College is Amazing

Off Topic
161

[quote]SickAbs wrote:
All the people hating on business degrees…Um, please take managerial accounting, business statistics 1&2, corporate tax accouting etc. Only entry level business classes are easy (micro-economics etc). Just because you see a lot of us business majors partying does not mean the shit is easy. It means we are social people and are enjoying our college experience. Just because you need to spend more time studying because youre a bio nerd or a crazy stressed engineering major doesnt give you the right to shit on other majors. Go get laid. [/quote]

Lol, you going for a MBA? I believe I am. But fuck if all these clubs ain’t tiring.

162

[quote]A Ninny Mouse wrote:
With regards to “shit” majors… I am told (for the particular college I am at) that people who can’t handle engineering become biz-econ majors, and those who can’t handle that become comm majors. I do know of one guy who dropped out of computer science and went into biz-econ. So there may be some validity to this ordering.

Anyways, take that for what you will. I have no idea how highly ranked my school is for business FWIW[/quote]

Because it does not take a lot of outside classroom commitment. If they go to a decent business school the learning will be done inside the classroom, not outside. Does not mean it is easy, just means we are more efficient. I can take 19-20 credit hours a semester and spend a few hours a week studying, the rest is writing notes down and paying attention.

163

[quote]waldo21212 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

Why the hell do some of you throw little hissy fits every time a discussion breaks out…as if we aren’t supposed to be discussing certain topics?

If you don’t like that a discussion about college breaks out…in a thread about college, why continue reading the fucking thread?

Why bitch and moan as if we aren’t supposed to talk about it?

This is a discussion forum, right?

Care to provide a detailed list of what we actually can talk about?[/quote]

I personally like the business/liberal arts/other majors who get butt hurt when someone makes a comment about how easy their major is (I knew people like that back in college too). I know a lot of people who couldn’t hack it in engineering with the amount of partying they did and when they switched to business are were fine and didn’t have to reduce the amount of partying they did (and in some cases increased it).

And moderation in partying is key - I used to really only party on the weekends since that’s when everyone was out anyway (and after 1 night of hard partying I was done for a week).[/quote]

Maybe it is not because Business is easier, maybe it is because Business has better teachers, I know for a fact that my business teachers (even the lower level ones) get paid more than the other teachers in other schools, and we have more funding, better buildings (we have a new business building which was donated to us by a private individual all the “hard” majors thought they should get the new building, obviously they can’t even figure out fucking logic), more scholarships, &c.

164

[quote]Houston07 wrote:
kman, is it really that necessary to continue fueling the fire of the “business” debate? I never said it was a DIFFICULT major, simply said it was a worthwhile and not a blow off one. And yeah, you can party a fair amount and do good, which I never discounted. And your friends fucked something up (interview, extracurriculars, whatever) to graduate with that GPA from a good school and not land a decent job.

And, if your going to throw statistics around, make sure they prove a point. U of Illinois, isn’t the #1 accounting program for undergrads. UT is. Illinois is actually second. Both great schools, but different environments to say the least.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-accounting[/quote]

Let’s not get all butthurt now just because I don’t constantly click the refresh button on my US News & World Report rankings. I think it was #1 at least one of the past two years. Either way doesn’t matter to me as I don’t go there.

You are still in school though amirite? If so then I don’t think you realize just how bad the market was for 2009 and 2010 finance undergrad graduates. There were almost no 60k+ jobs to go around and everyone was getting squeezed out. Not sure what this says about business programs, but I actually know more engineers with no finance background who were hired this past year by i-banks than I know finance/accounting guys. I don’t have a huge sample size though.

In the end I think that it simply depends on an individual’s strengths. Someone with a strong math background might find business/econ majors to be rather easy and not much work, which is probably why I am biased. On the other hand, I am terrible at learning languages and would find a language major to be rather ‘difficult’. To each their own.

165

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

Can’t believe that I’m sticking up for a t-sip. ; )

166

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

Can’t believe that I’m sticking up for a t-sip. ; )
[/quote]

I guess I should clarify and say that it is not a math background per se, but rather having a strong ability to problem solve which gives you that math background. So it is not the particular mathematical information, but rather the ability to learn this type of information. And obviously this is discounting courses like accounting/finance law, etc., which I would consider even easier and on par with poli sci courses.

Oh, and let me say that I do think that certain business majors are very worthwhile academic pursuits. There are some absolutely brilliant people in the field and their accomplishments are outstanding. Generalizing though, I just can not see it being that hard and/or time consuming based on many first hand accounts and my basic knowledge of the field.

167

There are lots of nooks and crannies that you can get in to with a finance degree, but the basics are pretty easy to get a handle on and are, by and large, applications of mathematical concepts, it’s figuring out how to apply what and where that gets complicated.

