Need help! Majors and Minors for Bachelor of Commerce. (1 Viewer)

[immabee]

Hey everyone
It was my first time feeling indecisive. I am about to end year 1 in Bachelor of Commerce and my university (UWA) requires me to submit them a study plan for next year and till the year I graduate.

For now I'm very sure that my main major is financial accounting followed by finance (corporate). That leaves me 5 free units (+1 if I have decided to overload just to complete another major).

I was thinking with that 5+1 units, I can possibly undertake:

Majors:
- Quantitative Economics
- Investment Finance
- Money and Banking

Minors:
- Quantitative Economics
- Investment Finance
- Money and Trade
- Business Law

Or should I just take up language units? (Chinese is not recommended since I'm considered as a native speaker) Other languages available: French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Latin

There are other majors within the faculty that I can take as well. But afaik, I have no interest in marketing and management.

To sum all up, am most likely end myself up in accounting sector.

Which combination goes really well and why. You can always nominate by rank it. Also I would deeply appreciate your views on these majors/minors and the prospects. Else you can suggest something else other than marketing and management. Thanks for your time. =]

 

[seremify007]

Without knowing what your university is like in terms of courses/majors, have you double checked that you meet all the prerequisites for either CA or CPA (depending on which one you intend to study)?

 

[immabee]

Hi seremify007, thank you for your quick response.

Yes. I have checked numerous times and the remaining 5 free units are after meeting the pre-requisites of the course/degree and exemptions for both CA and CPA. Besides, the first 2 majors Financial Accounting and Finance (Corporate) pretty much overlaps one another. Hence it's not surprising leaving me with a few more free units. =D

 

[seremify007]

Next question is how set are you on accounting? It sounds like you are, and that's good because accounting jobs don't tend to care about WAM too much. That being said, at least from my friends experience in UNSW, languages are very difficult to do well in and are WAM-killers. You'll always have the dodgy people who can already speak it quite well pretending to be noob and then owning the exams, and if you really are new to a language, you're going to get owned especially when you have your other studies to comprehend with. My suggestion in that case is if you want to learn a language, do it at TAFE or a community college because having it taught at university (even if it was your degree) isn't going to impress an employer unless you are working as a linguist/translator/etc... i.e. as long as you can speak (and maybe write), that's all that matters.

Looking at your list, I would go banking/finance related things because some of my peers who didn't go down that path are now starting to regret it because a lot of the top accounting jobs which are paid well are typically in the FS (financial services) industry. Banking/finance at uni won't guarantee you a job but it'll help you (e.g. it'l justify you working in FS if you join a big 4 firm with an FS practice). I'd also look at business law because you'd be surprised how much it comes up in practice- for example understanding the links between directors duties, corporate governance, etc... is actually quite useful in practice especially when you need to compare different countries which have very different structures/systems. That, and it'll help in CA too.

I personally avoided economics once I realised it was a lot harder in uni than high school and I wasn't very good at quant stuff. If you enjoy it though then go for it because at the end of the day, these are your free subjects and you may as well do whatever interests you.

 

[immabee]

Next question is how set are you on accounting? It sounds like you are, and that's good because accounting jobs don't tend to care about WAM too much. That being said, at least from my friends experience in UNSW, languages are very difficult to do well in and are WAM-killers. You'll always have the dodgy people who can already speak it quite well pretending to be noob and then owning the exams, and if you really are new to a language, you're going to get owned especially when you have your other studies to comprehend with. My suggestion in that case is if you want to learn a language, do it at TAFE or a community college because having it taught at university (even if it was your degree) isn't going to impress an employer unless you are working as a linguist/translator/etc... i.e. as long as you can speak (and maybe write), that's all that matters.

Looking at your list, I would go banking/finance related things because some of my peers who didn't go down that path are now starting to regret it because a lot of the top accounting jobs which are paid well are typically in the FS (financial services) industry. Banking/finance at uni won't guarantee you a job but it'll help you (e.g. it'l justify you working in FS if you join a big 4 firm with an FS practice). I'd also look at business law because you'd be surprised how much it comes up in practice- for example understanding the links between directors duties, corporate governance, etc... is actually quite useful in practice especially when you need to compare different countries which have very different structures/systems. That, and it'll help in CA too.

I personally avoided economics once I realised it was a lot harder in uni than high school and I wasn't very good at quant stuff. If you enjoy it though then go for it because at the end of the day, these are your free subjects and you may as well do whatever interests you.

