<p>Right now, I am in my freshmen year of college. I've been dead set on going into Accounting because of the job security and pay. My parents also want me to go into Accounting for those too reasons also. The only thing I dislike about Accounting is the whole number punching concepts. It is always about debts, credits, and financial statements. </p>
<p>After looking into my other options, I found Finance and Economics to be very intriguing. I've only taken a macroeconomics. Even though the class was somewhat challenging, I feel like I learned a lot and I enjoyed it. It wasn't an easy A, but I didn't mind studying to get the A because I liked the class. Finance seems intriguing also just because it seems like it is about analyzing the information also. I find the quite similar to economics except you're not actually analyzing an economy. I believe all three major require the same amount of math. </p>
<p>I was considering double majoring in Accounting and Finance. This seemed like a great option because I would still have the job security for Accounting if I couldn't find a job in finance. I was also planning on sitting for my CPA exam. </p>
<p>Since I am considering Economics now, I am not sure what to do.I am hoping someone is able to educate me a little bit about the major.</p>
<p>Also, I will not be studying at an Ivy league school. I am just going to a state University. I am not sure if this makes a difference or not.</p>
<p>Accounting is hard because you won’t graduate with your age group and all and since it’s longer your pell grants will expire so you will have to take out loans and such. Also, CPAs really don’t make that money, usually modest five figures depending on location. Typically making around $60-70k with a low ceiling for improvement. Also, they usually make you take a ludicrous math load (Calculus I, II and III, not plain old Business Calculus which is easy and doesn’t involve stupid trig).</p>
<p>Does anyone know about the job market for economic major? I am trying to find out prospective jobs I could obtain if I was to go into that field. I only hear about research and teaching positions. I want to be more about using the information given and putting it to use. I do not want to teach.</p>
<p>@oxygen92, since you said you graduated with 150 credits with your age group, did you double major? Also, how did you manage to graduate on time? I’ve been reading information online about Accounting and honestly I am getting discouraged. People are just ranting on about how Accounting is so boring, you’ll hate your job, long hours, you’re going to regret it, etc etc.</p>
<p>@oxygen2, thanks a lot. I am going to stick to accounting at the moment. I may just end up double majoring in Finance and Accounting to achieve 150 credits. I guess I won’t be able to come to a decision until I actually start taking some Accounting courses. I don’t want to give up on an idea that I haven’t really tried. Your advice is appreciated.</p>
<p>Don’t let anyone tell you a major doesn’t have a “clear laid out path”. No major does. Economics, business and finance are not far from each other, as the principles are very much alike. Look at some [graduates</a> getting jobs](<a href=“http://www.econ.ucla.edu/graduate/?p=placementhistory]graduates”>http://www.econ.ucla.edu/graduate/?p=placementhistory) from UCLA, a middle-top-tier school. Keep in mind these are Ph.Ds, but it still gives you an idea how competitive this market has become.</p>
<p>Amost all the guys I know who have graduated with economics/finance/accounting degrees basically got the exact same jobs. One will be called “financial analyst” and one will be called “accountant” and one will be “budget analyst” but when you look at their daily routine it’s like… You’re either good at analyzing spending/profits or you aren’t. They all do roughly the same thing and the real differences are the location and culture of the company they got with, not which money-related emphasis they chose in school. I guess the exception is that economics majors tend to have a higher portion in marketing/market research and academia VS explicitly financial positions.</p>
<p>There are of course exceptions like the CPA but unless you really want to be an accountant I would not plan one’s life around qualifying for one exam.</p>
<p>Personally I couldn’t stomach my accounting classes but I’ve been successfully daytrading since I was a teenager (I’ve made enough money to pay for college in its entirety) so of course I would choose econ or finance just to avoid specializing in something that has minimal relevance to my interests beyond the extreme basics.</p>
<p>Over here, Cal Poly and Berkeley both publish graduate surveys about which major ended up with which job. Judging by those, there’s very little difference between economics/finance/environmental economics/accounting/managerial economics/financial economics/management information systems/monetary financial economic super duper macro micro analysis/etc.</p>
<p>Nearly all of them end up as entry level “analysts” where you take the rather basic grasp of money management school gives you and gradually develop a specialization by learning on the job. Maybe the MIS guys on average tend to get hired at tech corporations more often, and maybe the economics guys tend on average to spend a little less time in excel and more time in Stata/Minitab, but that’s just nitpicking. Yeah if you want CPA or CFA for one extra layer of job security you have to plan your curriculum around that but that’s obvious. Without the additional certifications, I don’t think those two have any innate advantage over the other disciplines.</p>
<p>I think the fact that most of the big traditional east coast schools don’t even have an undergraduate “business” major and still teach business classes under economics/social sciences departments sums up how irrelevant the distinctions are. Rest assured those grads are making more than CPAs from ________ State University.</p>
<p>[GENERALIZATION]: As far as the actual academic differences, I think accounting and finance spread the difficulty out more evenly where you just get into a rhythm and learn things step by step, while economics can at times seem childishly obvious then suddenly kick your ass with some theoretical model or game theory equation way beyond what your professor is qualified to explain. That’s the unfortunate nature of being half hokey social science, half hardcore quantitative science.</p>
<p>Economics majors actually top the salary and IQ studies I’ve found online but again that’s probably because the higher ranked the school, the less likely it is to have a “business” department or any other trade-oriented departments, so top schools/tougher admissions=higher proportion of Economics majors=stats rigged in our favor.</p>
<p>Stick with Finance and Accounting. If you enjoy the Econ classes why not just take more of those classes? You do not need to change your major just because you took a class and enjoyed the lectures. Any job you can get with Finance and Econ, you can get with Finance and Accounting </p>