The College Thread

[Bubba T]

Papers are in, just waiting for final grades. After being in and out for 12 years, I'm graduating next week.

The real question is whether I'm graduating Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude. Not a bad problem to have.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Studying like ....

You got this though OG.

It's outta my hands how . I definitely didn't get an A, but I don't think I got an F either. Watch that grade come back like

 

[ByAnyMeans]

It's outta my hands how . I definitely didn't get an A, but I don't think I got an F either. Watch that grade come back like

Taking physics you must be a stem major. What's your major ?

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Taking physics you must be a stem major. What's your major ?

Comp Sci doubling in Political Science. Came in as Political Science since I wanted to be a lawyer but strayed away from that and added Comp Sci. I was so deep into Political Science it was a waste to drop it, plus the professors are good people, so I kept it.

I was messaging a friend the other night about physics and math and all. Essentially I expressed that I've written some code here and there for things outside of school and have never had a use for physics, and only used calc once. For my school they're meant to weed people out, but other than that they don't seem to serve a lot of purpose. I understand if you're going to work for Boeing, NASA, or any of those aerospace type companies, but I'm not looking to do that so I detest the classes. Actually, Calc wasn't too bad because I had a teacher who did examples for every single thing. For Physics though? They get up there and talk about the concepts but not how to do any problems. Then when we get to the midterm they give problems we were never prepared for. The Physics concepts have never been an issue for me, it's just doing calculations that kills me.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

Understood. Good decision on switching the major as long as you enjoy it and really could see yourself doing it.

Agree with you on the physics and calc unless your doing hard core stuff in those field you won't need it. But knowing math and being comfortable around numbers and coding concepts is a must.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

In hindsight, adding Computer Science was the perfect thing to do. You definitely get challenged in different ways by both majors. Communication skills are something other CS majors at my school are lacking in. I got some good practice, both written and verbal, in my Political Science classes. I had a TA telling one of my CS classes when writing their project reports that you don't need to use proper grammar or anything, "leave that to the social sciences ." I felt like snatching dude's wig off . In the same vein, I took a Research Methods class for Political Science where you basically form some hypotheses and run statistical tests on some data sets. The rest of the Poli Sci people were struggling to keep up, and the professor broke everything down to basics for them. I was pleasantly surprised when I took a statistics course a couple of quarters later and we learned how to do some of those statistical tests by hand. I went back to that Poli Sci professor like you'll never guess what I was doing!

I encourage the brehs still in college to soak up what you can from those social science classes. Build the skills that you don't get to in the hard sciences.

 

[Freedman]

Has anybody taken Elementary Differential Equations or Elementary Linear Algebra that can give me a heads up on what to expect ?Finally passed Calc 2 and my last Math class is a combination of those two

 

[qwasi]

@Nasferatu Computer Science isn't an easy discipline so you should only get into it if you can see yourself doing it for a long time. A lot of people don't realize that CS can be more involved than just writing code. Now, that's not to discourage you, but to say that if you feel finance is where you belong then go for it.

Good look. I haven't really partaken in code myself. However, if you read the Cert thread you are given the impression all you need to do is be 100% motivated and anyone can make a crack at it. Interesting to learn there are more layer to it. Honestly, ATM I am looking at the monetary benefit of the job. Anything that can allow me to rank up my finance so I can disposable income to diversify my earnings is what I am hoping for. Financial freedom is my biggest motivator followed by the enjoy-ability of the job.

I Feel the same way

Dap* Nothing more frustrating than feeling like you're stuck and are not moving any where. Meanwhile, everyone else seems to have their sh*t sorted.

Either direction can pay tremendous dividends, provided you are willing to work hard and tough it out. If you decide to go into (public) Accounting, the salaries starting out are not as high as a CompSci or Engineering major. You also have to sit for and pass the CPA exam, a four part exam that less than half the eligible test takers fail to pass. The work isn't "as" interesting (subjective) as the work you'll do with jobs a CompSci major pursues. But if you work hard, tough it out, pass your CPA and gain some experience, you can make pretty good money and you won't have a shortage of jobs to choose from. There aren't many professions where you progress faster than in public accounting.

