<p>I wanted to know what you think of the rigor and professors at UW, for the prospective majors: BioE, Acct, Chem.</p>
<p>If any of you guys are one of the majors give me some insight as to how hard it is, how long you study each day, and how good the professors are and the class curves/avgs.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m in Accounting. It’s hard to say how hard accounting is, because it depends on the person. If it comes pretty naturally, you can go to class, take notes, do any assigned HW, and just cram a few days before the exam and do good (this is basically my studying plan). If you are not good at cramming/you like to spread your studying out over time, then you may want/need to do the assigned readings, do more practice problems, go to office hours, etc. The accounting classes are all curved to about 3.1-3.2 from what I have experienced. I think the #1 most important thing to do in accounting is go to class. </p>
<p>I have only taken 3 upper division (300+ level) accounting classes so far, but the professors I’ve had so far range from good to excellent. They like it when you speak up in class and sometimes do cold calling, but will help you work through the question if you don’t get it right when you answer, so speaking in class is not too intimidating. </p>
<p>All the classes also have at least one and often times several case studies where you get to examine real accounting scenarios from major corporations (WorldCom, Groupon, Toyota, Boeing, etc. are all ones I have done). The cases are usually interesting and exciting, and show you how accounting professionals use their knowledge in the real world and show you how important it is to have integrity and a solid understanding of accounting conceptual framework in order to succeed in the accounting industry. If you don’t have integrity in accounting or are not assertive of your duty as a professional accountant to provide relevant and faithfully represented information, you could run into a lot of trouble and even go to jail. So those kinds of things are stressed over and over throughout the curriculum.</p>
<p>Accounting is a great major and definitely is rigorous. I am constantly in awe of how smart and insightful many of my classmates are. You will be pushed to work hard, because you will see how driven and smart the people around you are. Accounting is competitive, but there is also the feeling of “we’re all in this together.” If you love BioE or Chem, more though, definitely do those! A lot of people in Accounting do 225 credits to sit for the CPA (certified public accountant) exam, so depending on your aspirations you may even be able to do Accounting AND Chem. It’s something to think about at least.</p>