<p>So here's the deal...</p>
<p>I'm a 28 year old student who recently graduated from a community college and am about to begin completing my bachelors at a local state school. Until this point I have been planning to double major in Accounting and Finance, but, after taking my third accounting course (Intermediate I), I realized how much I actually HATE accounting. I have been toying with the idea of dropping the accounting and adding a Math major instead.</p>
<p>Math has always been my best subject and, if I had it my way, I would have simply majored in Math from the beginning. However, I was concerned with marketability in our sluggish economy and decided a business route was a better decision.</p>
<p>It's taken me a while, but I think I have finally figured out that my career focus should be more quantitative, probably in financial analysis or actuarial work (I'm very logically oriented and excellent with stats/probability). I currently have a cumulative 3.96 GPA (4.0 in major) and believe I could handle the Finance/Math double major without a problem, academically speaking. Aside from all of this, there are a few things holding me back:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am currently eligible for a 30% discount off of tuition because of a special program I am involved in with the CC and State school. If I drop Accounting as a major, I could potentially lose this. State school is not expensive (~$7000/year), but 30% is still a decent amount of money. </p></li>
<li><p>Switching focus at this point in the game would delay graduation by at least 1 semester, possibly 2. As someone who will already be 30 by the time she graduates college, this is kind of a big deal.</p></li>
<li><p>As much as I want the Finance/Math double major, part of me thinks it would be more reasonable to just settle for a Math minor and take a few CS classes instead. This wouldn't look as good to employers but would be more feasible in terms of time. The Math double major requires 13 extra classes on top of Finance; a minor would only require 4/5. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any advice from people in related fields or with applicable experience is appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>*Side note
The math within the finance program at my school ends with Calc I and Business Stats II. I have more math ability than this, and, regardless of necessity in terms of marketability, I simply ENJOY math.</p>
<p>“Math has always been my best subject and, if I had it my way, I would have simply majored in Math from the beginning. However, I was concerned with marketability in our sluggish economy and decided a business route was a better decision.”</p>
<p>Well, marketability to become what? It’s great that you are starting to formulate a plan in seeing where you “fit” but the main question is what types of industries are you trying to work for, what types of positions are you trying to obtain, what type of work experience do you have on those related industries/positions already, and where do you see yourself in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years at 50?</p>
<p>The problem is I’m not really sure. Going back to school was a decision based on wanting a better life for myself with the desire to achieve my potential. For the past 10 years I’ve been working in the beauty industry as a hairstylist, which has been fun, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve recognized this is not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.</p>
<p>The only experience I have other than this is a few minor part-time gigs in high school and a 6 month long bookkeeping internship that just recently ended. It’s difficult trying to envision where I see myself in the future because I don’t have things figured out yet. I also tend to change my mind on an almost daily basis, so what I want today may not be the same thing I wanted yesterday, or the same thing I will want tomorrow. My plan during this discovery phase was to do what interested me, follow my intuition, and have faith that it would lead me to a place where I would ultimately want to be. This has proven to be a relatively successful model until now. At this point I’m forced to make some concrete decisions, and what I thought I wanted to do (Accounting) is actually not what I want to do AT ALL. I was pulling my hair out during Intermediate I, not because the content was difficult (I received an A), but because it was so mind-numbingly boring it was hard motivating myself to do the work. I honestly can’t see myself going through that for another 2 years, nor do I want to.</p>
<p>At this point I’ve kind of let go of the whole “marketability” thing because I’m confident that my grades, unique experience, and communication abilities will be able to land me a job. I’m more focused on doing what I actually want to do instead of what I think would be better for the job market. My problem now is deciding if it’s worth the extra time it would take changing my major at this stage in the game, the money I would potentially lose from losing my tuition discount, and how much math I actually need to supplement my finance education, given my state school isn’t exactly known for their business program.</p>