Is accounting good for a major? Is it hard? ( Please don’t tell me its boring, I don’t care about.) I’m going to start taking accounting classes next semester and I’m really scared that ill need up changing majors. I’d really appreciate if anyone majoring in accounting can help me out. Like explaining how the classes are like. etc…
First, it depends on what you mean by an accounting major. Community colleges often offer a two-year /Associate’s degree in Accounting which requires a lot of accounting courses but ultimately qualifies you to be a bookkeeper. On the other hand, Community Colleges also offer the first two years of a Business Administration/Accounting Degree, in which you will not take more than two or three accounting courses at the Community College, but will then transfer to a four-year school to finish your Accounting degree (CPA’s now require a fifth year of Master’s). The two-year accounting degree will not be easy, but you will avoid some of the higher level math classes, finance, management, etc. that are required for a four-year/bachelor’s degree in Accounting. A bachelor’s degree in Accounting is not an easy major. You will need to take higher level math (business calculus, statistics) and your junior and senior year of college will be filled with some challenging accounting classes and other business requirements. However, the four-year/bachelor’s degree in Accounting is much more lucrative over the long run. You can expect good pay with a four-year/bachelor’s degree in Accounting; not so much with a two-year/Associate’s in accounting.
Another thing to be aware of is that if you earn a two-year/Associate’s degree in Accounting and then decide that you want to transfer to a four-year school for a bachelor’s, some of the accounting courses that you took at the Community College will not transfer to fulfill accounting requirements for the bachelor’s degree.
Your first accounting class will give you a pretty good idea if this is something you want to pursue. It is not a big deal to change majors, particularly in your first or second year of college. Even if you don’t continue with accounting, your accounting credits will count as general electives usually. So I would try an accounting class, and then make your decision.
Thanks alot
Blprof is spot on about the makeup of the typical AS in Accounting degree program. I would like to add to this. I am a senior business student (majoring in business administration). It is a bachelor’s degree program and thus includes the high-level operations management, algebra, and HR classes. Thankfully no calculus. Back to your question, I think accounting is starting to become over-saturated. This is just like the rush of people becoming teachers and now that market is flooded too. Accounting is still a decent choice but be aware that the CPA label is being awarded to more people every week. Still I would look highly on somebody if I found out they held an associate’s degree in accounting. It’s hard work, gives them legitimate pluses when applying for jobs, and they earned it.
Now…I will say that accounting was the absolute hardest subject in my degree program. I enjoyed microeconomics and macroeconomics - two separate classes - so thoroughly and everything in it made perfect sense except for the idea of exchange rates; it goes without saying, I did awesome in economics. But accounting, that stuff makes little sense. I had to take financial twice and I barely passed managerial. These are not classes you can goof around in like your joke-off history class. I study maybe 13 hours a week (20 if you count the class meetings) for a typical 15 credit hour semester. Back in accounting that total should have shot up but I didn’t change a thing. You will probably want to rip your hair out when you reach tax accounting cause I heard from a friend majoring in accounting that it was a nightmare.
In fact, my first try at financial accounting the professor said “will the left half of the class stand up”. We did, He then said “based on prior efforts in my class, the pass fail rate is around 50%” and he was serious. He was a great dude too! He pulled no trick questions or anything, it really was that hard. He cared about students learning the stuff and didn’t baby us. Before I could get through any class if I tried hard enough; and I realized at that point that accounting is something you either have a mind for or you don’t.
I hope this helps. I just want you to understand that this is the weedout subject for business majors.