Do I have a chance of changing from Accounting to Industrial Engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

So I just got accepted into business school as an Accountant. I’m in my 3rd year and I’m 20 years old.

I like the idea of Industrial Engineering because the optimization aspect seems really interesting and I haven’t seen many girls in the field. I’ve taken some Industrial Engineering pre reqs like econ, business stats, and accounting but nothing math related besides Calc 1. I took Calc 1 and struggled immensely and ended up with a C. I’m not very mathematically inclined but I’m willing to do the work to learn.

My problem is that my college does not offer industrial engineering so I’m stuck with a few questions…

  1. Should I just finish my undergrad accounting degree (BBA in Accounting) and then get a Masters degree in IE?

  2. If I choose to do so, would I still even get jobs as an IE with a Bachelors in an unrelated field but a Masters in IE?

  3. Is it just in my best interest to try to transfer in my 3rd year to a college that offers IE if that’s even possible?

2

It will likely take an additional year of college if you transfer now. If you enter an IE master’s you will likely have to take an additional prep year. Either way it will be costly.

3

IE is very math intensive.

Schools that don’t have IE programs, sometimes have Operations Management programs within their business schools.

Here’s one at UA:

https://www.ua.edu/academics/majors/opmanage

This type of supply chain/production management/Operations specialty may be a better fit, check to see if your school has something similar. They may also have this option as a grad level program.

Otherwise, switching now to IE is a hard road to follow. Not only due you need to take the rest of the match cycle (Calc 2, 3, Differential Equations, etc). but also the physics and perhaps chemistry. All have to be taken before you start your junior level IE classes.