return on the expensive investment I have made thus far. I want to be able to pay off my student loans and provide for my wife and three children.

I'm not naive, I realize there are many smart CGAs and CMAs out there. I decided to pursue the CA designation as it is the hardest to obtain and the most prestigious (at least that is what I was told).

One of my biggest concerns with the merger is the fact that students have no say. I understand why, obviously students are not yet members. But consider this, I have already invested 5 years to complete my business degree and 3 years to complete my CA articling requirements and my time with CASB - I think I have done enough for at least my concerns to be heard. I started this whole nightmare to get the CA, not to get a diluted designation.

There is a reason why the number of CAs is not increasing at the same rate as CGAs and CMAs. Here in BC, for the past few years there have been 1,000+ students who tried to land articling positions who were not able to. What would you expect them to do? There just isn't enough positions to go around. The majority move on to obtain a CGA or CMA designation.

The CASB program that we have to do in the West is demanding and time consuming. I've had quite a few friends that have had to drop out of CASB - and again have moved on to the CGA designation or something else entirely. With CASB there is a significant time constraint when writing exams - you are generally not able to provide the perfect answer and you also have to figure out what the question actually is.

Of course if I was 40+ I wouldn't really care about the merger, my career would be established already and I would rely on the work experience that I had. A fresh CA needs to initially depend on the designation to an extent until he/she has developed experience outside of a public accounting firm.