Thank you for your suggestion. For now I do get concern with my WAM and try to keep it up to its best as possible since year 2 and 3 accounting subjects are going to get more difficult. You're right about languages. Wouldn't have know there were such dodgy people. Thinking again, it's not worth to undertake language units in university since they cost quite a bomb!. At least I can start to kill off a few from the list. Looking forward to hear more from the rest. Cheers mate.

 

[seremify007]

No probs. I think it'll be interesting to hear what the others on here reckon as well since I'm very much FS and accounting focussed.

 

[immabee]

Hey peeps, given myself a little more time this is what I've worked out so far:

- Language units are no longer part of the consideration, couldn't agree more with what seremify007 has said.
- I have just completed an introductory business law unit (except waiting for final exams) and I don't think I can go far in business law minor, but I will still do other law units that are recognised by CPA and CA for exemptions.

What comes down are the following:
-Money and Banking for major / Money and Trade for minor
-Investment Finance
-Quantitative Economics

Tell me which combinations below are the most feasible. (Note: whatever listed down below have used up the maximum/all number of free electives available. )

Either:
- Just Money and Banking major or
- Just Quantitative Economics major or
- Investment Finance major + Quantitative Economics minor or
- Money and Trade minor + 1 free elective (So far I don't find this practical though)

NB: Money and Banking major and Quantitative Economics major are under economics degree, but that doesn't entitle me to get a degree in economics. It will only list down as a major in Bachelor of Commerce (that's what I'm taking).

Hopefully there's someone responding this time. =D

 

[runnable]

Forget minors IMO.

Take up a Finance major out of those. Acct and Fins double major although plentiful, is very versatile.

Of course you have to consider your own interests and what you think you can do well in. WAM is also very important.

 

[KidDang]

Both your majors sounds like branches of Finance/accounting, So Imo it is not a good idea to do Investment finance as a third major- you can try quantitative economics which can give you a more diverse knowledge I guess.

For some unis like Unsw you can do a major in arts, have you tried asking about this yet?

 

[immabee]

Both your majors sounds like branches of Finance/accounting, So Imo it is not a good idea to do Investment finance as a third major- you can try quantitative economics which can give you a more diverse knowledge I guess.

For some unis like Unsw you can do a major in arts, have you tried asking about this yet?

It is indeed possible. Unfortunately the remaining 6 units I have(including an overloading unit) are not enough to fulfill an arts major.

 

[KidDang]

Are you keen in staying at Uni or do you want to go out and make some money, I have seen people who wanted to do as much as possible and did a triple Major which ended up taking 5years and if you want to do Honours or come back and do Masters thats an additional 1+1to2years.
What some people misunderstand is people get their first graduate job with one of their major and possibly bonus chances if they did 2- (but this also comes down to marks,volunteer, communication etc..)
Whilst you're staying back an extra 2 years some of your friends would have 2years professional experience under their belt on their way to a new house/promotion whilst you're not sure about your future employment yet.

Just my 2cents i myself haven't graduated but all my family went to Uni and I'm the next oldest in line. They all did a single degree and so I heard bits and pieces here and there, nevertheless if you still want the Triple major Quantitative Economics sounds great or any major you decide on and all the best with your career.

 

[immabee]

Are you keen in staying at Uni or do you want to go out and make some money, I have seen people who wanted to do as much as possible and did a triple Major which ended up taking 5years and if you want to do Honours or come back and do Masters thats an additional 1+1to2years.
What some people misunderstand is people get their first graduate job with one of their major and possibly bonus chances if they did 2- (but this also comes down to marks,volunteer, communication etc..)
Whilst you're staying back an extra 2 years some of your friends would have 2years professional experience under their belt on their way to a new house/promotion whilst you're not sure about your future employment yet.

Just my 2cents i myself haven't graduated but all my family went to Uni and I'm the next oldest in line. They all did a single degree and so I heard bits and pieces here and there, nevertheless if you still want the Triple major Quantitative Economics sounds great or any major you decide on and all the best with your career.

I am not planning to stay in uni as I look forward on professional qualification. The fact that my first 2 majors overlapped leaving me 6 empty slots are sufficient as long as I am taking a new major from the business school. Hence I do not need to extend the duration of my degree. I do understand most universities out there can only fill in max 2 majors in a single business degree, but UWA old course business school model is an exception at the moment. However as UWA new courses 2012 takes place, new students wouldn't get to do the same as we did back then.

Thanks for your advice because that emphasizes my purpose for right reasons, especially about staying back in uni.