The one finance class that all business majors had to take at my school was notorious for weeding out those that didn’t want to work through it, but having spent two years in mechanical engineering (had a 3.5 when I switched, couldn’t see myself doing that for a lifetime), I can say, without a doubt, those folks don’t know what a hard course looks like, but you can’t just breeze through it and get an A or a B. I thought it was very straightforward.

Accounting on the other hand is about a system of rules that were made up completely out of thin air by a bunch of academics that have to be applied to every real world economic situation that can be thought up by really smart guys and their equally smart lawyers and consultants. The math part of accounting is pretty well a non-factor after the first semester. It’s all based on a handful of principals that seem to each have about ten thousand exceptions.

168

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

[/quote]

This ^^ we always hire our accounting folks out of the big 4 public firms and those guys only hire from good schools with great GPA’s.

Getting a Masters in Accounting is not easy and finding good Sr. level accounting folks is one of the most difficult positions for us to fill in the current market.

169

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:

[quote]rickbenn wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Hey is a degree from the University of Phoenix actually worth anything? A failure friend of mine has been taking online courses and insists that it’s going to count for the same as mine… and I have trouble seeing that.

anyone know?[/quote]

Absolutely NOT!! I did 2 fucking years of it and it was waste of time and money. I am going to a REAL college now and not one of the credits transferred. I have to start from scratch but oh swell it is better then those diploma mills. The key is with that most employers know of Penn state, Notre Dame and those type of schools. Now my school offers both online and in class courses as most schools do that now. Congress is looking into the “For Profit schools” business practices now. Make sure you check the schools accreditation too.
[/quote]

x2. My friend who does business and IT recruiting won’t even look at a resume with a “for profit” degree.[/quote]

With that in mind, here’s a little tid bit re: for-profits that i find a bit unsettling:

U of Phoenix graduated more black students than any Historically Black college in both 2007 and 2008 (i can find citation if needed). This in light of the fact that U of Phoenix and HBCUs graduate more black students than traditional colleges more generally. And yet, these for profit degrees don’t appear to be translating into veritable careers for anyone regardless of color…

Just some food for thought re: the state of academia in the US.

170

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:

[quote]A Ninny Mouse wrote:
With regards to “shit” majors… I am told (for the particular college I am at) that people who can’t handle engineering become biz-econ majors, and those who can’t handle that become comm majors. I do know of one guy who dropped out of computer science and went into biz-econ. So there may be some validity to this ordering.

Anyways, take that for what you will. I have no idea how highly ranked my school is for business FWIW[/quote]

Because it does not take a lot of outside classroom commitment. If they go to a decent business school the learning will be done inside the classroom, not outside. Does not mean it is easy, just means we are more efficient. I can take 19-20 credit hours a semester and spend a few hours a week studying, the rest is writing notes down and paying attention.[/quote]

Exactly.

171

[quote]Mascherano wrote:

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:

[quote]rickbenn wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Hey is a degree from the University of Phoenix actually worth anything? A failure friend of mine has been taking online courses and insists that it’s going to count for the same as mine… and I have trouble seeing that.

anyone know?[/quote]

Absolutely NOT!! I did 2 fucking years of it and it was waste of time and money. I am going to a REAL college now and not one of the credits transferred. I have to start from scratch but oh swell it is better then those diploma mills. The key is with that most employers know of Penn state, Notre Dame and those type of schools. Now my school offers both online and in class courses as most schools do that now. Congress is looking into the “For Profit schools” business practices now. Make sure you check the schools accreditation too.
[/quote]

x2. My friend who does business and IT recruiting won’t even look at a resume with a “for profit” degree.[/quote]

With that in mind, here’s a little tid bit re: for-profits that i find a bit unsettling:

U of Phoenix graduated more black students than any Historically Black college in both 2007 and 2008 (i can find citation if needed). This in light of the fact that U of Phoenix and HBCUs graduate more black students than traditional colleges more generally. And yet, these for profit degrees don’t appear to be translating into veritable careers for anyone regardless of color…

Just some food for thought re: the state of academia in the US.
[/quote]

This is the route many of my lower income patients take…and I assume the problem is lack of resources and even lack of info as far as what it takes to get into a real college.

Those schools advertise like they can find jobs easily after graduation.

