Is an Accounting Major really that hard? (PhD, degree, psychology)
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Yup, it's very hard and demanding. The reason was, when I attended college, accounting was needed if you wanted to get into corporate management. CFO's, Treasurers, Controllers, SEC Compliance officers, on and on, mainly came from accounting, they needed to know how to analyze data, create it, deliver it and act on the information. It made you a very valuable person and if you did your job correctly, you would rise in the ranks and make very good money.
The problem is that we're in a Depression and the need for white collar functionaries is a far less than what it was for me coming out of college in the late 80s. It's the Big Four, rather than the Big Eight, which existed back in my day. Pretty soon, it'll be the Big Two. The competition is highly intense, so the stakes are higher and the demands for undergrads much greater. Wait until you relative gets into Intermediate Accounting, that's where they wash out over 50% of the class....
This is the most profound sentence in this thread. Principles of Accounting is childs play until you get into Intermediate Accounting. Intermediate when I was in business school was a tougher course than Cost, Tax, Auditing, or Advanced.
I took a year of Intermediate even though it wasn't required because I was a Management major. I was in college to learn, so I took it as an elective AND to keep my GPA from getting too high.
The answer as to whether an Accounting major is difficult is simple. If you have the aptitude it isn't difficult. If you don't, god help you.
I'm not stupid. I cruised through Finance, Statistics, Economics, and Business Law. To me, the WORST job in the world next to what shows up on Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs TV show is being an accountant.
It takes a certain type person with a certain type of aptitude to be an accountant.
It takes a certain type person with a certain type of aptitude to be an accountant.
Generally true of most disciplines.
I wouldn't say, "Because I lack an aptitude for [accounting, being a sous chef, teaching blind children, architecture, molecular biology, professional editing, effectively managing a large, successful team of people, etc. ], I'm stupid/untalented/clueless/etc."
Some people have the innate skills and strengths necessary for various disciplines, and are naturals...others could learn them by rote, but it would be more time-consuming and difficult to gain the facility that comes to some naturally. Others will always struggle, because their skills don't lie in those areas and it's not a natural fit in any way.
It's not about stupid/not stupid. It's about strengths and weaknesses, knowing and playing to your strongest skill sets, and choosing fields for which you have both interest and aptitude.
Some of the upper level classes (Intermediate and Governmental) were challenging but the intro classes were a breeze. It helped that I took 2 years of accounting in high school. The only thing I found odd was the way they taught it. For some reason they didn't teach debits and credits, they taught increases and decreases (this would have been around the year 2000). It was stupid and confusing. I don't think they kept teaching it that way.
I don't love accounting and would rather poke my eyes out with a hot fork than do public accounting (I HATE tax). Still, it makes sense to me and there are things I like about it and it fits my personality. The job I have now has some aspects of accounting, but it's not the traditional corporate accounting I'm used to.
It really depends on how your mind works, not your intelligence. My wife is a CPA and the VP Finance of a very large commercial real estate company. She says that accounting was simplicity itself to her, which is why she majored in it. Meanwhile, she turns to me, the writer in the family, for help with just about any and every major memo or correspondence she writes. To her, writing is the equivalent of black magic, while all that asset/liability stuff is impenetrable stuff to me.
We all learn differently and are naturally good at some things while not so good at others. I took accounting classes after college to actually learn the subject. The beginning classes itself was an easy A because the professor made it an easy class. However, I found really learning the material (as opposed to just passing exams) to require quite a bit of practice on my part. I found the theory and laws to be simple to grasp, but it took me some time to memorize the bookkeeping processes. However, for many people, memorizing the processes are a piece of cake.
When I took managerial accounting (it was a 600 level course) where you're analyzing the reports and books (as opposed to creating them), I thought that was a piece of cake since it was all just math.
I find tax accounting, regulations and anything related to business taxes very interesting and as a result, relatively easy to grasp. A lot of this stems from the fact that I have a practical need for this knowledge. Where, book keeping, not so much.
It really depends on how your mind works, not your intelligence. My wife is a CPA and the VP Finance of a very large commercial real estate company. She says that accounting was simplicity itself to her, which is why she majored in it. Meanwhile, she turns to me, the writer in the family, for help with just about any and every major memo or correspondence she writes. To her, writing is the equivalent of black magic, while all that asset/liability stuff is impenetrable stuff to me.
I get like all As in my accounting classes. It's just like not easy, but like not that hard and stuff. But, accounting is more numbers than just words and not too bad. Like I said, I got all As, so, not too bad.
i'm a incoming freshman and taking a major of accounting, but i'm really scared about it, is accounting really that difficult or just that kind of easy (not that really easy but do i have to study hard?)
i'm a incoming freshman and taking a major of accounting, but i'm really scared about it, is accounting really that difficult or just that kind of easy (not that really easy but do i have to study hard?)
The reason why some student have trouble with introductory accounting and wash out is they don't get the concept of T accounts and how accounting flows conceptually. In my accounting class (I went to a very good college), it was assumed that you could figure it out and we only spent 2 classes on it. How the T accounts work form the basis of the more complex things you need to learn and if you don't get it, you'll struggle hard and probably not continue in accounting. For example, you'll never really get contra assets and why they are used and why they are important if you don't understand the T-accounts.
The problem is that introductory accounting assumes that everyone will understand the concept quickly and there is just too much other information to teach to spend too much time at it. If you are reasonable smart and put time into learning it, you should be able to figure it out. But some cannot, as it is basically all the high school accounting/bookkeeping classes crammed into 2 classes.
The another thing that trip out students and caused a lot of accounting students to drop out is the lack of advanced algebra skills and the inability to learn how present value and annuity formulas work, and how to calculate things like internal rate of return. It is algebra and you have to know how to do it very easily at some point. If you struggle with it, you'll struggle with accounting and finance.
The last thing is the comfort with computers and systems. You should be able to quickly learn and be comfortable with spreadsheets and have a familiarity with how databases work. If you don't understand how T accounts and general ledgers flow through databases, you are going to really struggle.
Beyond that, accounting is a memorization of a lot of rules and principles and going through problem sets or writing papers applying those rules and principles. So if you struggle with memorization and things like math type word problems, you'll probably struggle as well. But overall, anyone with reasonable intelligence and work ethic should be able to get through it.
A relative of mine is in his 2nd year of college and has decided on an Accounting Major. She said that the first two Accounting classes were the hardest and the Professor made a point to tell the class that a good percent of the class would bomb out because they just could not handle it. The Professor said, "Some of you will be bored, some of you don't have the intellectual skills to handle the complexity of the subject and some of you will admit to yourself that the study of Accounting is just too complex."
In your experience is the study of Accounting in college really that hard?
Are you talking about the principles classes? because those are the first two and they are easy...now finance..that's a whole other ball of wax.
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