2 answers
Lilian
Student
Elk River, Minnesota
3
Questions
Asked
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Thank you!! Do you have any college suggestions, that would be good to major in accounting or finance If I completed my AA degree in high school, would this help me when I go to college and major in accounting or finance?
Thank you!! Do you have any college suggestions, that would be good to major in accounting or finance? If I completed my AA degree in high school, would this help me when I go to college and major in accounting or finance?
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2 answers
Shannon Jameson
Associate Director - Network System Performance
9
Answers
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Updated
Shannon’s Answer
I'll use my wife for background as to how the accounting and finance field can take you into different paths. My wife has been in the accounting field for a long time. She graduated high school early and started out at a community college taking bookkeeping and accounting classes. It was basically a certification program. It gave her the foundation to work in offices 'balancing the books' as they used to say. Her drive and capability to learn quickly helped her move into more technical jobs. She went to college on the side to get her degree while working a full time. She was promoted to a comptroller for a company and then moved into the finance-investment world as a manager.
A college will have a business department and your first basic degreed classes will be Accounting 1 and 2. You should have classes for Corporate Finance and Statistics. They want the students to have a broad exposure at the beginning before narrowing their curriculum into a specialty. Accounting itself is the foundation for everything else in the world of money. Knowing a credit from a debit and how they play into a balance sheet and how to book expenses and capital expenditures is all part of the larger picture of accounting and finance. So, focus on basic accounting and corporate accounting. This will help you prepare for a career in banking and the investment industry.
The real money for long-term financial security is in the investment world. To most people that means being a trader, but there are a lot more roles in the industry. I recommend combining a finance degree with informational technology (IT). There's a huge market for those who understand how investment banking and trading works and how to support it from a software engineering perspective. In the industry there are many who are very good at finance and there are many who are good at IT support. What is lacking is someone who understand the principles of finance and who can integrate it with data scientist type knowledge which make the underlying systems work. Traders trade on systems. There are new types of stocks and bonds entering the systems every day. It takes a partnership of accounting and IT to make it work. People who work those departments may get their licenses to trade and move into the trade desks or promoted to managers, directors and partners within a company. It can be a lucrative field for both money and prestige.
Anyway, I gave you a lot of information of how an accounting-finance future may look. The bottom line is following your passion. Don't get too mired in the small stuff. Take the classes and find out which ones you enjoy the most. Accounting and Finance is knowledge that can be applied in any industry and may include you deciding to follow an entrepreneur spirit to have your own business. You can't go wrong with knowledge in these fields.
A college will have a business department and your first basic degreed classes will be Accounting 1 and 2. You should have classes for Corporate Finance and Statistics. They want the students to have a broad exposure at the beginning before narrowing their curriculum into a specialty. Accounting itself is the foundation for everything else in the world of money. Knowing a credit from a debit and how they play into a balance sheet and how to book expenses and capital expenditures is all part of the larger picture of accounting and finance. So, focus on basic accounting and corporate accounting. This will help you prepare for a career in banking and the investment industry.
The real money for long-term financial security is in the investment world. To most people that means being a trader, but there are a lot more roles in the industry. I recommend combining a finance degree with informational technology (IT). There's a huge market for those who understand how investment banking and trading works and how to support it from a software engineering perspective. In the industry there are many who are very good at finance and there are many who are good at IT support. What is lacking is someone who understand the principles of finance and who can integrate it with data scientist type knowledge which make the underlying systems work. Traders trade on systems. There are new types of stocks and bonds entering the systems every day. It takes a partnership of accounting and IT to make it work. People who work those departments may get their licenses to trade and move into the trade desks or promoted to managers, directors and partners within a company. It can be a lucrative field for both money and prestige.
Anyway, I gave you a lot of information of how an accounting-finance future may look. The bottom line is following your passion. Don't get too mired in the small stuff. Take the classes and find out which ones you enjoy the most. Accounting and Finance is knowledge that can be applied in any industry and may include you deciding to follow an entrepreneur spirit to have your own business. You can't go wrong with knowledge in these fields.
Anthony Ngo
40
Answers
Kirkland, Washington
Updated
Anthony’s Answer
Hello Lilian,
The quick answer is yes that credits you earned toward the AA degree in high school 'can' be counted toward your BA/BS degree in Finance/Accounting. Having an AA degree will help shorten the time for the BA/BS degree but may or may not give you an advantage to get into Finance/Accounting major. Admission to major normally requires certain courses (that overlapped with your AA courses) and academic ability (i.e. your GPA.) Having saying that, each college/university has different requirements. You will need to check with the school you are planning to attend to see what they will accept and count toward your degree. Not all of the courses you taken for your AA will count especially if those courses are at the lower end (like pre-calculus instead of calculus.) I assumed that, in high school and you already think about getting your AA, you are in the high achiever category. So, work as hard as you can to get the highest grades you can, that will put you in more advantage in college/university.
Finance and Accounting can be very rewarding (personally for me.) Best of luck.
Anthony
The quick answer is yes that credits you earned toward the AA degree in high school 'can' be counted toward your BA/BS degree in Finance/Accounting. Having an AA degree will help shorten the time for the BA/BS degree but may or may not give you an advantage to get into Finance/Accounting major. Admission to major normally requires certain courses (that overlapped with your AA courses) and academic ability (i.e. your GPA.) Having saying that, each college/university has different requirements. You will need to check with the school you are planning to attend to see what they will accept and count toward your degree. Not all of the courses you taken for your AA will count especially if those courses are at the lower end (like pre-calculus instead of calculus.) I assumed that, in high school and you already think about getting your AA, you are in the high achiever category. So, work as hard as you can to get the highest grades you can, that will put you in more advantage in college/university.
Finance and Accounting can be very rewarding (personally for me.) Best of luck.
Anthony
Thank you for the advice.
Lilian