Finance Degree or Accounting Degree

College Majors Business Major
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<p>Hi, I'm a current undergraduate working with my school administrators on the budget planning team, </p>

<p>I was wondering what type of degree would be ideal to pursue a career in budget planning.</p>

<p>I've heard the typical statements about both degrees...</p>

<p>Accounting is versatile, can lead to more jobs,
Finance is a bit specific...</p>

<p>any thoughts and comments?</p>

<p>***and in case any one brings up... "why don't you study the budget planning option..." well... my school does not offer it...but does offer the finance and accounting options</p>

<p>fyi my school is in the top 20 for public schools, and in the top 20 for business schools
and yes I do plan on getting either a cpa or a cfa...</p>

<p>but for now, I need a little guidance and direction...</p>

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<p>Do whatever you like more. Finance has a lot of accounting in it, so I’d take a decent amount of accounting classes anyway, but I think finance is cooler than accounting. Accounting has a lot of memorization and process management while finance has more problem solving and quantitative work. Usually accounting is the safer bet, but finance has by far the greater potential to make money.</p>

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<p>For the most part, accounting is tougher than finance and usually doesn’t have grade inflation. However, majoring in accounting will open many more jobs that that of finance majors. Accounting majors can do any job that a finance major can do but it doesn’t work the other way around. See post number one in “Everything you wanted to know or should know about accounting.”</p>

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<p>Explain and prove please. And don’t say objective vs. subjective. I think grade inflation is an overused term for denigration of other entity.</p>

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<p>Why not ? Just add a few more classes. Isn’t it true that accounting majors want to do finance work but very few finance majors want to be accountants? It’s not about the abilities.</p>

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<p>The joke at my school is the finance majors are just failed acoounting majors who couldn’t pass the classes. </p>

<p>Also, accounting majors can be CPA’s, and if a finance major wanted to be a CPA he would need to take all the classes be required to be an accounting major.</p>

<p>*I am a finance/accounting double major. I am in the process of taking upper level accounting classes and haven’t started w/ my finance classes yet (so I might be biased).</p>

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<p>cbreeze, I don’t have to prove anything. If you doubt me, just call up any college accounting department and ask them. Generally , there are more folks who failed out of accounting and have subsequently gone into finance than the other way around from my experience. Yes, this is based on my experience having taught accounting.</p>

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<p>I did. One family member teaches at Wharton. Said he’s only heard it from people in accounting and it’s dependent on the teacher, not the major.
As I stated before, I’ve seen more accountants wanting to go into finance, not the other way around. Just read the investment banking threads.</p>

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<p>cbreeze, as you noted, You have seen accountants wanting to go into finance. You won’t see finance majors working for accounting firms unless they took a lot of credits in accounting.</p>

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<p>good point</p>

<p>“Accounting majors can do any job that a finance major can do but it doesn’t work the other way around. “</p>

<p>that’s what I actually find interesting about the budget planners at my school,
it seems like a finance position
however most of the members are accountants… cpa’s and accounting professors and such</p>

<p>plus my advisor said… you don’t need to study business… to work in business…
for instance a sociology major can work in business for human resources…
or a CompSci Engineer or even a communication or English major can work in marketing…
my friends actually met some MSFT managers that have such backgrounds…</p>

<p>but I think learning business at a top tier school would be more beneficial than pursuing a subject the school is less known for… ie communication or etc…</p>

<p>plus accounting’s versatility is definitely a plus… </p>

<p>whereas with finance, it would be horrible to not get a job because you haven’t studied the right subjects</p>

<p>it even says that people can be loan officers without a degree in business or finance…
“Most financial institutions prefer that loan officers have a degree in finance; however you can also become a loan officer if you have several years of financial intuition experience.”
[How</a> to Become a Licenced Loan Officer | eHow.com](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/how_4780585_become-licenced-loan-officer.html]How”>How to Become an Independent Loan Officer - Career Trend), </p>

<h2>which is a bit disappointing… as it takes away some added security of getting a degree in finance…</h2>

<p>ideally I would pursue a double Finance/Accounting major too, but aside from my business major I plan on getting a degree in a biology or another science/health
so I can work in biotech, public health or at least health insurance… and that’s why I’m stuck with the dilemma of choosing between these two interesting fields…(finance/accounting)</p>

<p>"You won’t see finance majors working for accounting firms unless they took a lot of credits in accounting. "</p>

<p>and so…I will keep in mind that I should take accounting classes…
regardless of which direction I take, since its a good idea</p>

<p>and hopefully I will be able to minor in accounting if I pursue finance or another business field as a backup… </p>

<p>plus in my state we’re required 45 extra credits (225 cr) to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam, so I guess taking some extra accounting classes will be helpful</p>

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<p>what would be the best double major with accounting? I’m a freshman going for the 150 credits…would it be finance? I’m also considering information systems or economics</p>

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<p>I actually would prefer either computer science for accounting information system specialties or forensics, in order to prepare for forensic accounting.</p>

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<p>accounting / finance and accounting / econ are good practical degrees,
however my concerns are that you may need a graduate degree in econ or a MBA in finance to get far</p>

