Prepared to Shine

When Bradley Koch, bba ’22, m acc ’22, faced his biggest professional challenge last year, he was ready for his hard work to pay off. For the first part of his life, his possible career trajectory seemed fairly straightforward. Growing up in Clyde, Kansas, he worked on his family’s farm and spent time around his parents’ accounting business, Koch CPA, Chartered, which focuses primarily on taxes, bookkeeping and payroll for agricultural and other clients.

Still, when Koch first arrived at Washburn University, he was undecided on his major, thinking he might pursue a business degree. During his second semester he took an accounting class, and right away he knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“Having the base knowledge and being exposed to accounting early in life helped me start down that road for my career,” Koch said. “I also enjoy working with numbers. I like to track down problems and find solutions, and I like the structure of accounting too.”

On the horizon loomed the challenge: the Uniform CPA Examination. Koch wasted no time preparing for this four-part assessment of proficiency in all requirements for public accountancy. Passing this test would be no easy feat – it has a national pass rate of roughly 50% and is considered one of the most challenging professional exams. Fortunately, Koch’s accounting professors at Washburn were there to help him every step of the way.

“You could tell they really cared about making sure everybody was progressing through the curriculum, and they were really good about pointing out things that would be on the exam,” Koch said. “They reminded us that if we completed the accounting program and the master of accountancy, we would be fully qualified to take the CPA exam.”

Before each section of the exam, Koch reviewed the materials to ensure it would be fresh in his mind. In his review course he learned about the Elijah Watt Sells Award, which is granted to CPA candidates who obtain a cumulative average score above 95.50 across all four sections of the exam and pass all four sections on their first attempt.

At first Koch didn’t think much about the award. “I just wanted to pass the test,” he said. But after he scored exceptionally well on the first two sections, he realized this elite honor was within his reach. Ultimately, he was one of 40 to win the award, which distinguishes him as one of the top CPA candidates in the country out of the 86,000 who sat for the exam in 2023.

“I feel like the award is the culmination of a lot of hard work and time put in to take that test and study for it,” Koch said. “But it’s not just me – it shows how good my education was at Washburn. I was very well prepared for the exam and my career as well.”

Today Koch’s journey has come full circle, as he is working at his family’s accounting firm which he hopes to take over when his father is ready to retire. In the meantime, he can be proud his career is off to such a stellar start.