Accounting (BIG 4) with an Econ degree

College Majors Business Major
1

<p>I'm currently an Econ (BA, they only offer BA) major at UC BERKELEY going into my junior year and I'm trying to break into the accounting field.</p>

<p>I actually did not realize I wanted to do accounting until I took Intro to Financial Accounting and Intro to Managerial Accounting at the end of my sophomore year. As a result, I was late to apply to Haas. Instead I'm doing an Econ major while taking accounting courses (Auditing, Intermediate Accounting, Taxes, etc.) before I graduate.</p>

<p>I'm wondering how hard it is to land an internship the summer before I graduate with the BIG 4 with an Economics major as opposed to Business at UC Berkeley... And hopefully land an entry level job after I graduate.</p>

<p>EDIT: my gpa is ~~3.5+</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>The major shouldn’t really matter as long as you’re CPA eligible upon graduation. You would want to look up CA CPA requirements for that.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response.</p>

<p>I know about the CPA requirements, but does that go for all majors? IE: if I were a business major, would I have to have the CPA requirements down and be eligible for the CPA by the time I graduated?</p>

<p>I’m sort of surprised that the BIG 4 only recruit you if you’re CPA eligible. If that’s what you’re saying. I might be misunderstanding you.</p>

<p>I was planning on eventually getting the CPA done, but not immediately after undergrad.</p>

4

<p>You could also try for the consulting departments of these firms - way more interesting and varied work, and you will still use your accounting.</p>

5

<p>SF and SJ Big 4 offices hit Berkeley hard. Doesn’t matter if you’re an Econ major or in Haas. As long as you have the accounting units, you’ll get an opportunity to interview. We don’t look at it from a major standpoint at all.</p>

6

<p>As long as you have the required credits you’re fine. If you need, for example, 24 credit hours in accounting, it doesn’t matter what your major is but make sure you know what the requirements are because you sound confused. </p>

<p>And yes, if you express no interest in the CPA the big 4 will show no interest in you</p>

7

<p><a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That should answer your question.</p>

<p>Major doesn’t matter, only completion of accounting requirements.</p>

<p>Note that if you’re interested in something like advisory/consulting, transfer pricing or many of the IT related areas that you do not need to be CPA eligible.</p>

<p>Even if you were in HAAS, it wouldn’t automatically get you anything. Salaries for Haas and Econ are roughly the same and HAAS majors tend to have higher GPAs…</p>

<p>Regardless, why accounting? I actually have enough coursework to sit for the CPA and would die if I had to do accounting all day.</p>

8

<p>Go into business valuation. You won’t need an accounting degree and also it is way more interesting than boring audit or tax.</p>