Marketing vs Finance: Help Me Decide My Future

[undecided]

Marketing vs. Finance **HELP**

I'm am currently pusuing Psychology in college but I'm not really getting much support because supposedly psychology won't provide for me very well economically. I believe i have a passion for psy but I'm currently not doing very well because i would prefer not to write soooo many papers -.-

At a very beginning i was thinkin about CS & CE. for the simple fact that i liked computers and etc. Now that's out of the question. (i was younger -.-) i always thought about Psy but i never received the support i needed to pursue it (specially b/c my mother pays for my education therefore everyone else in my family has a "better say" in my future) =/ Last semester i took control of my future and decided to go for psy. :) but really thinking about it more, I'm going to need a degree that can open more job opprtunities for me due to the fact that after college I'm going to be completely on my own.

I immediately thought about double majoying on Business which begins my new dilemma.

Marketing or Finance

I'm leaning more towards marketing b/c i suppose it will be easier for me, so i can focus on Psy. My sister grad. w/ Finance and right now she is in a very stable job. I love math and I'm goood at it so i think finance can actually b good for me.

I would really appreciate any insights, and information you guys can give me to help out with my decision. Thank.

 

[AsianSensationK]

Interesting that you would ask this question on a physics board. I do have some advice though. I know of a business major who chose to major in finance, and the outcome of his decision.

I have a brother who majored in finance who did very little accounting in that degree (something like 9 credits). He graduated with honors from Michigan State University. But he still wound up not getting any jobs in his field and took a job in insurance in claims last year. But he's back in a masters of accounting program at MSU now. A lot of him not getting a job had to do with the state of the financial industry, but some of it had to do with the general skills you want finance majors to have. You're right to think there is a large amount of math involved, but you might not ever get to the point where you'd use any of it. But there is a lot of financial statement type stuff involved and you'd likely be working with that before you got to do any bigger picture design of contracts work, consulting, hedging, option trading type stuff.

So, if you're going to major in finance, my advice is to take at least 15 credits of accounting. Take both intermediate financial accounting courses (assets is the 1st term, liabilities and equity is 2nd term), cost accounting, and probably accounting information systems as well. That last one is basically a course in design of transactional databases. It doesn't teach you databases with any technical depth though. If you want to really learn how to create a database, you'd probably have to study Oracle on your own at some point.
Majoring in marketing would be interesting, but I'm not really familiar with it aside from my intro course. There are big psychological elements involved, but also a huge technical bent to the major. Statistics and applied statistics should be key cognates to a major like this.

 

[avant-garde]

AsianSensation, so it looks like going directly into finance for undergrad is kind of a risky decision, if I understand you correctly?

So does this still apply even if it's as prestigious a business school as Wharton, Olin or McCombs?

 

[Wax]

AsianSensation, so it looks like going directly into finance for undergrad is kind of a risky decision, if I understand you correctly?

So does this still apply even if it's as prestigious a business school as Wharton, Olin or McCombs?

What is it that you're planning to do with a fiance degree and how much do you plan to earn after you graduate? If you graduate at the top 10% of your class then you could go anywhere.

 

[AsianSensationK]

AsianSensation, so it looks like going directly into finance for undergrad is kind of a risky decision, if I understand you correctly?

So does this still apply even if it's as prestigious a business school as Wharton, Olin or McCombs?

Finance itself is risky right now. My brother did work hard at a pretty good school and still managed to miss out. But the message for people to take away from my brother's example is that people should spend more time trying to understand how they might use such a degree afterward and keep their coursework and internships focused on that.

Obviously the same rules don't always apply. MSU's Broad is a good business school, but it doesn't really have the same marketing power of even UMich's Ross (which I had the opportunity to take a couple of courses at during my undergrad degree). I'm sure Texas and UPenn have at least that much marketing power, if not more. But at schools like Texas and Michigan the prestige is mainly reserved for the MBA programs. Wharton undergrad business seems like a special case.

 

[avant-garde]

I heard that at Wharton there is an economics major, and you can only do accounting as a concentration.

What would be the point of that if you're trying to get enough hours for a CPA? Wouldn't it be far more economical to go to a school such as Olin or McCombs , since they actually do provide majors in accounting?

 

[WhoWee]

What is it that you're planning to do with a fiance degree and how much do you plan to earn after you graduate? If you graduate at the top 10% of your class then you could go anywhere.

The question is what are you interested in doing with the rest of your life. Are you a creative thinker or do you like to crunch numbers? What attracts you to Psych? Are you interested in sales? Are you a "people person"? Are you a problem solver? Are you a team player or a solo act?

Marketing can include analysis, but is focused on sales. The same can be said about finance - if you want to become a bond trader or a leasing specialist. Part of sales is understanding behavior - Psych is useful in this regard. Accounting is a completely different focus - very structured and lot's of rules - but stable.

I know several account executives that work 4 days per week and earn $200,000 to $500,000 per year. I also know leasing reps that earn similar sums. Both marketing and finance can provide a stable 6 figure income or high commissions potential.

College is short and life is long - try to pick something you're interested in doing.

 

[AsianSensationK]

I heard that at Wharton there is an economics major, and you can only do accounting as a concentration.

What would be the point of that if you're trying to get enough hours for a CPA? Wouldn't it be far more economical to go to a school such as Olin or McCombs , since they actually do provide majors in accounting?

There's a 1 or 2 year master's degree in accounting offered at most "brand name" schools that people would go take after they finish their undergrad business degree to meet the 150 hour requirement. But you still need to take some undergraduate level accounting courses to qualify at a lot of schools.