172

[quote]Mascherano wrote:

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:

[quote]rickbenn wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Hey is a degree from the University of Phoenix actually worth anything? A failure friend of mine has been taking online courses and insists that it’s going to count for the same as mine… and I have trouble seeing that.

anyone know?[/quote]

Absolutely NOT!! I did 2 fucking years of it and it was waste of time and money. I am going to a REAL college now and not one of the credits transferred. I have to start from scratch but oh swell it is better then those diploma mills. The key is with that most employers know of Penn state, Notre Dame and those type of schools. Now my school offers both online and in class courses as most schools do that now. Congress is looking into the “For Profit schools” business practices now. Make sure you check the schools accreditation too.
[/quote]

x2. My friend who does business and IT recruiting won’t even look at a resume with a “for profit” degree.[/quote]

With that in mind, here’s a little tid bit re: for-profits that i find a bit unsettling:

U of Phoenix graduated more black students than any Historically Black college in both 2007 and 2008 (i can find citation if needed). This in light of the fact that U of Phoenix and HBCUs graduate more black students than traditional colleges more generally. And yet, these for profit degrees don’t appear to be translating into veritable careers for anyone regardless of color…

Just some food for thought re: the state of academia in the US.
[/quote]

Everytime you post something serious, I picture you as a sultry young teacher with glasses and a tight skirt, and Im one of your students that needs to stay after class…

I’ll leave now.

173

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

[/quote]

This ^^ we always hire our accounting folks out of the big 4 public firms and those guys only hire from good schools with great GPA’s.

Getting a Masters in Accounting is not easy and finding good Sr. level accounting folks is one of the most difficult positions for us to fill in the current market.[/quote]

Hey,

I was wondering if you could possibly throw me some advice. I have a Canadian University degree of a B.Comm in Economics and Finance and am currently preparing for the CPA exams. I will be writing my last one in Feb and have a green card and want to find a good position somewhere south of the border. What do you suggest would be the best route in securing a job? My greencard expires in June 2011 if I don’t move.

174

[quote]SickAbs wrote:
All the people hating on business degrees…Um, please take managerial accounting, business statistics 1&2, corporate tax accouting etc. Only entry level business classes are easy (micro-economics etc). Just because you see a lot of us business majors partying does not mean the shit is easy. It means we are social people and are enjoying our college experience. Just because you need to spend more time studying because youre a bio nerd or a crazy stressed engineering major doesnt give you the right to shit on other majors. Go get laid. [/quote]

What did you graduate with?

175

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

[/quote]

This ^^ we always hire our accounting folks out of the big 4 public firms and those guys only hire from good schools with great GPA’s.

Getting a Masters in Accounting is not easy and finding good Sr. level accounting folks is one of the most difficult positions for us to fill in the current market.[/quote]

Hey,

I was wondering if you could possibly throw me some advice. I have a Canadian University degree of a B.Comm in Economics and Finance and am currently preparing for the CPA exams. I will be writing my last one in Feb and have a green card and want to find a good position somewhere south of the border. What do you suggest would be the best route in securing a job? My greencard expires in June 2011 if I don’t move.
[/quote]

Most folks who are going to make a career out of accounting get some public accounting experience before they move into industry…I don’t know what the Canadian rules are but to sit for the CPA in the U.S. you have to have 2080 hours working under a CPA.

My advice would be to see if you can get on with one of the mid-size public firms like Grant Thornton and get some experience that way before moving into an industry job.

I would say try for the big 4, but they recruit you…not the other way around.

176

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:

[quote]SickAbs wrote:
All the people hating on business degrees…Um, please take managerial accounting, business statistics 1&2, corporate tax accouting etc. Only entry level business classes are easy (micro-economics etc). Just because you see a lot of us business majors partying does not mean the shit is easy. It means we are social people and are enjoying our college experience. Just because you need to spend more time studying because youre a bio nerd or a crazy stressed engineering major doesnt give you the right to shit on other majors. Go get laid. [/quote]

What did you graduate with?[/quote]

Syphilis.

177

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]kman3b18 wrote:

Not a chance in hell that this is a hard major if you have any decent math background.

[/quote]

I’d say your perceptions of the fields of finance and accounting are pretty off if you think a background in mathematics has any bearing on university level coursework or a career. You need to know how to do the basic functions, but no more so than I would expect of anyone that is eligible to attend college.

Undergrad in Finance/Accounting won’t get you much fresh out of school unless you qualify for the CPA exam and are willing to sweat it out a bit in public accounting at first. I went to Texas A&M and worked in public accounting for 9 years. We hired as many as we could get from Texas and Texas A&M’s accounting master’s programs, provided they had a good GPA. Get a low GPA, and you might get on with a local or regional firm, but it won’t be easy.

[/quote]

This ^^ we always hire our accounting folks out of the big 4 public firms and those guys only hire from good schools with great GPA’s.

