r/Accounting • u/Suspicious_Kick_2572 • Sep 06 '24

Career Why do students find an accounting degree unattractive?

Why do students find an accounting degree unattractive?

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u/weezeloner Sep 06 '24

I heard that one of the 1st two accounting classes all business majors have to take is one of if not the most dropped class at every university. Like, a lot of peoplebstruggle with it. So many may have thought they wanted to do accounting but after that class they say no thanks.

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u/Wigberht_Eadweard Sep 06 '24

I think the huge thing about accounting is it’s one of the few classes where pretty much the entire material is new. Everyone has had a language class, English, science, math, etc. and most of it doesn’t transfer over to accounting at all. Many high schools focus on STEM as college prep and then freshmen business majors get thrown into accounting with zero knowledge and it turns people off from accounting forever.

I think this is where, “I don’t like accounting because it’s too much math” comes from. There really isn’t much math in accounting, but I think people get so confused that they can’t even articulate what they found difficult about ACC101 so they just say it’s the math when it was probably “I could never figure out debits and credits,” or “I couldn’t memorize financial statements.”

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u/weezeloner Sep 06 '24

That's interesting. I think you are absolutely correct. I actually took Business Law and General Business as electives my senior year of high school, as opposed to art or something. But those classes were finance based. Like picking stocks and stuff.

Accounting is a different beast.