Comparison/differences between all the different business majors?

<p>Hey guys. So like many of you, I'm still trying to narrow down my specific major decision. I'm sure that I want to major in business, but there are quite a few options to choose from. I was wondering if anyone on this forum has any specific info about the different majors? Obviously Ive went online and checked credits, courses, requirements, and things of that nature. But what I'm looking for is more specific and personal info. </p>

<p>The majors are: accounting, business administration (general studies and online), economics, finance, informational systems, management, and marketing. </p>

<p>So yea, basically what are the main differences between all these? Which ones are harder? Which ones are looked at as more successful in terms of jobs? Which ones are the most fun? Any info on any of the majors is greatly appreciated. No one has experienced them all (I hope lol).</p>

<p>i think you’re approaching this decision in a pretty poor way.</p>

<p>you’re putting yourself if a bad position if you know you want to be a business major but don’t know what you want to do. there is a great deal of variation between different majors in the business college. many marketing majors cant stand economics, and many economics majors couldn’t bear to take an accounting class (and vice versa). its not a matter of knowing you want to be a ‘business major’, and then drawing one out of a hat</p>

<p>my point being: if you really don’t know what you want to do, don’t limit yourself to the business college. its arbitrary and more or less indefensible. there plenty of other worthy colleges.</p>

<p>i’d also like to comment on some of your follow up questions: don’t pick a major because someone says it’s easy. unless you really like the content, ‘easy’ majors are a waste of your time (especially in the business college). you’re probably better off not going to college at all, depending on how you’re paying for things. but picking a fun major is all well and good, but don’t expect anyone to tell you what majors are fun and which are not fun. all of them require work, and i’ve yet to have a class who had a pizza party. whats ‘fun’ in the context of work is totally different from one person to another.</p>

<p>as for successfulness, i think maybe finance has the best track record. marketing is also excellent, but i don’t know many marketing majors.</p>

<p>just so i’m being somewhat useful here (though i think that advice could be more useful than answering the main question), i’ll give a brief rundown of how i see the different majors. note, it isn’t really a comparison, just explanations. if you comparisons, you’ll have to be more specific.</p>

<p>accounting has to do with learning rules, standards, and sort of optimizing balance sheets. they do the number crunching for a business, measuring income, profits, output, and other necessary information for a business.</p>

<p>business administration is a nonspecific degree that usually leads to low level management jobs. nothing flashy about it, and its the one that people make fun of as being for people who have no idea what they want to do with their lives but want to make it big in the business world. thats probably not very true, but you don’t really learn the most valuable skills with this degree in any case. anyways, this isn’t where the money is. if you want to be an entrepreneur, its not so bad.</p>

<p>economics deals with markets and individual decision making. maximizing outcomes is a big theme. along with finance, its the most math intensive of the business majors, though it doesn’t have to be. its a popular major for students interest in law school or grad school. not many companies look to hire econ undergrads though, because they aren’t very specialized (i will be graduating with no idea how to read a balance sheet, for instance)</p>

<p>finance as a lot like economics, but with less theory, and an emphasis on financial markets. you’ll learn about financial products, stock market stuff, and general business studies.</p>

<p>information systems isn’t really anything like the other ones. there is some programming involved, but there are a few routes you can take with this one. i don’t know much about the undergraduate stuff, but the graduate version of this deals a lot with optimizing supply chains, and doing other things to model and improve efficiency within a company.</p>

<p>management is fairly self explanatory. more specialized than business administration.</p>

<p>marketing is pretty different from the other ones, but is pretty self explanatory as well. i think you do more projects and group work in this program. i’m not really sure. i’ve just heard that its an exceptional program.</p>

<p>i have a fairly limited perspective regarding programs outside of economics, but i really don’t think theres enough overlap to consider it wise to focus on being a business major while not know what kind you want to be. i’ve never met someone who just loved doing accounting, finance, marketing, AND economics all at the same time.</p>

<p>Thanks. I def appreciate the criticism. Picking a major isn’t a cake walk but your advice is valuable. One other thing, do students in the business college get credit for AP/IB exams? The only reason I ask is because when I was reading about who gets it, it mentioned a bunch of different colleges but not warrington specifically.</p>

<p>IB/AP credits are uniform across the university. here’s a list of specific equivalencies: <a href=“https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/advising/info/AP-examination-credit-info.aspx[/url]”>https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/advising/info/AP-examination-credit-info.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>what varies is whether a credit counts towards your major. business majors don’t need language credits, for instance. you still get 5 credits towards the 120 to graduate, but it doesn’t count as any of your critical tracking courses or courses required to graduate. as far they’re concerned it just a elective you took. but it still counts towards graduation.</p>

<p>Oh gotcha. Do you know anything about grad school? There’s something called a 3/2 program in accounting which gives you a masters in accounting after 5 years. Though how long does it take to get a masters in finance, economics, or any other business major? Is it also one year? or longer? The reason I’m asking is to see whether the accounting option actually saves time or not.</p>

<p>it does save time. masters programs are typically 2 years long. i cant speak from first hand knowledge for those specific programs, but 2 years is pretty standard. there is dual program for finance as well, which is very competitive. for economics, i wouldn’t even bother thinking about the masters. most people go straight to work or into a phd program, which can take up to 6 years.</p>

<p>but yeah, dual programs do save time. if you’re sufficiently ahead in credits, i don’t really see why you couldn’t do it in 4 years unless the flat out tell you you cant.</p>

<p>Oh, do you mean do the accounting program in 4? since you seem pretty knowledgable about all this stuff, in your opinion, is getting a masters in any business major worth it? It seems like you’re not too keen on doing it am I right?</p>

<p>oh no, i don’t mean to say that. getting a masters in accounting and finance would be a really helpful. economics is an exception is all. and yeah, if they say 5 years, and you come in with 30 IB credits, you might be able to graduate with the masters in 4 years. i haven’t looked into it, but my point is basically that the accelerated programs are worth it if they interest you.</p>

<p>masters in marketing and the operations research program is also very good masters to get. i know even less about the other programs though and wont even make an attempt at them.</p>

<p>Yea based on my research, there’s the 3/2 program in acct which is 5 years, but also a 4 year program in finance which gives you a masters also. Though it seems like the acct one is something you can choose to go through, while the finance one is something you apply for mid way through college, and might not get accepted to. Also it seems like the fina e one assumes you have college credit from the getgo while the acct one doesn’t. Is this true? As far as you know of course.</p>

<p>i just know that that particular finance program is pretty exclusive. it is definitely more selective than other combination programs. i cant say much more than that.</p>

<p>Alright! If anyone else would like to chime in about the major differences orcthe grad programs, i would appreciate it.</p>

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