Finance or accounting degree?

[videguy]

My wife is an accountant and if you want to go into accounting don't get a finance degree. You may have a hard time getting a job in the accounting field. I can only speak of the situation locally, but it makes sense.
I am not trying to disparage a degree in finance, but what they have found is that many of the finance majors they interviewed were people who started as accounting majors and reached class called Accounting II. This class separated the people who really wanted to be accountants and those who only thought they did. Many programs have classes like that, it separates out people who really want that degree and those that might not want it as bad. Anyway people who did poorly in Accounting II generally switched to a finance major which was not considered as hard a accounting.

[videguy]

I am considering getting a degree in Accounting and/or Finance instead of General Business. What are your opinions on that? Would a BSBA in Accounting be much better than a BSBA in General Management? Would a double major in Accounting and Finance be better still? In my case, it would cost about $1,000 more and 3 more months to major in Accounting and somewhere around $3,000 more and 6 more months to double major in Accounting and Finance.

Any opinions, ideas, or suggestions?

I think a degree in either is better than a general business degree. It shows some direction of where you want to go with your degree.

[MA2]

Yes... but I don't want to be an accountant. I was looking more at the managerial side of money... not so much the "we have X of this and Y of that" but what to do with X and Y once we have it.

[videguy]

A finance degree would likely suit you fine then. Here's something to think about. If you get the accounting degree you may have more options. You could go the accounting route or the finance route. I am not sure what they teach in a finance track that they do not teach in an accounting track. So that may not work, but just a thought.

[Yenisei]

Yes... but I don't want to be an accountant. I was looking more at the managerial side of money... not so much the "we have X of this and Y of that" but what to do with X and Y once we have it.

You may want an MBA then, i.e., an MBA in Finance.

[MA2]

You may want an MBA then, i.e., an MBA in Finance.

Yep. Gotta get my bachelors first though

[Yenisei]

I'd recommend double majoring in accounting and finance if that's possible, and, if not, I'd major in accounting and take some upper-level finance courses in addition.

[MA2]

I don't think the GI Bill will pay for a double major. I also don't think you can use the GI Bill to go for a degree less than what you have.... i.e. if you already have a bachelors you can't get an associates in something else. Not 100% sure about this though.

[Yenisei]

If you already have a bachelor's, you can't use GI Bill money towards another one, but you may be able to use it to pay for CLEP/DSST exams- check on that.

As for "paying for a double major", as long as it's your first bachelor's degree, since when it that a problem? If so, just get an accounting degree.

[burbuja0512]

MA2, if you have the time to take classes, I think you should consider a double major if you don't have finance jobs already on your resume.

A lot of us here are going for the quicker degrees because we're already mid-career and a degree at this point is just a check box to enable us to get promotions in fields that we already have a lot of experience. If you're just going to be starting off your career after your military service is up, you may want to do both.

I rarely see double majors on resumes and it could be a good way to set yourself apart from the other candidates out there.