Accounting/Finance major with Statistics minor?

College Majors Business Major
1

Hello all,

I am a student transferring over from a small community college to SFA this fall. At my Accounting and Business professor’s suggestion, I’m going to be going in with an Accounting major primarily, since I basically soaked up my principles classes like a sponge.

What I want to know is, how valuable would a double major in finance or a minor in statistics actually be? I know all three fields are loosely related- Accounting deals with the financial activity of a specific entity, Finance is a more general look at the entire market with an eye to investment purposes, and Statistics is analyzing trends and data in general- So my first thought is that these fields would complement each other well. But that’s just intuition, and intuition is often wrong.

While I’d like to have as many tools and as much knowledge as possible, I don’t want to waste my money on this if there’s no tangible benefit to doing so. I’m already planning on going for an MPA and getting certified as a CPA whether I do this or not, so I guess what the question boils down to is whether or not a CPA would benefit from an additional background in Finance and Statistics, or something along those lines anyway.

2

Honestly, it really depends on three things. What do you want to do, how long till you plan to get your MPA and/or CPA, & how many additional semesters will it cost you?

Having a double major and statistics minor is definitely going to improve your chances against single majors for entry-level positions but when it comes to jobs that involve having a CPA and/or MPA, employers are going to care more about your past work experience opposed to your degree.

3

As a transfer student I’d really first focus on getting all the classes you need to meet the general ed core requirements and the business core for your new school as well as all of the requirements for an accounting major. Getting a minor or double major may be hard as a transfer and really should be a back-burner thing. I’m not sure either one would make a huge difference for a job in the accounting field.

4

If you are leaning towards a career in accounting, then I wouldn’t really bother with a statistics minor. If you are pursuing a career in finance, you wouldn’t need a CPA but statistics would help with quantitative investment positions.