Prospects for Finance/Accounting/CIS...

College Majors Business Major
1

<p>I am an adult student (27) at a community college about to transfer to a 4 year to get my bachelors. I will have completed all my gen eds and will be picking up with mostly major classes next Spring. I know I definitely want to be in business, but I'm having trouble deciding what major(s) or combination of majors to focus on.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, my school only requires 2 intro to accounting courses as gen ed credits towards a business degree, which I aced with flying colors (I actually found them extremely mindless, repetitive, and un-challenging), so I haven't had much exposure to say any finance or CIS classes (yet). I plan to double major because I believe this will give me a competitive edge in the job market, especially given the fact that I am an "unconventional" student. My current GPA is a 3.94 which I have worked very hard to maintain while working 30 hours a week to support myself, so I'm confident that I will be able to maintain this standard while completing 2 degrees.</p>

<p>The problem I'm having is this:</p>

<p>I definitely want a Finance degree as I believe this will be the best fit in terms of intellectual/logical skills, but I'm concerned <em>just</em> a Finance degree will not be marketable enough in this economy. I'll be 30 by the time I graduate, I've made a life-changing commitment to return to college as an adult, and would really rather not find myself unable to get a better job than the one I started off with at the end of it.</p>

<p>Which would be better? Double major with Finance and either CIS or Accounting, or do Finance/CIS with an Accounting minor, or Finance/Accounting with a CIS minor?</p>

<p>I've been told accounting skills are in high demand but I don't want to limit myself to accounting as I'm afraid I'd be bored out of my mind. I figured if I somehow incorporated 2 or 3 options I would not only make myself more marketable but also leave myself some wiggle room to figure out exactly where I want to be. I know this seems like a lot but I've already started looking at what my hypothetical schedule would be like. I can definitely manage a double major in 2 years, and a minor would at most only take me an extra semester because there are a lot of overlapping classes.</p>

2

<p>I would say either double major in finance and accounting, or choose a minor in accounting. Just forget about CIS in terms of a minor/major because it’s a “fake” major. You have zero advantage against others. Even if you were to hypothetically switch over into a CIS-type job, you’d be crushed by any Computer Science major. I believe you should focus on accounting and/or finance,</p>

3

<p>Would you mind providing some evidence to back this up? I’m not sure how you’re coming to that conclusion. </p>

<p>I understand the advantage in combining accounting skills with financial reasoning. A finance degree alone isn’t enough to land a job, and having some proficiency in financial statements and how to use them is definitely an asset. But the world of business revolves around usin information systems to make decisions, so how would having at least some knowledge of business-related databases and programming (which is what CIS is) not benefit me at all? I’m definitely not trying to break into a strict computer-based field, but one would think that having knowledge on both ends would provide the ability to bridge the gap between business and the systems they use, and therefore would be desired amongst employers. </p>

<p>At least that’s the logical reasoning I have used. Please correct me if I’m wrong.</p>

4

<p>What kind of university are you going to? If it’s highly ranked, a finance degree should be fine. If not, I would do accounting and minor in finance, if that’s what interests you. You’d be able to get a majority of the jobs a finance major could get with an accounting degree, plus some.</p>

<p>If you’re concerned about accounting’s difficulty, it’s considered more difficult than finance. It gets harder than what you see now in your intro classes at community college, especially tax. But again, the rigor of any curriculum depends on the quality of the school.</p>

<p>Unless your school requires admittance into specific programs, I suggest you take a couple finance/accounting courses at the college you are going to attend to determine what is a good fit for you. You may decide you don’t even like your finance classes.</p>