<p>Hi,
I am a high school senior getting ready to graduate this june. I was originally planning on enlisting into the US Army, but I started having second thoughts and decided I want to get my degree. The problem is, I am not really sure what I want to major in, so I have been doing some research. I came across accounting, and started doing research on it. From what I have read, accounting is a very important field with a lot of different opportunities.
Also, I am not the greatest at math. I haven't failed any math classes in high school, I failed algebra in 8th grade, but the lowest grade I have received in a math class in high school is a C, and I have heard the math involved in accounting is just basic arithmetic. Also my cumulative GPA so far is a 3.4, and my last semester GPA was a 3.8. </p>
<p>While looking up articles on accounting, I realized I have no idea about some of things accounting involves. I am a high school senior, only 17 , and I have very limited knowledge on subjects of business of finance. (This is normal right?)
So if one decides out of high school that he wants to try accounting, will he learn what he needs in basic accounting classes? or is there a lot of required knowledge needed?</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, just a little worried on what I am gonna do. Was seriously dedicating myself to joining the military, so now as I decide to go to college, I haven't really put much thought into it, except now.</p>
<p>I am an accounting major but I have the benefit that my father is a partner at a CPA firm and my mother does accounting and consulting too. With that said take anything thing I say with a grain of salt since I am genetically predisposed to going into accounting.</p>
<p>Math is important. Maybe not advanced math, but speed and accuracy is. You should be able to mentally compute percentages within 2-5%.</p>
<p>I posted this in a similar thread:</p>
<p>I am also an accounting major and pick this field for a number of reasons after a LOT of research.</p>
<p>Job Security
Accountants are always needed. Bear markets, bull markets, farmers’ markets, there will always be transactions and there will always be someone keeping track of them.</p>
<p>Versitility
Accountancy is viewed as one of the more difficult business majors (the other being economics) and requires knowledge of other areas such as finance, marketing and management. An accountant can adapt more easily into one of those fields than they can adapt to accounting. Accounting can also set you up nice for law.</p>
<p>Salary
My father is a partner at a large (top 15 nationally), regional firm and makes roughly $700,000 a year. Entry level accountants will average $50-70k per year and will be in the 6 digit range after a few decent promotions. </p>
<p>My plan is to specialize in tax as my father did, then perhaps move into tax law. From what I understand, your first few years working for a firm as a CPA demands a good amount of patience. I remember times durring tax season before my father made partner where he would spend the night at the office. I think the worst was two nights in a row.</p>
<p>What kind of person does accounting appeal too?
Im still unsure exactly what accounting entails, so I am trying to learn as much as I can.</p>
<p>How do you learn about accounting from out of high school? My school does not have an accounting class, and I don’t know much about business or finance, so how does one find out/learn about accounting?
by taking introductory classes in college?</p>
<p>Take introduction to financial accounting is college and you will instantly know if you like the material or not. Until then, there is no reason to really plan on anything past taking that first class.</p>
<p>Actually, an introduction class probably would not give you a real taste of what any field is about. It’ll just probably expose you to what happens in that “world.” If you really want to know what the field is about, then you would have to take some upper level classes, which means you have to get through the introduction classes.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the introduction classes usually give you a basis of knowledge, so they’re essential.</p>
<p>Introductory financial accounting covers as much material if not more than almost any class a freshman typically takes. I disagree with ijamjl about needing to take upper level accounting classes after financial accounting to figure out if it is something you will like. Intermediate 1 and 2 are not that much different in nature from intro financial accounting–they are just much harder and more in depth.</p>
<p>Cost accounting is completely different from financial, so if financial doesn’t seem like a perfect fit, then sometimes people like cost (but plenty hate it). </p>
<p>Auditing is the classroom is a BS class that doesn’t reflect audit work in the real world. It is just a bunch of memorization.</p>
<p>Individual and Corporate Tax are useful classes that offer a very different area from pure “accounting.” Tax decisions are important to any business and these classes give yo a new perspective on the tax code. </p>
<p>At the basic level though, everything comes back to fully grasping financial accounting, however.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. So I will learn what accounting is really like while taking these courses? Because at the moment I am still a little lost on what accountants do? and the accounting field in general.</p>
<p>Accountants record the activities of a business. That is the most basic definition. I would wikpedia it and you can get a more general info on it.</p>
<p>In a way, I disagree with what I said too. Technically, an adjunct instructor said those words and I was just passing them on because I found some truth in it. I guess it pertains more towards the math and sciences than it does to accounting. Maybe it’s too much of a generalization, but I have no problem with you disagreeing with it :)</p>
<p>However, I do disagree with you about using Wikipedia. No matter how small of a use you’re using it for, I refuse to use it. My professor this past semester said that he entered a false entry on Wikipedia about three years ago, and it hasn’t been corrected since. No matter how overrated it is, I’d rely more on the BLSs description.</p>
<p>@Jackel</p>
<p>I can’t really help you with what accounting really is because I just decided to be an accounting major, and I’ll be taking my first few classes next semester. I do believe, however, that it’s mainly split into tax and auditing. Try looking around at those two sub-fields and see what you can absorb.</p>
<p>Wikipedia can be a good source if it is not your only source. I believe instructors exagerate the unreliability of the website to promote real research skills. Taking any information from any medium requires a bit of common sence.</p>
<p>@jackle</p>
<p>For a topic like accounting, I believe Wikipedia would suffice to answer your basic quetions.</p>
<p>While I believe that your argument is a good one, your use of the word “sence” as well as the fact that you misspelled the OPs username, which could have been a simple mistake, just completely dissuades me from agreeing with it. No insults are intended.</p>
<p>Wikipedia entries usually have sources posted at the bottom that can be used to check the reliability of an article. Not a bad site. Most professors that I’ve known to bash Wikipedia tended to be behind the times and were stubborn.</p>
<p>One of my kids took an intro to accounting course and disliked everything about it. His twin brother, however, took it and saw some possibilities. He continued taking more accounting courses (majored in econ) and is now getting his masters in accounting and will work for a large CPA firm upon graduation. So, if you have the slightest interest, just take an intro class and see what happens. That’s what college is for; to find out what you like.</p>
<p>@APG707- Thank you for that link. It was pretty interesting reading over it. </p>
<p>@Mythreesons- Thanks for your input. I am definitely going to give it a shot. Just curious, how is your son in math? Math is what I am worried about. I am not terribly bad at it, but I don’t enjoy it too much. I haven’t failed any classes in high school, but failed Algebra in 8th grade.</p>
<p>Jackel: My impression is that an accountant does not need to know very much math, but they need to be very careful individuals who do not make mistakes with numbers.</p>
<p>Thanku for your long post…actually im not sure abt what courses to take. i actually get A for math all the time. I like math very much…so is accounting gud for me as a major…</p>