<p>Well, I recently became interested in the business field, but I applied to all my schools as a science major (but I realise that I am TERRIBLE at science, which is why my GPA is so low in HS, lol) However, I'm pretty decent at public speaking, writing/english, math, and so forth... so someone suggested looking into things like accounting, finance, etc. </p>
<p>But the reality is, I know next to nothing about being a business major! What are the ins and outs? What courses do you have to take? What is the material on? Would someone who has nearly no grasp on history/politics do well in it? (My family abstains from politics so I know virtually nothing except that Bush is our president. Well, exaggeration, but yeah) </p>
<p>I was accepted at:
UConn (honors program) @ 14,000/year
Boston University @ 30,000/year
Rochester @ 39,000/year
Union College @ 37,000/year</p>
<p>I don't know about MBA or accounting rankings of these schools at all, but I've looked a few up - UConn and BU seem to be most likely? </p>
<p>I'm mainly interested in Accounting (since that seems to be UConn's strongest aspect, and I'll probably end up there). What exactly does an accountant do / accounting major have to accomplish? What is the workload/work hours like as an accountant? I read up on ibanking, which sounds terrible despite the amazing payroll: I could never work 100+ hours a week! What should you be strong in/focus on? I know you have to take an exam every 2 years? Can I do anything before college to prep for someone who's thought they would be a doctor all their life...?</p>
<p>Accounting is great preparation for the business world.</p>
<p>There are many different paths you can take with your degree but I will talk to 2 common paths.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Public accounting (CPA): many accounting graduates work for one of the large public accouting firms (ie Deloitte) for a min of two years in order to qualify for taking the CPA exams. Puclic accounting firms typically perfrom annual audits of their clients. auditing will provide you with the background needed to understand business operations, internal reporting and external reporting.</p></li>
<li><p>Private accounting. accounting graduates can work as junior accountants in private industry. Jr. accountants/analyst typically perform mcu of the entry level tasks such as journal entries and maintain excel schedules.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As far as college choice goes, I would take a hard look at the type of companies that recruit on campus and the internship/coop programs available.</p>
<p>Very good summary by frankie. I would add that an accounting degree would give you more versatility than any other business major. In addition to being an accountant, you can be a financial analyst (in a corporate not wall street sense), work as a government auditor for the IRS, GAO, be a federal agent for the FBI and so on. Getting a CPA certification would give you even more versatility considering the immense weight the designation provides.</p>
<p>My advice to you is to take the exam as soon as possible after graduating from college. It's far more difficult to pass once you start working full-time. Also, make sure you get qualifying work experience (based on your state's requirements) as soon as possible as well. It wouldn't be wise to put that off. </p>
<p>As far as college is concerned, pick the one where companies and organizations recruit the most. Accounting is accounting is accounting as far as academics is concerned (as long as you go to an accredited business or accounting program). Accounting as an academic discipline is very elementary so what you learn from Wharton will generally be the same as a no-name state school, as accredited programs have to base their curriculum on basically the same AICPA standards. Accounting is also a "weed-out" major, so expect a lot of flunkouts in your classes.</p>
<p>It sounds like Accounting or Finance would be the best path for you. You'll be taking lots of BS prereqs to start out with so you should have plenty of time to learn about both majors.</p>
<p>Business has nothing to do with history or politics. You will probably have to take a history class or two and a political science course but those are just pre-reqs and will have nothing to do with your career.</p>
<p>As for prepping for a business major, it's completely unnecessary. You could possibly take a related job in the summer (working for a bank maybe ??), or take summer school at a community college to get some of the BS classes out of the way (ensure that they transfer to your University of choice though).</p>
<p>oh wow. thank you for all your replies, they were extremely helpful :) </p>
<p>are accounting and finance considered some of the more difficult courses in college? would you consider it more or less demanding/difficult than taking the premed route? when you say "weed out courses"... meaning it's so difficult that most people who can't keep up drop the course, correct? =/ </p>
<p>and good to know that i don't need a political background/history knowledge. :) thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>and based on my schools, which WOULD be the best to attend for accounting/finance... i'm deciding between uconn (storrs) and urochester at the moment. rochester is more well known and has an excellent economics department, but no actual accounting major...</p>
<p>UConn would be better. It has the distinct designation of being accredited in both accounting and business by AACSB. Not too many schools have both. U Rochester is accredited in business but not accounting, which means however, that it's still pretty solid in accounting. I would go with UConn though. </p>
<p>Accounting is a weed out major because the curriculum is designed to be difficult in nature. Vast amounts of students are flunked out. I don't know if it's more difficult than pre-med but it's definitely, by most accounts, the most difficult business major by far. Finance is not as difficult although it is a pretty difficult major. Many finance and info. systems majors at my school were accounting flunk-outs.</p>
<p>I was interested to find out more about U Rochester and found that although it is a nationally top ranked school (top 40), it doesn't even have an undergraduate business program. The choice between UConn and Rochester would then be a no-brainer for accounting. Well UConn isn't too shaby being in the top 60 or so nationally. Definitely choose UConn in this case.</p>
<p>precocious, "weed out" in terms of professors flunking out a significant amount of students, especially in the first upper division classes. It's a way to sift out those who can't cut it. As truman states, accounting programs are designed to be that way. In accounting, you would need to have a solid grasp of what seems to be an endless amount of accounting "pronouncements" or principles. It is a difficult major. If you have some common sense and can put in a lot of studying time, however, you'll do fine.</p>
<p>i was in just the same position!..and now i dont know what to do..i finally realized that i dont want to go into pharmacy and would like to go into accouting/finance..however i'm stuck with these schools ucsd, ucd, uci, and ucsb..i'm planning on transfering to usc for sophmore year..usc because it allows for soph transfer..any ideas? thanks!!=]</p>
<p>Finance and Accounting are two of the most difficult business majors (along with Management Information Systems). I have always been under the assumption that Finance is more difficult than Accounting (not positive on that though). However, engineering degress such as Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering are much more difficult than either.</p>
<p>BTW, I don't know how difficult "pre-med" is.</p>