What are some majors that are required (or recommended) in order to become a successful accountant?

If you are interested in accounting, that majoring in accounting is probably a good bet in college. This should cover you for different types of accounting careers (e.g., CPA, controller, forensic accountant).

However, you could also consider double majoring in accounting and finance, or accounting and applied math, in case you want to do accounting and finance, e.g., become a CFO. Also, note that if you're interested in becoming a CPA, you don't necessarily have to major in accounting as long as you have taken enough classes in accounting. The exact requirements vary by state, which you can check out here.

Hi Sebastian,

I majored in Business Administration back in college and now I am an accountant at Zynga. Depending on what majors the college offers, you can take the major closest to accounting. Whether it is economics, finance, business, or even specifically to accounting. However, as Melissa mentioned, you can take other majors as well as long as you have the necessary accounting classes to continue on the CPA career path if you choose. I've known people with history or liberal arts majors who then did part time accounting jobs during college and ultimately was an accountant as their career. No set path but the easier path will be taking a major that already requires accounting classes.

Good luck!

This is a great question. If you are interested in becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), the best major, if it is available would be in Accounting. Depending on the university or college, this is typically found in the Business school. In order to become a CPA, there are courses that the State Boards of Accountancy require in order to receive this certification. Most Accounting majors give you the opportunity to fulfill most, if not all of these required courses. It is important to take a look into these courses on your State Board website or on the NASBA site (https://nasba.org/stateboards/).

While other majors are possibilities (Finance, Economics, or even anything that might interest you), these may require that you enter a Masters of Science in Accountancy graduate program, in order to fulfill your remaining requirements.

If you are not interested in becoming a CPA, Accounting would still likely be the best major, but there are many possibilities that you could take for your major.

Sebastian, I think there are many places that a major in accounting can take you. You can be a forensic accountant, an auditor, or a tax accountant. There are still many other fields that you could enter with an accounting degree outside of doing actual accounting. You could be an investment banker, a small business owner or a consultant. I think if you know you want to be an accountant study Accounting. If you know you want to do something in finance: study Accounting. My friend (an accounting major, like myself) is going into investment banking or consulting. He has 2 or 3 offers right now and all he has to do is decide which he is more interested in.

You will here that people call accounting 'The Language of Business' and it is true. I would also highly encourage you to look into Information Systems. As many things are now being automated it would move you in the same direction and it is also very interesting work.