The 2006 Public Accounting Report's (PARs) Annual Professor's Study has published its list of the top accounting programs in the country and The Mason School of Business at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., was listed in the top 25.

William and Mary was one of four schools which made the top undergraduate top 25 list after having been unranked in last year's survey. The other three schools named for the honor this year are the University of Missouri, the University of Iowa and Bentley College.

After being unranked in graduate listings in the 2005 report, William and Mary was also among five honored schools who made the Top 25 in this division. The other four who rose in ranking are Bentley College, Baylor University, University of Mississippi and Florida State University.

The Public Accounting Report also stated that in the 25-year history of reporting the rankings, this year's graduate rankings were the most competitive ever held.

In the 2005 Professor's Study graduate ranking, both William and Mary and Florida State University were cited for honorable mention honors.

Dean Lawrence B. Pulley said of the rankings, "To be considered in the top 25 of both rankings is a true measure of the quality of our program, our faculty and our students."

The Public Accounting Report survey is conducted by asking accounting professors, department heads and department chairs to list the names of undergraduate and graduate programs that offer degrees in accounting that they consider to consistently produce students that they feel are capable of attaining partner status in the future. PAR ranked schools in both the undergraduate and graduate programs that offer degrees in accounting or that have accounting program curriculum that is comparable to schools that do offer accounting degrees.