Finance vs Marketing vs Computer Science

I’m stuck and wanted some personal insight from members on what type of career and jobs I could expect with either major. I started looking into marketing because I though it would be interesting to learn the process of creating a marketing campaign and possibly leading one. After looking into marketing there seem to be lots of reviews saying it is the liberal arts of business majors and that you could use a finance degree to get finance jobs and marketing jobs. This spurred my interest in finance and I figured it wouldn’t be bad to learn about the finance systems with stocks, loans, mortgages, investments, etc.

Then comes along Computer Science, this one stood out to me because it gives you “hard” skills that allow you to be a software engineer, web developer, etc. It also has one of the highest starting pays along with other STEM majors. I know nothing about coding or programming, but to be fair I don’t have a bunch of knowledge in the other majors either. I was originally a Kinesiology major with a plan to go to grad school for Physical Therapy. Then one day I realized I didn’t really care for any of my classes. I took financial and managerial accounting and that sparked my interest in becoming a business major. Managerial accounting was the big game changer, I found it interesting that you could use these formulas to decide the best course of action when it came to production schedules, inventory management, adding or removing a segment of your business.

The problem for me is that I don’t feel extreme passion or a strong pull to any of these majors. I’m just slightly interested in what I can learn from them, that the majors can provide good enough jobs to pay off my student loans and possibly give me some skills to be an entrepreneur, also that I wont completely hate myself once I’m out in the working world. I’m a sophomore and the pressure is on to make a decision asap. Thanks for taking the time to read this and give your input.

Okay I see that you are a sophomore, in high school or college? If you’re a college sophomore, wouldn’t you have taken classes in each of these disciplines?

I’m in college. I was originally taking classes to get a degree in kinesiology. I didn’t think of any alternatives at the time that why I haven’t taken a computer class. As for my school I’m not able to take any marketing or finance classes yet because I have to take other pre major classes like accounting, econ, communications, business writing etc. I’ve taken almost all my general ed courses.

I was a finance/management major that ended up in marketing and then data science (typically tied to comp sci) so I kind of get where you’re coming from. A few questions to lay the foundation:

  1. How many credits have you completed?
  2. How many are required for each other majors (marketing, finance, comp sci)?
  3. How many of your current credits overlap with each of the major requirements for those 3 majors?

This would help determine whether or not you would be able to finish any of those fields within the standard 4 years or if you would require a summer/winter course or more.

Also what specifically interests you in citing those 3 majors aside from potential pay? It sounds like you want a more quantitative foundation based on your deviation from Marketing, and mention of Finance/Comp Sci.

If you like (more advanced) math and statistics in the context of the above, you may also want to consider operations research or industrial engineering.

@AoDay

  1. I'm at exactly 60 credits.
  2. 120 credits for each major
  3. If I stayed at my current institution I would be on track for a degree in marketing or finance. Comp Sci however would basically render half my credits useless, I estimate only 35 credits would transfer.

This is where my situation gets tricky. Since I wanted to go to a college that had Kinesiology instead of exercise science my parents allowed me to go to school out of state. Upon hearing that I wanted to change to a business major they said I should come back home to NYC and go to school here since it would be cheaper. The college I’m looking at is Baruch, Zicklin School of Business if I follow through with a business major. There is some overlap in some of the courses I’ve taken at my current university and Baruch, but there is the chance of it taking a semester or two longer for me to graduate depending on how many courses transfer.

I’m interested in a more quantitative major because once you’re done you’ll have “hard” skills to show an employer. I’m a person that likes to find the best/optimal route when it comes to major decisions like this in my life. This probably has to do with the fact that I hate being wrong. First thing I do is try getting as much information as possible, facts and anecdotes and then see which options best align with my specific situation.

Finance just seems interesting to me because you can learn the inner workings of financial intuitions and practical lessons to apply to your own life. The other day I was watching “The Men Who Built America” and I was just hooked to see how Vanderbilt started with one ferry boat to a fleet and then switched over to railroads, how Rockefeller started his oil empire from one production building and so on.

When it comes to Comp Sci I really don’t know much about it other than people calling it problem solving and having the ability to create anything from scratch. Those seem like attractive traits for a major. I’m actually trying to learn C++ right now from the free websites that walk you step by step, in an attempt to see if its something I can do.

@ucbalumnus that’s the thing I haven’t taken high level maths yet. I was advoiding them for as long as possible because of a bad experience with a math teacher that I was stuck with for 2 years in high school, which resulted in me thinking I wasn’t cut out for math. But after getting some tutoring help from my engineer friends I’m finally willing to tackle the math in hopes of finding a career I enjoy. Though the math and other classes they have to take blow my mind.

Well, first you’ll have to shake the sense of wanting to find the “optimal” path and always being right. There’s no such thing as a “best” path. There are many paths that you can take, and each has its pros and cons, its benefits and drawbacks. Don’t worry that if you choose “wrong” you’ll ruin your life or something.

Here’s the thing: you can learn how to program without being a computer science major. You seem actually interested in finance and marketing, but only interested in computer science insomuch as you get extrinsic encouragement to pursue that major. So finance seems like the major for you (and Baruch is a great college). Then you can always take some CS classes on the side or minor in it.

It seems like your interest in finance is the strongest. If you’re interested in marketing, there is a side of it that is quantitative and overlaps with Comp Sci/Statistics.

Finance outside of quantitative trading doesn’t require a high level of math, nothing beyond algebra for the most part. From an “optimal decision making” standpoint, statistics and data science which is a branch of Comp Sci might be of interest to you.

Since you’re just delving into programming languages now, it might be a big gamble to fully invest yourself in a CS major without any strong indication that it is right for you. A CS track based on the numbers you provided would require you to take 21.25 credits per semester which means you would have to take supplemental courses to bring that down in addition to 4 very intensive semesters in terms of workload in a brand new subject.

The two of you have good points. I agree my motivations for CS is extrinsic. Finance does seem to be my best option. Right now I have a 3.02 GPA. In case I don’t get into Baruch do you know of any other colleges that are good when it comes to quality of education, internships and job placement as Baruch is, but that are no more than $10k a year? I’ve looked at Manhattan college, Pace university and others but $30k a year is just too much for me. Maybe I can stretch it to $15k but $10k max is ideal. I’m located in Queens. I found Queens college they only offer a Bacherlors of Administration in Finance.