<p>Hey guys :)</p>
<p>I am currently a high school junior and I am thinking about becoming </p>
<p>an accountant.</p>
<p>I think I am applying to some Ivies this fall, but then I realized only Upenn has </p>
<p>this major(undergrat).</p>
<p>Can I become an accountant if I don't take accounting?</p>
<p>Cuz I am thinking about majoring economics too...</p>
<p>Is it harder to become a accountant if I don't major in accounting?</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Probably no harder than it would be to become a physicist if you don’t major in physics.</p>
<p>Seriously, maybe you don’t have to major in accounting but you are going to have to take a ton of accounting classes anyway. So do you want to be an accountant or an economist?</p>
<p>If you want to become a CPA you will need 150 credits to sit for the CPA exam. You can get an ivy league degree and then take a masters in accounting to get the extra credits and take your accounting classes. Most ivy league colleges and top liberal arts schools (excerpt maybe Wharton) dont have accounting as a major. You would have to go to a school like NYU or the University of Michigan (Ross) to study accounting. If you were my son/daughter I would tell you that if you have the credentials to go to an ivy league school to go for it. Dont pass it up to major in accounting. My son is an accounting major so I do think that it is a great major. Go to Wharton if you like business. You are still in high school so you may not really know what you want to do yet. Any ivy league degree will open doors in business that an accounting degree from a lower ranked school wont. Major in economics as an undergraduate and then if you want to become an accountant do it in graduate school. You will need the extra credits to reach 150 credits anyway.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Is this a jab at taxguy?</p>
<p>Not a jab at anyone, just a recovering accountant’s attempt at humor</p>
<p>You will need 150 hours and accounting courses to sit for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>You could do what soccermom said, blow 200k on an undergrad then go get an MPA and come out with thousands of dollars of debt and the same job as your peers who went to good accounting programs. Or you could be smart about it and go to a school with a 5-year program. The best schools for accounting are Texas, Illinois and BYU, and when you’re being recruited out of grad school at one of those institutions, you’ll be competing against people who could’ve been studying accounting since freshman year, had accounting internships, and most importantly, paid less than half of what you would have paid to get their undergrad at a school that actually has the major they want to study. Are there plenty of ivy league and top 20 graduates getting MPAs at Texas? Sure. Will Texas provide them with the best job opportunities in the accounting field? Definitely. Would they have been in less debt or able to sit for the CPA exam sooner if they just went there for undergrad? Probably.</p>
<p>Reply to swdad1:</p>
<p>I think so :)</p>
<p>I am interested in economics/buisiness, and I also like math,
so that’s why I am thinking about accounting…</p>
<p>Accounting has practically nothing to do with math. There’s virtually no math that’s not simple arithmetic. </p>
<p>If you find the math in accounting challenging or difficult, it probably means you can’t bathe, feed yourself, or otherwise function in society…</p>
<p>lol okay okay :)</p>
<p>I was trying to say that I like dealing with numbers…</p>
<p>I am also considering this major. </p>
<p>How boring would you say the average day in an accountant’s life is? What does it consist of?</p>
<p>Personally, I find accounting a bit dry and unrewarding. Fast cars, explosions, and the hot sex seems cool, but I think most people get tired and leave accounting for something more relaxing, like working for the CIA.</p>
<p>I heard that you can’t really get a job if you major economics…</p>
<p>Is it true?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes. Quite.</p>
<p>What do you mean? Do you mean a job as an “Economist” or just a job in general? Believe it not, it’s possible and even common for people to get jobs outside of fields named after their majors.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course it is. It’s more common than getting a job within your field.</p>
<p>Economists are people with Ph.d.s who do research. People who study undergraduate economics are, according to this forum, losers with too weak of a GPA to enroll in their own school’s business program.</p>
<p>This forum also regularly discusses going to crippling debt for Tisch at NYU and has a permanent, meandering conversation about Affirmative Action that consists of making the same two or three points over and over in increasingly longer posts. Taking everything on here as the gospel truth is reckless.</p>