Accounting if I don't make it into my preferred engineering school?

<p>The school I am trying to get into next year is Georgia Tech, and I really want to get in. I am also applying to UGA and Georgia State. However, I don't think I will get into Tech, and if I don't I've given myself two other options. I'll either go to UGA and do accounting since I've heard that there is still a lot of problem solving in that career; it also requires analytic skills. I possess both skills, and they are the reason why I currently have a passion for physics and chemistry. My other option is to go to Georgia State and transfer after one year and go to Tech then. I've already planned out a schedule that I'll have to take to do this. However, I don't like having the uncertainty that I may not get into Tech after the transfer process. I also don't like the idea of going to Georgia State if I get into UGA as well. I also know that UGA has an engineering program, but I don't want to go to it. It's not well developed at this moment. Basically, will accounting lead me to a satisfying career that engineering would as well? I know both get great salaries, but which one has an edge? The main two things I'm anxious about is whether I will enjoy accounting and whether I will get the same pay I could get with engineering. Again, the main thing I like about physics and chemistry so far is that they give me a challenge that I can successfully complete through problem solving.</p>

<p>I am not trying to discourage you from pursuing a degree in Accounting but I really do not see any similarities between Accounting and Engineering. </p>

<p>Accountants do a lot of recordkeeping, reports, compliance crap. Do you enjoy filing your taxes?(LOL) Do you like Microsoft Excel? Do you like learning about our tax code, like reading the 6000 page long IRS tax code. If you like that kind of stuff, I am sure you could be a good accountant.</p>

<p>Yeah no offense but even if I hadn’t gotten into my first choice program, I was still going to study engineering somewhere. The two problems I see with your decision making process:

  1. You don’t actually know that much about either engineering or accounting.
  2. You’re placing too much emphasis on making money. </p>

<p>I suggest a few hours googling, or better yet, talk with people who work as engineers or accountants.</p>

<p>If you think your first choice is engineering, then why on Earth don’t you just apply to several more schools that have an engineering program that you would be comfortable attending?</p>

<p>Ditto to bonh3ad. You can also study engineering at UGA. </p>

<p>BTW - most accountants don’t do taxes but there is a significant amount of rule/procedure compliance. Higher level accounting requires analytical skills.</p>

<p>If you are good you can make a lot of money in either engineering or accounting. Success is not intrinsic to either field it depends mostly on you. For example, I know millionaire graduates from both engineering schools and from accounting schools.</p>

<p>Earlier I was thinking about UIUC and Michigan. The consensus in the chance threads I did was that I might have a chance at UIUC but probably not Michigan. I guess I should still consider them. I was just thinking that maybe someone who thinks they are interested in engineering due to their success with their math and science courses may find similarities in accounting since, from what I’ve heard, accounting still requires analytic and problem solving skills which is the essence of my enjoyment with physics and chemistry.</p>

<p>So in general should I still just go for engineering wherever I go?</p>

<p>And I’ve spent pretty much spent the last few months researching engineering while researching accounting in the last week or so, so I’m probably still lacking knowledge there, but hey, that’s why I’m asking.</p>

<p>I agree with the earlier sentiments, to eliminate engineering because you didn’t get into GeorgiaTech seems odd. But in the interest of exploring an alternative major/career, you might be better suited for actuarial work thank accounting.</p>

<p>Have you looked at the RETP? A lot of schools in the area have a program where GT works to help them put together a 2-year curriculum that is generic to all ENGR disciplines, and if you can hold a measly 3.0, you are 100% to get in. How is that for uncertainty? You’ll save some money, and instead of taking all your calc and chem classes in a 200-student lecture hall with a grad student, in an environment where the program is trying to wash you out, you are taking them with a teacher who keeps 20 hours of office hours every week and puts smiley stickers on your work. </p>

<p>Not that I had a choice (I’m 26 and have no transcripts), but I really like community college and if my options were two years here or a lifetime as an accountant from Georgia State, I would be a little curious how that was a dilemma. Google “Regent’s Engineering Transfer Program.” If you don’t get too drunk to get B’s, there really isn’t any uncertainty.</p>

<p>You can study engineering at UGA/Georgia State and then transfer to Georgia Tech sophomore year.</p>

<p>Don’t go into accounting just because you didn’t get into Tech.</p>

<p>Accounting is not a lot of analytical thinking. It’s very procedural.</p>