<p>I want to major in accounting at the moment. I really enjoy finance and accounting.</p>
<p>From my perspective it seems accounting is generally deemed more rigorous, but also more job-attracting.</p>
<p>Does anyone hold experience with these majors that could tell me a little bit more about each one? I mean I know I what each major is about; I would like to know more about specifics - tips, pet peeves, pros, cons of each major.</p>
<p>I know I am asking a lot, but I am looking for fresh, candid advice.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Accounting deals with companies in a more wholistic sense, whereas finance is mostly concerned with cash flows. One could then say that finance is a specialized subset of accounting. Because accountants have broader capabilities, they therefore have better job prospects. Yet, finance professionals, in a overall sense, have solid job prospects also. One thing to note, however, is that the financial crisis has begun a “trimming down” of sorts in the financial services industry.</p>
<p>Accounting creates the documents that finance professionals use. </p>
<p>However, as a financial associate advances his or her career, the foundational knowledge from accounting evolves into a finance role. </p>
<p>I like having a major in accounting and a couple finance classes to give some of those practical applications.</p>
<p>Accounting</p>
<p>Pro: you learn ALOT, accounting majors are awesome (and harder-working than most other business majors), easy math, actual content is not too difficult (people who know basic algebra and have a strong work ethic should have no trouble doing well), better job prospects than most business majors; can get jobs in pub accounting firms (pretty exclusive opportunity) as well as qualify for jobs that most other business majors are qualified for (such as mgmt, marketing, entrepeneurs, and some finance). </p>
<p>Con: classes cover ALOT (most classes should probably last 2x as long as they do to adequately cover all the material taught), you have to be willing to put in the time (your gonna have alot less free time than a finance major), job prospects are still not very good. </p>
<p>FINANCE (from very limited experiences):</p>
<p>Pro- relatively easy (compared to acctg), funner interesting classes than acctg, can get jobs dealing with investing/stocks…and other finance heavy careers that other business majors are excluded from. </p>
<p>con- job prospects pretty terrible at the moment, alot of students in the finance class i took were pretty clueless when they had to work with f/s (and being able to work with f/s is very important in finance/acctg jobs).</p>
<p>financial statements</p>
<p>So you are saying accounting knowledge helps with that?</p>
<p>No difference!
Both are business majors. You are expected to understand business and capital markets to be successful. Finance may be more mathematical tho.</p>
<p>Engineerjw</p>
<p>YES. regardless of what dawgie says. i definitely believe that. lol. </p>
<p>You will see some overlap between the two majors.</p>
<p>Please disregard what jello has to say. Nothing he or she has said on CC has any merit whatsoever.</p>
<p>I would eventually like to break into finance as an analyst or a similar position, but I also like the prospect of accounting almost as much as finance. I do not mean only a northern job at a big bank, just a good finance position; like many though, I would prefer high finance. I see big 4 accounting as a good way to break into the industry (some sort of industry at least!) if I cannot make a good finance position. I go to UF, a state school, so I feel strongly that accounting would be the better decision - especially because the accounting program at UF is respected.</p>
<p>There is a combined-degree MSF program that if I got into it, I could learn finance with a very well recruited MSF while still holding an accounting major. Or I could switch to finance to overlap with the MSF. This program is quite competitive from what I understand.</p>
<p>If I do not get into this program, I would much rather hold the accounting degree for big 4 recruiting since I know UF is not recruited much for finance (except for the program I previously mentioned). However, I am afraid that going into a big 4 job may hold me back from finance in the future even if I like accounting work. Ultimately I would probably go for some graduate level degree, no matter my major, to equalize my ground. </p>
<p>The accounting major as a more rigorous one is why I thought of this question. If I want to earn a high GPA for future job prospects, I should get the highest GPA possible, and I know that accounting majors, at least at my school, tend to earn lower GPA’s.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the information so far.</p>