<p>Okay I'm sure this has been asked a million times but here's the thing.. Right now I'm a junior in Penn State. I used to be a computer science major but i decided not to go down that path because of a lack of interest. I've narrowed it down to 2 majors... Accounting or Finance. I know its kind of weird asking this on the internet since its a career decision but I'm just looking for what people think of these majors. If i major in Finance i can graduate in 3 more semesters, with Accounting i believe it would take me 4 more semesters. This isn't a huge deal and I'm willing to do Accounting even if it takes longer but the question i have is which should i major in? Which will provide me with more opportunities? I kind of want to work in a large corporation setting... will a finance degree help with this?</p>
<p>Accounting will provide more opportunities, as Finance is pretty narrow and accounting includes finance. Accountants are in basically every public, private, and government industry. And if you think the CPA would be good for your career, then you should definitely chose Accounting. The finance industry is still recovering from the infamous collapse in 2007.</p>
<p>I will personally be choosing finance/economics over accounting, but I already have an idea of why I want the degree and what I want to do with it, and I have a very clear idea of why I don’t want to major in accounting. The best thing for you will be to take a couple of classes in each major and choose the one that’s more interesting. There are vast opportunites in many different industries for finance majors. Just do some basic research.</p>
<p>Accounting majors can do Finance
Finance majors cannot do Accounting</p>
<p>^That’s not true. There are a lot of finance majors doing accounting work. Moreover, if you look at any job postings and requirements, you will see that employers do not care whether you have a degree in finance or accounting (usually they ask for either accounting/finance), but as long as you have a related working experience that can support your degree.</p>
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<p>Agreed. And I’ve seen this happen. </p>
<p>Toshtemirov, try building a pro-forma IS/BS/CF statement and doing an NPV analysis without having a solid foundation in accounting.</p>
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<p>The two subjects are related. However, if you want to be a CPA, the second sentence, finance majors cannot do accounting, is true for most, if not all, states.</p>
<p>However, finance might be more versatile and finance jobs are usually considered more (don’t hate accounting majors) sophisticated and higher paying. That’s probably because Investment Banking, Trading , HF’s, etc are considered finance.</p>
<p>“However, finance might be more versatile and finance jobs are usually considered more (don’t hate accounting majors) sophisticated and higher paying. That’s probably because Investment Banking, Trading , HF’s, etc are considered finance.”</p>
<p>I would agree that finance majors would have a better shot than accounting majors at most of those jobs, however, for investment banking you can pick any major (just be sure its from an ivy) and for trading and hedge fund’s you would be better off with a quantitative degree like math, physics, stats, computer science, or engineering.</p>
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<li>“However, finance might be more versatile”</li>
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<p>No it is not. Accounting is a little bit more versatile in terms of job opportunities.</p>
<ol>
<li>“However, if you want to be a CPA, the second sentence, finance majors cannot do accounting, is true for most, if not all, states.”</li>
</ol>
<p>Why not? You can take some accounting classes and still be able to sit for the CPA exam with a degree in finance. However, accounting is better, since it allows you to get to the CPA faster, and sometimes even take the exam without having 150 hours of education. (at lest in New York)</p>
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<li>“Toshtemirov, try building a pro-forma IS/BS/CF statement and doing an NPV analysis without having a solid foundation in accounting.”</li>
</ol>
<p>Again, you can take some accounting electives to get some knowledge about the topics that are not covered in finance. The same thing with accounting–not all accounting programs cover the finance material in their curriculum. </p>
<p>To sum up, I believe that it is wrong to say that: </p>
<p>“Accounting majors can do Finance
Finance majors cannot do Accounting”</p>
<p>P.S.</p>
<p>I am majoring in accounting myself.</p>
<p>Yes, financie majors can take accounting and other required courses in order to sit for the CPA;however, they would be required to take a number of courses. Some states require certain courses outside of accounting such as ethics, micro econ etc that are taken by most accounting majors. Thus, finnance majors might need to not only take 30 credits of accounting but might have to take other courses as well for the CPA. However, as Toshtemoriv notes, it is doable.</p>
<p>Tosh. So you’re majoring in accounting but have no direct knowledge of how these majors are applied in the working world?</p>
<p>On what basis are you making these statements? As a student? Lol…</p>
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<p>And try doing a pro-forma statement or NPV/DCF analysis without a solid understand of WACC, time value of money, projections, or other finance concepts. I agree that finance majors should take more accounting than most finance majors are supposed to (I’d say an intermediate account class or two + maybe intermediate cost accounting is good enough), but solid foundation in accounting does not equal accounting major. There’s a lot of finance concepts accountants never learn either and instead learn advanced tax law concepts and whatnot, which you’ll probably never need as a financial analyst.</p>
<p>Having said that, I do think accounting > finance as a major, but don’t think that finance students with additional accounting training can’t do those industry jobs as well.</p>
<p>“Having said that, I do think accounting > finance as a major, but don’t think that finance students with additional accounting training can’t do those industry jobs as well.”</p>
<p>That is what I meant. For instance, in some schools, finance majors usually take Principals of Accounting, Financial Accounting 1,2 and sometimes Cost Accounting, as an elective class, which means that those people have a knowledge about accounting. I know people, and read a lot of posts, who majored in finance and currently work as accountants.</p>
<p>big4bound for one round asks, “On what basis are you making these statements?”</p>
<p>On the basis of my gut feeling…hahaha</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, have a LOT of experience in the business world. I can say generally attest that accounting majors have many more opportunities for more jobs than that of finance majors because accounting is the language of business. </p>
<p>Ideally, Someone who majors in accounting and majors in finance should have more opportunities.</p>
<p>As a 20+ year business school professor and academic advisement coordinator in a state system, I have noted that our professional accounting majors get and have jobs in…accounting. Our finance concentration students and alumni get and have jobs in a variety of fields.</p>
<p>On a more anecdotal experience, my D1 graduated last spring and is now working as a derivative trader at a top BB. She was neither an accounting or finance major. Nor was she
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<p>She did have an Information Science minor. IS is very similar to CS. She also took an accounting course (financial) and a finance (corporate). She had her analyst training class this summer and also had to take the Series 7 and 63 tests. These were all much more finance oriented.</p>
<p>My D’s starting salary, sign on bonus and end of year bonus (predicted) are much higher than the accounting grads of the school where I work. These accounting grads are going to work for Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, and KPMG.</p>
<p>May i ask where did your daughter graduate from? From Ivies? what was her GPA and what was her major?</p>
<p>Ivy-yes. GPA-3.99</p>
<p>that was the reason.</p>
<p>Damn, I wish we could correct typos. What I meant to say in post 15 is:</p>
<p>“Ideally, Someone who majors in accounting and minors in finance should have more opportunities.” However, my personal preference for jobs is to major in accounting and minor in computer science, criminology, forensic work, or computer security.</p>