Will be attending SDSU's 2-year MSA program this coming Fall to start a career change to accounting -- Any suggestions as to how to hit the ground running in terms of jobs/employment?

I will be starting SDSU's 2-year Master of Science in Accountancy program this coming fall having taken only financial and managerial accounting. I have heard how difficult Intermediate and Cost accounting are, so I am looking through online material to try and see if I can go over the fundamentals before the program starts.

Academics aside, my primary goal is to nab a job with a large national accounting firm (Big 4) and then eventually transition to industry when I begin thinking about starting a family. As someone who will likely not start off on the same foot as many of my fellow Master's peers who have already graduated with an accounting undergrad degree, when would I technically be "eligible" to start applying to internships/entry-level jobs (seeing as I will have only taken a few credits-worth of accounting courses by the time recruitment season hits)? I feel like I may be at a pretty severe disadvantage being literally semesters away from filling the CPA educational requirement, which is something I've heard employers expect out of applicants.

Are there any organizations I should look into joining? I've looked into BAP and SAS so far, as well as VITA, but I'm still not entirely sure if one org is considered "better" than the other.

I am still undecided as to whether I want to focus on audit or tax, so I am trying to reach out to family members/friends who are in the accounting field to get a feel for what each area is like -- I want to have made up my mind either way once I start interviewing with potential employers!

Thanks for any and all input and insight!