You need to really look at what you want to do for the next 15-20 years and think about how you are going to get there. I would scour the internet for the job prospects for both majors.

Yeah. I heard about the CPA exams. While browsing the web, I stumbled on people lamenting their Accounting related career paths. Apparently the entry level jobs are tiresome, boring(monotonous) and take WAAY to much time comparative to the salary you make. Though, if its any help I'm not from the US so I am not sure if career progression will be similar here. As for Computer Sci, I am not to sure if this is involved in it but I stumbled on Software Sales. A booming industry that has HEAVY compensation and is guaranteed to reward and has the excitement factor. Oh yeah friend of mine told me you need to be great at calculus to crack it in CompSci and I know I'm not so that was a knock back.

The biggest question is what do you want to do? Like you stated and I agree. Computer science or stem in general is the way to go. But I'm biased as a stem credentialed individual. but if I did business I would have done accounting and finance. Now if you combine it with programming more statistical then general programming I think you will be a great asset to companies. But none of this matters compared to what you naturally want to do and are good at. So I would figure that out first.

After reading all the responses what I will do is combine them. Major in Finance and Accounting but do self Certification papers. Naturally I have an affinity for Business and I love to see how market forces interact. As long as I am not tied down to crunching numbers on Excel or some business adminstation tool and I can get to interact with client + build portfolios I am gucci.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

After reading all the responses what I will do is combine them. Major in Finance and Accounting but do self Certification papers. Naturally I have an affinity for Business and I love to see how market forces interact. As long as I am not tied down to crunching numbers on Excel or some business adminstation tool and I can get to interact with client + build portfolios I am gucci.

Sounds good. But be careful here. What type of certs do you want to have.

IT certs and computer science are two totally different disciplines. From my understanding IT Certs you really don't need a degree just a lot of cert and knowledge and experience and you an make paper. Whereas computer science you definitely need degrees and it's more math and coding and algorithms.

When you said you want to do more than excel and use business tools sounds like you don't want to be an analyst. Which is what most businesses administration majors end up with. But you're not a business administration major you're finance and accounting. The question is do you want to do accounting work (CPA, Cost accounting, financial accounting , tax accounting), or can you see yourself doing finance work (investing other people's money, managing assets, financial analyst) those are two totally different things. How the hell you mix computer science or coding with it...there is only one way I can think of. I work with a lot of finance and accounting people who know money and economics but know how to program in SAS, Excel VBA, Python, and or R. And they solve hard business problems using finance, accounting, math, statistics and statiatical programming, technology, and general programming(we bring in computer programmers and app developers for this side).

I saw all that to say I don't see how you can mix thr three because I don't think they align it mix in a way that's useful and best use of your time and career. Finance, accounting and your thoughts on computer science or IT. Definitely not IT. you'll end up being a mile wide and a inch deep and I think you would rather be a inch wide and a mile deep or somewhere In between but definitely not a mile wide and a inch deep as it relates to your field of work.

You need to ask yourself what interacting with the client and building portfolios(of that's truly what you want to do in the finance and accounting space) looks like. Because as a finance person or accountant you best to believe excel and crunching numbers is your best friend when you get out of school and do the foreseeable future.

Sounds like potentially you want to get into management consulting or management at a certain level which will allow you to interact with clients.also sounds like if you want to build portfolios you want to be more on the finance side than accounting side. From what I know on the difference of finance and accounting. Potentially even a combo of finance and economics. Then I would go off and try to kill the GMAT and get above a 700. To go to a top MBA and come out and walk into a top firm doing what you want to do. If you add some statistics and economics I think that can help you in addition to statistical programming. I don't see where the accounting will help honestly.

But in the end you need to choose and figure out what you need to know to start that career and focus on that. because there are people that want to do the same thing you do and know it won't take accounting or finance or IT and it just takes one of those and maybe something else not in the list and are mastering it while your dibble dabbling and potentially wasting time on one or a few things and not even considering another.

Focus your time on what you need to master so you're on top of the comp. Also sounds like you need a MBA or masters on top of that bachelors for the space you want to get in. So be ready to knock that GMAT or GRE out.

I know that's a lot up there but read it and get back to me, I'm willing to help.

