Hi,
I am a senior in high school and plan on going to AUM which is listed as the top 1% Business school in the world. Before now I was thinking of a dual major in Business Management and Marketing with a minor in Mandarin Chinese. Recently I have been thinking of changing my Marketing major to Accounting and MAYBE Finance. Goals wise: I wish to have a job that makes at least 80k and a job where I can move up in the business. I want to live in a more major city. Also, could you tell me the pros and cons of each business majors? Thank you all for your help.
What is AUM? No one can tell you what to major in or pursue as a career. We don’t know your strengths or interests. Your ability to move up is based on your performance and ability to connect with those around you which you haven’t given us any insight into.
You also haven’t given us any reasons as to why you are choosing business or your thought process behind changing your marketing major to accounting or finance. Every major city has all of these careers, and all of these fields have the ability to make 80K… you should ask this question again in 2 years after you’ve taken some of your college courses if you haven’t already figured it out by then.
Why do you feel a need to pick a major now? More than likely as a HS senior you have not taken even one college level business course. IMO it is best to first learn more about the different choices available. I would start college, take some classes in a variety of busienss disciplines such as accounting, finance, IT, marketing etc. and see where your interests and aptitudes lie. You can also talk to someone in career services at your college when you are there to learn about where people in different majors end up working after graduation. I also don’t know AUM but at most schools there is no need and not benefit to choosing a major before the end of your sophomore year.
Also having a goal of earning a specific salary is kind of silly – only a rare exception would start at $80k with an undergrad degree. Better to focus on finding a field you enjoy and are good at. The money will eventually take care of itself. And if you want to work in a major city you need to talk to career placement at your school and see if any companies in large cities recruit there.
Alright sorry I did not post much information. AUM is Auburn University at Montgomery. Some of my skills include: leading a group, being able to persuade others, logic, etc. I have sold things in the past. Also as a HS senior I believe it is very important to look into majors, unlike others who wait till their sophomore year of college, if not later. Also the 80k salary wasnt meant to start off with, I was looking at more 50-60k. Thank you once again for your help.
As part of your business core curriculum you will be required to take introductory classes in a variety of disciplines such as accounting, finance, IT etc. IMO taking these classes will be the best research you can do into finding a major that is the best fit for you. There is no advantage to declaring a major early since this business core will likely take up a good portion of your first year and a half.
@Mattskater22 I think you’re missing the point of what @happy1 and I are trying to say. Everyone looks into majors before college, that’s part of the application process, but discovering potential majors is very different from working towards completion of a major. For example I was a declared finance major entering freshman year, after taking my first two semesters of introductory business & gen ed core, I decided to double major in economics. My sophomore year I finished all of my core classes and began to schedule my major electives which count toward major specific degree completion. By this point I had taken intro to statistics, finance, marketing, accounting, management, macro & micro econ, and intermediate macro econ along with a bunch of other non business courses.
After taking 1 advanced elective toward my finance and 1 toward my econ major I decided to drop my econ major junior year and switched to double majoring in management. You don’t have to stick to the majors that you declare in your application and even if you have a strong idea of what you want to major in, it honestly doesn’t matter because you likely won’t take any credits that will go toward completion of those majors in your first two years. You know you want to major in a field of business and you will have to take the same core classes as everyone else anyway, why not try to make the decision after you’ve completed them?
@AoDay Thank you for explaining it better than I did!