Finance vs Accounting degree
 

it's time for me to finally make a decision. I have all the pre req's, and all the core classes out of the way. I now need to pick a specialization. My heart is telling me Finance (I enjoy market/investing more) but my gut is telling me accounting. I am interested in both, and do well in both (meaning good grades). I was messing around with the thought of double majoring, but just want to stick with one.


Why choose one over the other?

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

First off, what are your long-term goals? What do you plan to do after college? Any other relevant information...

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

"my gut is telling me accounting"

haha

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

I'm an accounting and finance double major. If you are thinking about an accounting degree and are interested in the CPA one thing to consider is the number of credit hours needed to sit for the exam in your state. Speaking for Illinois, 150+ credit hours are required, and in order to accumulate these hours the most likely path is to pursue a double major in undergrad or a masters in accountancy.

You probably need an accounting degree to get into public accounting and a finance degree would be a good step towards a banking job. There are a variety of business related careers in consulting, industry finance/accy departments, or sales that either degree would suit.

In my case I always considered myself an accounting major first and went the consulting route via a big 4 firm. I used my finance major to pursue my interest in more personal finance related topics versus corporate finance.

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

Accounting. STFU with finance

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

accounting will help you more in the long run i suppose, assuming you do get your CPA.

only problem is its boring as hell (imo i'd rather do finance but too late now)

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

Finance = where you said your heart is. So, unless you have some STRONG reasons to the contrary, I'd make that my default move.

What types of jobs to finance majors from your Uni get? Are they the types of jobs you'd like?

I personally think that an undergrad major in econ/math can get you to the same place as one in finance/acc... but alot of this depends on what you want to eventually do career-wise, and whether or not grad school (the MBA route or the PhD route) is in your plans either now or in the future. It also seems like it's too late to consider either of those now (though I'd take ALOT of maths as electives from now on if I were you).

Tell us more.

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

if you choose finance i think make sure your combining this with internships. whereas if your doing accountancy internships are necessary.

can you do a maths degree? if so i would recommend that, helps a lot with getting the decent finance jobs.

this is from my experience with getting finance jobs in the UK, may be a lot different than in US.

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

like i said, both are pretty easy for me class wise. I'm in my 3rd year. I JUST transfered schools though.

Ohio State did a 3 year, internship over the summer, then 2 more years.

Cincinnati is more of a co op, like 2 quarters on, 1 quarter work, 3 quarters on, 1 quarter work

So I haven't had any internships/co ops yet. So really this question is hard for me to answer, but I need to make a decision soon.


I am planning on going to law school, so I guess it doesn't really matter, but I only want to go top 10 law or don't go at all, so I need something to fall back on.

might just double major, or do finance, work for 2 years, go back and do financial engineering and do quant

Re: Finance vs Accounting degree
 

[ QUOTE ]
like i said, both are pretty easy for me class wise. I'm in my 3rd year. I JUST transfered schools though.

Ohio State did a 3 year, internship over the summer, then 2 more years.

Cincinnati is more of a co op, like 2 quarters on, 1 quarter work, 3 quarters on, 1 quarter work

So I haven't had any internships/co ops yet. So really this question is hard for me to answer, but I need to make a decision soon.


I am planning on going to law school, so I guess it doesn't really matter, but I only want to go top 10 law or don't go at all, so I need something to fall back on.

might just double major, or do finance, work for 2 years, go back and do financial engineering and do quant

[/ QUOTE ]

Good luck finding quant work. In today's market place, most quants are PHD's in the hardcore sciences such as Physics or Math. Also, quants are located in the tri-state area. If you do have interest in becoming a quant, computer science as an undergrad then financial engineering can also be a good path but finance and/or accounting is probably not going to cut it and I am speaking from experience in this area.