Questions to think about
Whats your classification?
Thoughts on grad school?
And what do you really want to do? (Assuming they all paid the same).
Have you talked to people in finance, accounting, and IT about there careers and what there day to day looks like?

 

[ByAnyMeans]

Has anybody taken Elementary Differential Equations or Elementary Linear Algebra that can give me a heads up on what to expect ?Finally passed Calc 2 and my last Math class is a combination of those two

So I've taking all those classes.

Good News: if you can pass Calc two you can walk on the moon literally. Calc two is the hardest and is used to weed out the engineering majors, math majors, physics majors and stats majors . I've never taking a stem class harder than calc two. Passing calc two with anything as long as you passed will have you looking at other classes like

Now onto your question at hand.

I don't know why those subjects have the world elementary Infront of it or how the hell they plan to combine them but you better hope on a few things. Hope that the teacher can speak English really well, hope that it's more linear algebra than Differential Equations and hope that it's only ordinary differential equations and not partial differential equations. Linear algebra is EASY. EASY EASY. It's literally a walk in the park if you can remember the formulas and have a calculator.

But that differential equations is another beast. not quite the beast of calc 2 in my opinion but she will have you like in the library and those office hours. Maybe it was my teacher who just got here from Asia and I really didn't understand it. But if I was you I would put a lot of hours into it and make sure your on top of that part. But no it won't be as hard as calc 2.

Calc two have everybody like

Either way you slice it study hard . We ain't paying these mofos 10-50k a semester for nothing.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

In hindsight, adding Computer Science was the perfect thing to do. You definitely get challenged in different ways by both majors. Communication skills are something other CS majors at my school are lacking in. I got some good practice, both written and verbal, in my Political Science classes. I had a TA telling one of my CS classes when writing their project reports that you don't need to use proper grammar or anything, "leave that to the social sciences ." I felt like snatching dude's wig off . In the same vein, I took a Research Methods class for Political Science where you basically form some hypotheses and run statistical tests on some data sets. The rest of the Poli Sci people were struggling to keep up, and the professor broke everything down to basics for them. I was pleasantly surprised when I took a statistics course a couple of quarters later and we learned how to do some of those statistical tests by hand. I went back to that Poli Sci professor like you'll never guess what I was doing!

I encourage the brehs still in college to soak up what you can from those social science classes. Build the skills that you don't get to in the hard sciences.

Wow running stats in a research methods Poli sci course means for a pretty good course and use of the money. Because in reality that's what they do many times.

But boss up to you on the comp sci game. I took some liberal arts courses and appreciate it to this day. But stem is my core. Also, have a lot if friends with similar experience one switched and one didn't. Both started in Poli sci. I think they both made good decisions the one that didn't switch had to go off and be the top in his class at law school which he is. So it will work out its just harder.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

Papers are in, just waiting for final grades. After being in and out for 12 years, I'm graduating next week.

The real question is whether I'm graduating Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude. Not a bad problem to have.

Congrats. But the real question is what you're doing after ?

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Good look. I haven't really partaken in code myself. However, if you read the Cert thread you are given the impression all you need to do is be 100% motivated and anyone can make a crack at it. Interesting to learn there are more layer to it. Honestly, ATM I am looking at the monetary benefit of the job. Anything that can allow me to rank up my finance so I can disposable income to diversify my earnings is what I am hoping for. Financial freedom is my biggest motivator followed by the enjoy-ability of the job.

Well to a certain extent I agree with them; with motivation and some effort, anyone can be an IT breh. But as @ByAnyMeans mentioned earlier in the thread, as long as you enjoy it and really could see yourself doing it. If you want to be a programmer you have to love looking at code and spending a lot of frustrating hours problem solving. A couple of first/second years I know just couldn't hack it and had to let Computer Science go. If you're trying to be a 6 figure, 6 cert Coli breh then you're going to have to put a lot of work in getting those certs. For either, the monetary possibilities are enticing but I wouldn't want to see you lock yourself into a career path you don't enjoy. Myself, I'm using software engineering as a stepping stone into management; spend a few years at as a low level engineer, eventually move into managing small teams, then move into project management. From there I'll see what opportunities open up.

