<p>My D is a freshman at SCU and she's trying to decide which should be her major. I'd appreciate if anyone here could provide some guidance in terms of program strength and job outlook. Thanks.</p>
<p>notlkk,
Is you D able to commute to SCU afterall?</p>
<p>Accounting, Fianance, and OMIS are all fairly different beasts, so IMO a recommendation will depend highly upon her career or other educational aspirations.</p>
<p>Luckily, SCU has a strong business school and any of these majors will come with the AACSB Business Accredation and their accounting program is one of the 5 schools in the entire state with the separate AACSB Accounting Accredation (CSUF, SDSU, USD, and USC are the others). The AACSB for Business is the gold standard for most reputable business employers, while the AACSB Accounting is desireable, but not as huge a deal as it may seem since obviously plenty of students from non-AACSB Accounting schools obtain the same kinds of positions as those with the accredation.</p>
<p>In summary, I’ve been told that an Accounting major cn do all the things a Finance major can do, but a Finance major cannot do all the things an Accounting major can do - but that is whighly disputable.</p>
<p>Does she already have some sort of notion as what she plans to do as a career or otherwise right out of undergrad? Finance will be a little more math heavy, while you still need to be able to understand mathematical concepts to do well in Accounting. As a Freshman she most likely hasn’t taken ACTG 11 & 12, but those intrductory courses will definitely determine if she has a knack for Accounting - though I’m told it gets fairly dense in the upper-div courses (like most majors).</p>
<p>Has she thought about a BSC in Economics?</p>
<p>So, does she want to work in a private accounting firm, public accounting, a bank, or something else?</p>
<p>turtlerock,</p>
<p>Thank you for your detailed reply. Yes, my D is currently commuting to school.</p>
<p>Like many young adults I’ve met or talked to, My D doesn’t really have a good idea which direction she’d like to lean more to, let alone career aspiration or anything. The only thing she knows for sure is that she doesn’t want to do too much math (although she’s been doing very well at it) so I guess based on your description she’ll probably frown on Finance.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that Accounting also requires a lot of math, though may not be as intense as Finance, but sure a lot drier. Is that true?</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t really see her as an accountant but I guess the most important thing is, like you said, majoring in Accounting tends to open more doors than Finance. And I just would like to see her having more career options.</p>
<p>From everything I’ve heard so far, Accounting major seems to be pretty heavy and tough. Would you suggest to take on any minor in addition? Would it be managable?</p>
<p>
That is correct: Finance will deal with more math, and more importantly, more complicated - at least to those who are not adept in math.</p>
<p>
Accounting doesn’t involve a lot of math per-se (in fact, you learn most of the math you need for accounting through algebra, which is usually taken at the 9th to 11th grade level in High School), but Accounting is more a lot of memorization of steps and simple formulae. Those who excel at accounting are usually organized (mentally, not exactly in life), and can deal with doing a lot of simple processes over and over again. Tedious and dry? Perhaps for some, but those who end up liking accounting of course don’t mind. Accounting is often described as the language of business since to truly understand a business and how it operates you need to know how the accounting process for a business works. Accounting has also been described as akin to law in the fact that it involves a little bit of logic in solving more of the complex business-applicable problems.</p>
<p>IMO, Accounting would be the best place to start if still undecided about what to major in. An Accounting major doesn’t necessarily need to go on to be a traditional accountant for a carrer - many branch off to tax and become tax professionals or tax preparers, or get CPA licensure (Certified Public Accountant), which gives the professional unlimited opportunities both in private and public sector work. Most of my co-workers are Accounting majors and state they typically only use about 10% of the accounting skills they learned in school based on the nature of their work: tax. They do tax, but to do that they definitely need to have a foundational understanding of the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) that school taught them. Or, if she really is content on other things, she can be a bookkeepper for Mom & Pop’s shop (or other small businesses) and most probably still make a comfortable living. More ambitious? She can try working at a Big 4 or other accounting firm and make partner or open up her own firm after CPA. And there are so many more opportunities inbetween. Again, to be successful, especailly at the higher levels of Accounting, one would need to be mentally organized and have a knack for following processes. Math? If she can add, subtract, multiply, divide, compute simple fractions and percentages, then she has about 95% of the math skills needed already.</p>
<p>
I do not think it is necessary one way or the other for a second major or a minor with Accounting. I can see it helping, however, if she were trying to do Accounting for a specific industry (i.e. Accounting for biomedical research company she can also major in Biology). Sometimes employers like to hire business majors who have an unrelated second major or minor, but one that relates to the industry since it helps to have someone not only understand the business side of the operations, but also the project or program side of the business.
One of my co-workers, an SCU grad, is an Accounting and Chemistry double-major so it is definitely possible at SCU despite the extensive Core. The Valedictorian of the co-worker’s class is a Finance and Physics double-major. SCU does a great job at holding a student’s hands when it comes to academic planning, so she should have relatively low resistance in atempting something like that if she plans it out early and correctly with counselors and depatment staff and faculty.
Of course if doing so will extend her stay at SCU, and thus her loan accumulation or other expenses, then it is not worth it, IMO. I would focus on the business related degree first, and if there is leftover room try to fit a structured class selection that may provide a second major or a minor.</p>
<p>EDIT: CAVEAT:
She will need to do some exceptional planning to accomplish a double-major or major and minor that are outside of the business school since the Cores for business as CAS differ at some requirements. It was easier to do something like that with the old Core, but it is still technically possible with the current Core.</p>
<p>I realized I didn’t go too much into Finance.</p>
<p>To be fair, a Finance major can also do all of the things I listed above for Accounting majors, but it typically is a little harder for them to do since they must, after receiving their degree in Finance, still go back and learn a lot about accounting, the process, and business - which means they should’ve just went ahead and received a degree in Accounting instead. I also have a co-worker working in tax that is a Finance major (not from SCU). He says he’s never used any of his Finance skills in his professional life - only messes around with some of the theories in his personal financial and banking life. Everything else for the job he had to pick up as OJT (On the Job Trainee/Training).</p>
<p>However, like CPAs, Finance majors can look forward to a professional title of CFP/CFA (Certified Financial Planner/Certified Financial Advisor), which also opens other opportunities. Both Accounting and Finance can translate rather well into Forensic Accounting (high demand for this) or other white-collar financial investigation fields like securities fraud.</p>
<p>What a lot of people like about accounting is the fact that it mostly deals with numbers that have already happened (i.e. recording debits and credits as they are currently happening or as they have happened in the past) and analyzing those numbers in a ‘here and now’ approach, which leaves little ambiguity in what the numbers are saying when done correctly. On the other hand, Finance will deal more with projected and future numbers or estimations - sometimes based on historical trend, sometimes based on theory. It’s not as clear-cut an approach to seeing and rationalizing numbers like Accounting would be. Despite this difference, some do like the added risk, or theoretical calculation when working with number results and can become quite good at it over time. It’s certainly not as possibly tedious as Accounting, and in some opinions offers a little more excitement and gratification in the mainstream Financial industry. It’s also historically more lucrative, but it takes a certain determination and effort to get that far.</p>
<p>I think the notion of Finance is nice, but applicably, not so much. But, to each his own (in this case, her), so if she finds Finance more exciting, then she should do what she enjoys and can excel or succeed at. She will have to take 1 required FNCE class at SCU under the business school Core, so she will get a taste of both Accounting and Finance no matter which on she chooses in the end.</p>