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Hello,
When I was in high school, I took many science courses, more than I needed for graduation, and took barely more than the minimum social studies I courses needed to graduate. At the time, I thought I would major in something like bio or biochem and then go to graduate or medical school but now I’m thinking I might try business or accounting. When I took the science courses in high school such as bio, environmental science, anatomy & physiology, I ultimately did well in those courses (no lower than an A-) but they made me very sleep-deprived and stressed out due to the ridiculous amount of memorization. Also, having to go to grad school and medical school after four years of undergraduate college just seems like too much for me. I heard that medical school is ridiculously cutthroat with so much memorization, more than I could probably handle. While a career in business might not produce a higher salary (from what I’ve heard), getting the education for it might be a lot less stressful.
However, if I decide to major in business or accounting in college, would I have even more trouble than if I decide to major in bio/biochem, because I did not take many business-related courses in high school? My math is good if that helps, and I also took AP Microeconomics and did well in the class (but not in the AP exam). I didn’t take any of the basic business-related electives, such as accounting, marketing, etc. Would I be better off just sticking with a science major, or would I survive as a business/accounting major?
Also, if it helps to know, I will be attending the University of Richmond as a freshman this coming year. It is a well-regarded liberal arts college. It is strong in the sciences from what I’ve heard but it is known especially for its business school.
Thanks all!
Whatever you can see yourself doing in the future, try watching videos on both careers and explore more
What you take in high school has very little bearing on what you should major in. I have a friend who majored in math who hadn’t even taken pre-calculus in high school; she had to start in pre-cal in college. I have several friends who majored in languages that they didn’t start until college. Lots of fields don’t even widely offer good high school courses in them (like economics or sociology). High school isn’t supposed to prepare you for a specific major; it’s just supposed to prepare you for college (or tech school or something else) in general.
So if you want to major in business or accounting, go ahead.
No worries about not having taken any business related classes. The biggest question is whether you will enjoy it.
Right, often high schools don’t offer specific business-related courses. It isn’t even important to take high school economics.
I got through calc 1 and had taken one extremely easy marketing course in high school. I entered as a marketing major mainly because I had no idea what else I could be. I had absolutely no experience with general business, finance, didn’t even know what accounting was. Lo and behold, took intro to accounting first semester and loved it, switched my major, just completed my second year of school and my first internship at a Big Four firm. It’s easy to feel out of place next to the boys who grew up idolizing Gordon Gekko and have been investing since they were 8, and that’s honestly the hardest part of joining business, learning to talk the talk. If you are a good student, you can do well in business courses.
It is a good idea to switch out of science/pre-med if you know now you don’t like it. That being said, accounting can be pretty tricky as well, especially if you work with tax which has a lot of legal aspects and memorization to it. You would be better off in a field like marketing, MIS, management, or supply chain if you dislike memorization. If your math is strong but you dislike memorization, why not try engineering or CS? Very few engineering students have experience in the field prior to college, so there’d be no setbacks. A lot of CS majors will have probably coded throughout high school, but colleges assume you know nothing in the intro courses, and if you like logic you can pick it up.
Thanks for the answers. But to @CheddarcheeseMN, my high school did offer business-related electives; I just decided not to take them because they weren’t required and I thought I was pretty set on doing something sciencey in college
@novafan1225 Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, my college doesn’t offer engineering majors; it just offers the 3-2 engineering program which doesn’t seem to give as comprehensive of an engineering education as a college that offers engineering majors. I didn’t think that would be an issue when I enrolled because I wasn’t interested in engineering at the time. My school does offer computer science, but I don’t really think I’m interested in programming and that kind of stuff, although I’m not sure.
I’m trying to schedule an intro bio and intro microeconomics course for the upcoming fall semester (before they get filled up) and figure out which one I like more so I can determine whether I should major in accounting or just stick to pre med.
@gq2016 If you’re considering add accounting, try to get into an intro accounting course instead of microeconomics. You mentioned you’ve already taken microecon, how would taking it again help you decide whether or not to be an accounting major? While they both are kind of generally under the business umbrella, I would hardly call econ and accounting similar, so I don’t think that’s the best way to decide.
U Richmond has a very good undergraduate business school. If that is what you want to major in now, go for it!
@novafan1225 Good point, thanks. I’ll take that into consideration