Wow running stats in a research methods Poli sci course means for a pretty good course and use of the money. Because in reality that's what they do many times.

But boss up to you on the comp sci game. I took some liberal arts courses and appreciate it to this day. But stem is my core. Also, have a lot if friends with similar experience one switched and one didn't. Both started in Poli sci. I think they both made good decisions the one that didn't switch had to go off and be the top in his class at law school which he is. So it will work out its just harder.

Our Poli Sci curriculum is pretty lax when compared to other schools, but it's good of them that the Research Methods class is required. Currently it's on a quarter long, but when the school switches to the semester system they're making it 2 semesters long. I mean, you can look at the data and hypothesize almost anything you want and that's what makes it so fun to me. If the students took it more seriously the could profit off of that experience, but most of them were too busy complaining about having to do something quantitative.

 

[ByAnyMeans]

Well to a certain extent I agree with them; with motivation and some effort, anyone can be an IT breh. But as @ByAnyMeans mentioned earlier in the thread, as long as you enjoy it and really could see yourself doing it. If you want to be a programmer you have to love looking at code and spending a lot of frustrating hours problem solving. A couple of first/second years I know just couldn't hack it and had to let Computer Science go. If you're trying to be a 6 figure, 6 cert Coli breh then you're going to have to put a lot of work in getting those certs. For either, the monetary possibilities are enticing but I wouldn't want to see you lock yourself into a career path you don't enjoy. Myself, I'm using software engineering as a stepping stone into management; spend a few years at as a low level engineer, eventually move into managing small teams, then move into project management. From there I'll see what opportunities open up.


Our Poli Sci curriculum is pretty lax when compared to other schools, but it's good of them that the Research Methods class is required. Currently it's on a quarter long, but when the school switches to the semester system they're making it 2 semesters long. I mean, you can look at the data and hypothesize almost anything you want and that's what makes it so fun to me. If the students took it more seriously the could profit off of that experience, but most of them were too busy complaining about having to do something quantitative.

Def agree here.thats were the cheddar is. It was 2 semesters at my school and no joke. It just wasn't quantitative it was more theory.

 

[Bubba T]

Yeah. I heard about the CPA exams. While browsing the web, I stumbled on people lamenting their Accounting related career paths. Apparently the entry level jobs are tiresome, boring(monotonous) and take WAAY to much time comparative to the salary you make. Though, if its any help I'm not from the US so I am not sure if career progression will be similar here. As for Computer Sci, I am not to sure if this is involved in it but I stumbled on Software Sales. A booming industry that has HEAVY compensation and is guaranteed to reward and has the excitement factor. Oh yeah friend of mine told me you need to be great at calculus to crack it in CompSci and I know I'm not so that was a knock back.



After reading all the responses what I will do is combine them. Major in Finance and Accounting but do self Certification papers. Naturally I have an affinity for Business and I love to see how market forces interact. As long as I am not tied down to crunching numbers on Excel or some business adminstation tool and I can get to interact with client + build portfolios I am gucci.

Many people lament a public accounting career for the reasons you stated. You work long hours comparable to investment banking but you are not making anywhere near the salaries those in that industry make. People also cite that the work they do doesn't make a difference, which isn't necessarily true.

The reason why people go through this is because public accounting is one of the few careers where you learn a lot very quickly, put in front of clients almost immediately, and earn a salary that puts you in the middle class of the US. Although I'm not too familiar with firms outside the United States, career progression in a public firm is similar. Your exit opportunities are also better in general than other industries. It is not unusual to get a job working for the client of your firm. In fact, it is basically welcomed, as that is another potential business connection if/when you move up to become a decision maker within that company. You start in a firm, get your CPA, and exit when the time is right.

Majoring in Accounting/Finance isn't a bad idea, it's what I did . I do wish I learned a little more about Information Systems, but I'm going to do that on my own. Based on your post, consulting might be an area you are looking for. The consulting arms within CPA firms do pay more than audit, from what I've seen.

Congrats. But the real question is what you're doing after ?

I'll be working in the wonderful world of public accounting starting next month. I'm going to start studying for the CPA hardcore starting next week, as I have the first section scheduled for early January.