<p>Any info on the economics/accounting major?</p>
<p>How are the job prospects?</p>
<p>How do employers look at UCSB accounting grads compared to grads of other California programs, especially SLO or UCI?</p>
<p>Anybody on here who's actually in that major at UCSB or knows someone?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m in the business econ with emphasis in accounting program here at UCSB. I’m in my junior year right now and have taken a lot of the upper division classes. So far, I can say that the curriculum for this program is amazing as well as the professors. Accounting rules are recently changing due to the recent economic shift and the accounting professors are well acclimated to it and they incorporate it in their lessons. Accounting prof/lecturers here are mostly people who have worked in the accounting industry for decades and are experts in their field (some have handled high positions with the Big 4).</p>
<p>I’m sure that SLO and UCI has a comparable programs as well. However, I’ve heard from the grapevine that the Big 4 and different mid size accounting firms recruits heavily from UCSB (one of the primary recruiting spots for accounting). They also come to UCSB throughout the year and hold meetings and sessions on top of the summer internships they offer for sophomores and juniors. </p>
<p>With job prospects, the career center is a good place to start from. However, to be honest, I believe that across the board (it doesn’t matter from which school a student comes from) it is tough right now for employment. It might be different next year or the following year, but getting an education at UCSB is definitely a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>hey there people, I am a transfer student admitted for global studies major and want to minor in accounting once Iam in ucsb, how good of a combination do you think this will be? would you recommend it? what kind of good jobs can I get with this major and minor? I will enter into the honors program by the way maybe you can give me more information on how well rounded and successful I could become if i pursued this school and my intended career path in global studies with a minor in accounting. hope you can help me out, take care</p>
<p>Chesserforlife: Accounting is not a minor option in UCSB. It’s an emphasis that is offered through the Business Economics major. I’m not knowledgeable in the Global Studies major, so I couldn’t say much about it. What I know is that Business Econ with Emphasis in Accounting is a highly impacted major. With my experiences, even though accounting is only an emphasis you get to work with several industry experienced professionals. Maybe someone who has more experienced in the global studies major can answer the questions you may have.</p>
<p>Thanks, byla. My daughter and I just went to visit for Spring Insight. A tour guide told us that around the top 5 students of each year’s accounting grads get to “walk right in” (or some similar phrase) to a job with the Big 4.</p>
<p>But I’m thinking that with all the smart kids at UCSB, it would be next to impossible to be one of those top 5 students!</p>
<p>Surely there are good prospects for students who aren’t at the very top of their classes–yes???</p>
<p>Please advise, and thanks in advance for your help! :)</p>
<p>The fact that the big accounting firms recruit at UCSB is a major plus as I see it. But others on this site and elsewhere have commented that jobs at the big firms aren’t necessarily the best (pay is rather low for one), and passing the CPA exam can change that pretty quickly. So, I’m wondering, does the school really prepare its students to sit for the CPA exam?</p>
<p>BusinessMom: I think it will be accurate enough to say that this year was really competitive/tough in terms of internship and job prospects for both juniors and seniors. It’s tough but not impossible. However, I will advise (safe to say that most will agree) that for your daughter to be successful she needs to start as early as possible in getting experience in the accounting industry. The Big 4 has leadership/externship programs solely for sophomores. She needs to take advantage of that. And gpa matters a lot for getting pick for interviews for both externship and internship. A little bit different from seniors trying to land a job. I think because there’s a lot of people who’ve applied for internship, these accounting firms have set up a control in their system that automatically rejects students below the gpa they’ve set for (some 3.0 some 3.2, I think).</p>
<p>Grades are curve and so if she studies hard enough and talks to the professor if she has question, she’ll be able to do well. UCSB has a lot of resources for accounting students. Not only the classes are extensive (we get choices from financial accounting to managerial to auditing and even forensic accounting, not to mention international accounting) but the professors teaching these classes are highly qualified in the industry.</p>
<p>I personally didn’t go for internship this year (my junior year) because I have quite a work experience that would help me get a job when I graduate next year. I’m a transfer student and before I transferred to UCSB, I was working full time while doing my transfer studies. However, my boyfriend did apply and from his experience, he was told that as much as 800 or more people applied for the internship positions, 40 people chosen for interview, and 2-5 (depending on the firm) will get the position. And this is for the whole west coast schools. He’s still waiting for the decisions. It also doesn’t help that the economy is down. But anything can happen within the time your daughter is ready for her internship/externship applications.</p>
<p>From what’s currently happening right now with the economy, one thing is sure that accountants will find a job. Currently in the news, there are accounting rule changes happening and from that the better the accounting program a student is in right now, the better they will be prepared coming out of college and landing a job. </p>
<p>I hope this info helps you out.</p>
<p>TWSA50: There are pros and cons working for a big firm and a smaller one. For big auditing firms like the big 4, you will have the chance to work on big multinational corps, which later on will help you out if you do decide to jump ships (i.e. becoming a CFO or controller for any corporation). The knowledge you get from auditing public firms is a very valuable asset to other companies. For smaller firms, you get more hands on experience with several departments and more option of choosing what you want to do (auditing to taxation) and less competitive atmosphere and more team based (a lot more contact with the partners of the firm). Regarding about the pay, its not much of a difference, its just how long you stay in which position. I wish I could show you the Robert Half 2009 Salary guide for accountants - it’s a link from my professors website and I’m not sure how you can access it if you’re not a student, you can try googling it. </p>
<p>About your question if the school prepares their students to sit for CPA exam. As a matter of fact, yes they do. Again, we have an extensive choices for accounting classes that a student can take. We even have the Accounting Info System -I think they changed it to just Info System- that is useful in learning the Access program that most big companies use or require for their accounting hire to have a knowledge of. And our professors are CPAs themselves.</p>
<p>HUGELY helpful, byla! Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Just one more thing: </p>
<p>Is there academic advising available to help accounting students plan the sequence of their classes? Does this happen through the economics department itself?</p>
<p>Again, thank you SO much! Maybe I can treat you to a burrito at Freebirds sometime! :)</p>
<p>BusinessMom: I take that you guys ate at Freebirds… =) </p>
<p>Yes, there is an academic advising/counseling in the econ department. Not a lot of students utilize this service or forget that there is actually someone in the department who can help them out. It’s best to attend the Orientation (I think it happens early September) so you can get as much information needed about which classes your D needs to take. During my orientation, I was given this handout with information of “Suggested Schedule of Classes.” It basically maps out the needed classes from pre-major to the upper division major and when can a student declare themselves as pre-bus/econ major and when can s/he declare full major (you can get it from the department advisor). You can also get some info from this website: [UCSB</a> Economics - Undergraduate Majors](<a href=“http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/undergrad/undergraduate_majors.htm#acct]UCSB”>http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/undergrad/undergraduate_majors.htm#acct)
However, I do like the handout that was given by the advisor better than the website (just my opinion).</p>
<p>If you have anymore questions, just keep posting it and I will try to answer it to the best of my knowledge.</p>
<p>Go with UCSB </p>