<p>however with an accounting degree on it’s own, you can get pretty far with the undergrad degree + 45 credits + cpa</p>

<p>and information systems does sound interesting
but If I were smart enough, and if you could handle the difficult material
I’d say go for a double degree, in accounting and in comp sci
should be same amount of credits too</p>

<p>that’s actually why I’m pursuing a second degree, to maximize my credit usage,
and to enhance my business degree, </p>

<p>I’d think it’s a smart decision, especially when you need 225 just to sit for the cpa exam (should be 150 in semester system)</p>

<p>+++ at my school the computational degrees are upper level, and combine these two fields (ie you need a background in both)
for instance computational biology / genetics, computational linguistics, or even computational business</p>

<p>and these programs/courses involve actual programming
for instance the actual programmers at google seek students studying computational linguistics to help refine search algorithms, make voice controlled gps, etc
engineers actually program on their own to maximize their research, for example genetic / protein mapping,
and in business they make some of the programs that run the industry.</p>

<p>You won’t have to actually be a comp-sci engineer, as in having a engineering degree…that’s another journey on its own…
but having that degree bs/ba in comp sci can allow you to have a edge in the field, especially business</p>

<p>so it would be a very niche field, and it’s also very competitive</p>

<p>and even if you go the IS route, some background knowledge in IT and compsci would be helpful</p>

<p>but I think I’m still where I started, choosing a good business degree… finance … vs accounting…</p>

<p>and the only thing making me look at finance, is that my school’s CFO (my boss) was promoted to President… realistically I will probably never be CFO or anything close, but it does show the possibility of upward mobility… that is unless CFO’s are usually accounting majors… but there is the CAO… or comptroller positions as well…</p>

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<p>There are 3 degrees which almost always guarantee post graduation employment. Accounting, engineering & nursing.</p>

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<p>hi i am manish. i want to go for master in account in us.after completing my b.com what kind of job will available to me in india or back in india i have to do anything in accountancy.
and my concern is master in accounting similer in us and in india.</p>

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<p>i don’t understand why you have to post the same crap in 4 threads.</p>

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<p>People usually have to graduate from top biz schools to find the finance jobs “desired” by most people. On the other hand, benefits found in accounting jobs are more consistent. I wouldn’t JUST major in finance from a lower rated school simply because of the job outlook.
Having said that, it is a good idea to double major in finance for those that like finance.</p>

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<p>Thanks for advice gobluecpa, accounting does seem like a safer bet…</p>

<p>in response to:
“People usually have to graduate from top biz schools to find the finance jobs “desired” by most people…I wouldn’t JUST major in finance from a lower rated school simply because of the job outlook.”</p>

<p>when saying “top biz school,” what is the exact definition…and criteria…</p>

<p>the lines get blurred with different ranking systems…</p>

<p>and I realize there are undergrad and mba/master’s programs and phds +++
but the mba/graduate/phd programs are best left for another thread,
as here we’re just starting out and were starting to choose undergrad majors…
<strong><em>so lets keep the focus on ‘top undergraduate biz schools’</em></strong></p>

<p>and well, to prevent a bunch of dup posts…
I know someone is going to say, penn, wharton… stanford… ivy leagues, etc…
that’s a given, (and they are all private schools)</p>

<p>1) but how about public schools? or the psuedo public ivy’s?<br>
how do they fare vs the private schools… ivy leagues…? and in ‘top rankings’?</p>

<p>and the rankings themselves can be a mess as they’re are so many categories…
first you start by options’ [i.e. HR vs Finance vs Accounting vs Marketing]
and then you have to factor in national vs region, and then public vs private, etc…</p>

<p>2) what would be a ‘estimated/rough’ cut off point for being a top ranked a top biz school? </p>

<p>a) top 25? … top 10? … top 20?.. top 40???</p>

<p>b) and are these rankings national or by region?
public vs private…?</p>

<p>so basically at what ranking would it be considered relatively safe? and by what parameters?</p>

<p>for instance,
university of illinois - urbana ranks high in accounting…
but how does it fare vs wharton? or stanford</p>

<p>(FYI I don’t go there, it’s just a example)</p>

<p>this concerns me because my school is a regional champ in rankings, top 20 in publics
but by national rankings it starts to drop (ie top 40…)… especially when factoring in the private schools & ivies…</p>

<p>so I guess if my school isn’t ranked competively,
it may not be worth it to study finance,
and so I’m trying to understand school rankings better</p>

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<p>bpt911, first of all, don’t get me wrong. Like I said, you can still study finance if you find it interesting, regardless of what school you go to. I double majored in finance and accounting in undergrad because finance was interesting to me, and accounting was employer-friendly. </p>

<p>Usually, though, the top biz schools that offer their grad top finance job outlooks are private like the ones you listed. There are a few public ones that consistent as well, such as Berkeley, Michigan… etc. Other publics in perhaps the top 20 (other big ten schools) also tend to have such opportunities from time to time, but just not as often. </p>

<p>Univ of Illinois is a great school in accounting (maybe not so much for finance tho). It was actually my second choice for grad school. If you work hard and network well, you should have no problem getting the job you want out of U of I.</p>