<p>As a philosophy and polisci major (who is unsure about law school and other job prospects), I'm thinking of adding or changing to a 2nd/3rd major that would be useful and "do-able." </p>
<p>I'm aware that accounting and actuarial work is in high demand and pays well. </p>
<p>I have a few questions related to both fields that I thought some experienced/knowledgeable folks may be able to help with: </p>
<p>1.) What is the difference between the two fields and what type of math background is needed for them?</p>
<p>2.) Which (if any) of the two is harder?</p>
<p>3.) What level of math proficiency does one need to do both and could a person learn the requisite math skills via hard work to do those jobs (if one is not "naturally good" at math)? </p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help in advance guys. Look forward to learning more!</p>
<p>Actuary requires a significant number of math and statistics courses, plus economics and finance courses. The statistics courses include upper division courses that are typically taken by statistics majors.</p>
<p>Accounting rarely takes more math than addition and subtraction. Cost accounting uses some multiplication and division, but you get to use a calculator.</p>
<p>allyphoe, is that really true? For some reason, I had always thought that accounting required a good deal of math. Just addition and subtraction? </p>
<p>Why would more people major in it, given such good job prospects? lol I’ve always seen myself as an average math person, so taht’s why I never took any courses in that area. This does come as a surprise.</p>
<p>Accounting requires (elementary) arithmetic, and not much more, maybe a little basic algerbra and statistics. Excel would do most of it (as far as mathematics is concerned). </p>
<p>I believe that Actuary does require you to take higher courses in math and statistics which require a degree of mathematic proficiency. Here is a sample question on the website ucbalumnus linked to
<p>In short, no, you don’t have to be good at math for accountancy. At all. But if you don’t enjoy elementary arithmetic (which is different from not enjoying mathematics) you won’t enjoy accountancy…</p>
<p>To sit for the CPA exam in my state, you need to have taken a statistics class. (Business stats works fine.) To pass Intermediate Accounting, you need to either be able to use your calculator or a table to calculate present value and future value. (For the CPA exam, you need to be able to use the table.) But you don’t need to understand how any of that is derived.</p>
<p>It’s likely that the math requirements vary a lot by school. I chose not to major in economics in large part because my school’s econ program was too math-heavy - I squeaked through Calc III but didn’t really “get” it. Since then, I’ve met people who were econ majors at other schools, and who picked econ because it had such minimal math requirements.</p>
<p>Accounting is a popular major, so many schools have a “weeder” course to keep enrollment in the more advanced classes artificially low. There are also a lot of rules to learn, but most of them make sense, so you don’t have to remember them. If you never minded learning theorems in geometry, you probably wouldn’t mind learning the accounting rules, either.</p>
<p>I personally don’t enjoy elementary arithmetic much, and I like accounting. My computer does all the arithmetic for me, and I like the part where you figure out what arithmetic you tell it to do.</p>
<p>For the record, in the US you do not need any statistics or math classes at all to become an actuary.</p>
<p>But you do need to know some of the material, and classes can be good ways to get some of it.</p>
<p>I agree with those saying accounting requires little to no math. Think of it more like law; knowing what the rules are is most of accounting. It’s not always as boring as that sounds. . . I think. . .</p>