<p>what are the pros and cons of each major? which is NORMALLY considered the "harder" one...which one did you pick></p>
<p>Do both, accounting is harder.</p>
<p>really? i thought accounting was more straight forward (i.e. adding and subtracting)</p>
<p>No question: Accounting is much harder than finance. I should know since I double majored in both. Finance may have one course or so that is very hard,but accounting, overall, is much tougher. </p>
<p>It isn't just the sophistication of the material that makes accounting hard,but it is the volume of material to know as well. Consider accounting similar to studying a type of law. It is somewhat complicated, very conceptual, and contains a volumnious amount of information. </p>
<p>Finance is just about a few formulas. No finance course that I took had as much information to know and memorize as even the easiest accounting course.</p>
<p>well is finance considered easy then</p>
<p>In evaluating what is "easy," you need to have some comparison or yardstick. Easy compared to what?</p>
<p>It is easier than accounting but harder than business management and marketing, and some liberal arts majors, although this could be debatable.</p>
<p>Most finance courses aren't hard EXCEPT for those courses that are related to mathematical finance. Those courses are akin to taking math courses.</p>
<p>if you're going to specialize in either one, finance is much harder than accounting. Accounting you starts out as journalizing and all those confusing and boring bookeeping, then you move onto analyzing information in cases and tax and all those confusing and boring stuff. Finance is all about theory, math, math, math and more math.</p>
<p>Some business students especially those are NOT honours in finance will say finance is simple, because, to be honest, the finance they're doing is really easy. Intro and intermediate finance courses are usually theory based and don't have much to offer. These are sufficient for them in their career.</p>
<p>However, if you're doing finance honours, the finance you do is very tough and that's why it's THE highest paid field amongst all business majors, because there just aren't many people able to handle the math in advanced finance courses. There are also many (and I mean many!) graduate programs related to finance because the undergraduate courses you take are insufficient if you wanna make it big. It shows you finance is a really deep field, and gradutes of it are in hot demand.</p>
<p>To summerize, finance is easy to start and EXTREMELY hard to master. Accounting stays on merely the same level.</p>
<p>arent you the one you debating with me and others that finance has no theories, and here you are saying that it does.</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, if you're doing finance honours, the finance you do is very tough and that's why it's THE highest paid field amongst all business majors, because there just aren't many people able to handle the math in advanced finance courses.
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</p>
<p>credibility check... abcboy, you're wrong once again, and your entire post, aside from the misspellings, is debunked by the simple fact that most of the complicated math functions of finance are calculated, in today's technologically advanced world, by computers.</p>
<p>Thanks for playing, though.</p>
<p>Intro finance uses simple theories such as how to calculate say bond prices for a bond mature in t years, etc.</p>
<p>These are taught and is based on macroecnomics.</p>
<p>There's a reason why all finance programs are taught how to do economics first, not finance.</p>
<p>IF you still haven't notice, economics has infinite times more theories than finance, or business for that matter.</p>
<p>".................credibility check... abcboy, you're wrong once again, and your entire post, aside from the misspellings, is debunked by the simple fact that most of the complicated math functions of finance are calculated, in today's technologically advanced world, by computers.</p>
<p>Thanks for playing, though..............."</p>
<p>Doing calulation on computers? </p>
<p>What do you think finance is? Arithmetics? Well, didn't I just say business majors learn nothing about higher level finance?</p>
<p>That IS the case though for handling accounting data. Accountants are actually more useless than you think.</p>
<p>Advance finance involves lots of theories, proving, disproving. Why do you think people spend so 10X more money on a Master of financial engineering or financial economics, compared to other normal graduate degree? So they can have their works done by computer? </p>
<p>Try again.</p>
<p>sooo...why does everyone tell me the math in finance is easy</p>
<p>Most of the Math in finance IS easy. It's only when you get to the true mathematical finance courses or those found in grad school does it get real tough. Computing derrivitive formulas and evaluating risk can be very sophisticated.</p>
<p>Trust me, however, overall for undergraduate studies, accounting is much tougher to get a good grade in. It's not only the work that makes accounting tough,but it is the "weed out" philosophy of the major that's a killer. Accounting programs try to weed kids out at all levels. </p>
<p>First, they usually give poor grades to many kids at the intro level. Second, even at the intermediate level, professors may fail or give "D's" to as many as 50% of the class. Yes, I have seen this many times.</p>
<p>Third, many schools of accounting require passing an overall accounting exam to graduate. My son, for example, is studying accounting at Towson University where this exam is a requirement. This isn't uniformly true but is becoming more true as the years go on at schools. As far as I know, there is no final exam that is needed to graduate in finance.</p>
<p>Fourth, in order to take the CPA exam, a kid needs to take 150 credits. </p>
<p>Finally, to make it in accounting, students should strive to pass the CPA, which is one of the toughest licensing exams in the country. The passing rate, for the old version of the test, was under 20% for first time takers. This exam doesn't really test what kids learn in school. It is just another way to weed people out. As far as I know, there is no licensing exam in finance.</p>
<p>Trust me: unless you are going to study mathematical finance, accounting is much tougher in many ways.</p>
<p>There's the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). Very low passing rate for that as well, however it isnt as much of a requirement as the CPA is. From what I understand its mostly pursued by those who want to be professional research analysts, fund analysts, etc.</p>
<p>thanks guys. im nervous as im not GREAT at math</p>
<p>Simple math is all finance is all about? Didn't I just claim Business finance students have no clue what they're talking about, as usual?</p>
<p>Take a couple of advance courses in finance, not those stupid ones that an uneducated 15 years old can do offered by business schools , but those by applied math or statistics departments, and come back and speak to me again.</p>
<p>Btw, when I was a high school student, you probably didn't even finish elemetary school. I'm a financial mathematics major and the finance you learn in a business school is a disgrace to the field.</p>
<p>I have said this, and will say it again: Computers do the tedious math work of both accounting and finance disciplines. Yes, you do have to have an understanding of the math involved so you can evaluate the information and produce sound business judgements, but as far as sitting down and working through the math problems? That is primarily done using financial software/calculators. The math in most business fields is being done more and more by computers, which is why having a sound understanding of information systems, and their application and functionality as it pertains to making investment, financial management, and controllership decisions is very marketable and, quite frankly, progressively essential in the industry.</p>
<p>so....if you arent THAT strong in math, you can still handle undergraduate finance? (for the most part)</p>
<p>you=me</p>
<p>rightcoastsurf, I'm sure you can.... get a good financial calculator (HP makes some good ones) and study the user's manual so you can familiarize yourself with how to make the calculator do most of the math for you, then it's up to you to know which formulas apply to each scenario. Even scary looking formulas need only be conceptualized for what information they produce, and then used to compare information and understand its effects... the actual math can be largely done by the increasingly user friendly calculators!</p>
<p>"Simple math is all finance is all about? Didn't I just claim Business finance students have no clue what they're talking about, as usual?</p>
<p>Take a couple of advance courses in finance, not those stupid ones that an uneducated 15 years old can do offered by business schools , but those by applied math or statistics departments, and come back and speak to me again."</p>
<p>Ok, so you are saying finance is harder than accounting based on classes that aren't even part of the finance curriculum? your an idiot plain and simple. It'd not fair to compare intro level classes that aren't even part of a major to graduate level courses. get a clue.</p>
<p>What classes have you taken? I have taken applied theory, abstract algebra, number theory, differential equations, functional analysis, probability theory and a few other high level math classes. Did I mention I'm a current PHD candidate in pure mathematics? so don't give me any crap about finance math as if I don't know what I'm talking about.</p>