Getting a Masters in Accounting is not easy and finding good Sr. level accounting folks is one of the most difficult positions for us to fill in the current market.[/quote]

Hey,

I was wondering if you could possibly throw me some advice. I have a Canadian University degree of a B.Comm in Economics and Finance and am currently preparing for the CPA exams. I will be writing my last one in Feb and have a green card and want to find a good position somewhere south of the border. What do you suggest would be the best route in securing a job? My greencard expires in June 2011 if I don’t move.
[/quote]

Most folks who are going to make a career out of accounting get some public accounting experience before they move into industry…I don’t know what the Canadian rules are but to sit for the CPA in the U.S. you have to have 2080 hours working under a CPA.

My advice would be to see if you can get on with one of the mid-size public firms like Grant Thornton and get some experience that way before moving into an industry job.

I would say try for the big 4, but they recruit you…not the other way around.
[/quote]

You can sit for the CPA exams so long as you have a bachelor’s degree with the required semester hours in each subject. I had my transcript analyzed and I qualify to write in New Hampshire. You can attain the work experience before, during or after you take the exams.

When I get to my last exam in Feb, I’ll start applying to the mid-size public firms. Thanks.

178

[quote]therajraj wrote:

Hey,

I was wondering if you could possibly throw me some advice. I have a Canadian University degree of a B.Comm in Economics and Finance and am currently preparing for the CPA exams. I will be writing my last one in Feb and have a green card and want to find a good position somewhere south of the border. What do you suggest would be the best route in securing a job? My greencard expires in June 2011 if I don’t move.
[/quote]

You need to start with whatever state you will be living in or trying to get a job in and check with their State Board of Accountancy to be sure that they will accept your degree and hours to allow you to sit for the exam.

If you have run that trap, and you have your green card, I would try to get in contact with a recruiters that visit or deal with your university for one of the firms and ask if they ever work with their US offices to place recruits, you might get lucky and they will help you out directly. Most of their recruiting is handled locally, so you need to get in contact with whatever office you intend to work in to have the best shot.

Do you know where in the US that you want to look? If you’re not picky, your best bet will be wherever the economy is the healthiest (think Texas, not California).

If you are serious and have the credentials, I can get you some email addresses. It’s not easy work, though it will open a lot of doors.

Good luck.

EDIT - cross posted there. I wouldn’t imagine there being an office for any big or medium sized firm in NH, but the designation will transfer with a bit of paperwork.

179

[quote]Nate99 wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

Hey,

I was wondering if you could possibly throw me some advice. I have a Canadian University degree of a B.Comm in Economics and Finance and am currently preparing for the CPA exams. I will be writing my last one in Feb and have a green card and want to find a good position somewhere south of the border. What do you suggest would be the best route in securing a job? My greencard expires in June 2011 if I don’t move.
[/quote]

You need to start with whatever state you will be living in or trying to get a job in and check with their State Board of Accountancy to be sure that they will accept your degree and hours to allow you to sit for the exam.

If you have run that trap, and you have your green card, I would try to get in contact with a recruiters that visit or deal with your university for one of the firms and ask if they ever work with their US offices to place recruits, you might get lucky and they will help you out directly. Most of their recruiting is handled locally, so you need to get in contact with whatever office you intend to work in to have the best shot.

Do you know where in the US that you want to look? If you’re not picky, your best bet will be wherever the economy is the healthiest (think Texas, not California).

If you are serious and have the credentials, I can get you some email addresses. It’s not easy work, though it will open a lot of doors.

Good luck.

EDIT - cross posted there. I wouldn’t imagine there being an office for any big or medium sized firm in NH, but the designation will transfer with a bit of paperwork. [/quote]

That would be awesome! I’m sitting for NH because its one of the few places you can sit with less than 150 semester hours (my degree worked out to 126 semester hours).

No, I am not picky the only two criteria I have is it be in the continental US (I have to go home to Toronto 3 weekends a year for the next 2 years in order to meet the requirements of my Canadian accounting certification) and be in or around a major US city.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

180

[quote]therajraj wrote:

That would be awesome! I’m sitting for NH because its one of the few places you can sit with less than 150 semester hours (my degree worked out to 126 semester hours).

No, I am not picky the only two criteria I have is it be in the continental US (I have to go home to Toronto 3 weekends a year for the next 2 years in order to meet the requirements of my Canadian accounting certification) and be in or around a major US city.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.
[/quote]

You may still have to get additional hours to qualify in other states, so I’d still check with the other state boards to see what it might take. It looks like you would be in a position to start in Fall 2011 (when the firms hire new audit staff).

I’ll PM the email addresses to you, it will take some work to get things set up, as they will not want to pay to fly you down for an interview, but if you’re willing to pay for the trip and can accommodate their schedule, with the right resume, I could see them giving you an interview.