Community college credits and the Texas CPA

The five designated schools

TSBPA awards the title Qualifying Education Credit for CPA Examination to community-college coursework, and so far only through these five institutions:

• Austin Community College
• Houston Community College
• Lone Star College
• Dallas College — Mountain View Campus
• San Antonio College

That designation covers exam credit, and per TSBPA guidance it applies to candidates who already hold a degree. If your plan relies on community-college accounting courses, confirm your school and your situation with TSBPA's Qualifications team before you enroll — the per-school list of recognized courses is not published online; TSBPA provides it on request and shares updates with university accounting departments.

Credits TSBPA does not accept at all

TSBPA states that the following do not count toward its education requirements: ACE, Prior Learning Assessment (PLA), DANTES, DSST, StraighterLine. A cheap online credit source is only a bargain if a licensing board recognizes it — for the Texas CPA, these are explicitly out.

Two separate doors that are easy to confuse

• TSBPA's door: whether a course counts toward exam or licensure hour requirements. Narrow — see above.
• Your university's door: whether a course transfers into your degree and counts as junior/senior-level work. TSBPA itself warns that community-college courses may not transfer to four-year institutions or satisfy upper-level requirements. A course can sail through one door and stop at the other.

A pattern that works: the post-degree certificate

If you already hold a bachelor's degree and need CPA-eligible hours, designated schools run targeted programs — for example, Lone Star College's Accounting Advanced Technical Certificate in Professional Accounting (CPA), whose courses are approved specifically for TSBPA requirements (and, the college notes, may not transfer elsewhere). Similar post-degree certificate routes exist at other designated institutions; verify the current catalog with the school and with TSBPA.

Before you enroll in anything

1. Run your completed and planned courses through our free preflight to see which hour pool is actually short.
2. Ask TSBPA's Qualifications team for the recognized-course list for your school — the request is free.
3. Compare against Pathway A vs Pathway B: the route you target changes how many upper-level hours you need and whether the cheap credits help.
4. Get the enrollment decision confirmed in writing by your advisor and TSBPA.

Unofficial guide, last reviewed against TSBPA publications on 2026-08-13. Designations and recognized-course lists change — verify with TSBPA before paying for any course.

Exam prep links: we may earn a commission if you buy through Becker CPA Review. Commissions never affect our guides, verdicts or math — full disclosure.