Advice needed: Double degree vs. Finance vs. Accounting vs. Acturial (1 Viewer)

[icycloud]

Hi all,

What are some of the pros and cons of doing each of the following degrees? Which one would you choose if you had the choice, and why? Which of the following degrees are most competitive employment-wise?

The degrees:

• Commerce (Finance) / Law
• Commerce (Accounting) / Law
• Commerce (Acturial) / Law

• Commerce (Finance + Acturial)
• Commerce (Acturial + Accounting)
• Commerce (Finance + Accounting)

Thanks to anyone who replies with insightful answers!

p.s. I am considering doing the above degrees together with a traineeship with one of the Big4 accounting firms.

 

[RIZAL]

Is it just me or is this the wrong way to be choosing a degree?

Decide whether you want to be an accountant/actuary/investment banker/fund manager/lawyer etc and then choose a degree to suit.

If you just want to be an accountant, definitely don't do actuarial/accounting!

 

[icycloud]

The problem is I'm not quite sure myself what I want to be! So I guess the question is which degree will allow me the broadest opportunities upon completion of uni? And as I said in my original post, which degrees would a prospective employer be most impressed with?

And I saw on the other thread how people were saying that Acturial grads can do whatever Finance grads can do but not the other way around. Is this sort of saying Actuary is a superset of Finance? This is sort of what I'm confused about I guess.

 

[blackfriday]

1. what do you like best?
2. what do you like best?
3. what do you like best?

thats all that matters, because if you do something you end up hating you'll regret it.

 

[icycloud]

1. what do you like best?
2. what do you like best?
3. what do you like best?

thats all that matters, because if you do something you end up hating you'll regret it.

The thing is, I wouldn't mind doing Finance, Accounting OR Acturial, and that's why I'm asking this question

 

[SSaint]

See how you go, but provided you get the results go do Commerce/Law, you can choose your major/s after first year and elect to drop the law part of your program if you a) don't like it or b) want to get into the industry faster. As long as you get good results and some good work experience you shouldn't have too many problems finding a suitable job.

PS. there are plenty of threads that discuss the advantages of doing co-op/combined law/straight commerce/honours on this website so just look around.

Start here if you want:
http://community.boredofstudies.org/586/general-university-discussion/27834/merchant-banking.html

 

[noneother]

If you just want to be an accountant, definitely don't do actuarial/accounting!

Why not?

 

[blackfriday]

because actuary is shit hard and you are probably better off investing your time getting honours class 1 as opposed to shitting yourself getting through part 2.

 

[§eraphim]

It's better just to do 1st yr Actuarial Studies at UNSW and then make up your mind. That way, you'll have touched on everything you wanted to do (eg. Accounting/Finance/Actuarial Studies), and you can also transfer into law for the following yr.

Also, it will allow you to keep you cadetship as long as you starting working full-time from 2nd yr onwards.

 

[§eraphim]

Getting a high uai (98+) will help u transfer in 1st yr (not sure about later yrs). A distinction average also helps.

Also, the law cutoffs have been falling over the yrs so expect more dumbasses to dropout.

It also helps to choose subjects that count to both degrees so you don't waste any of them.

 

[§eraphim]

It's way off from the peak.

 

[RIZAL]

It's better just to do 1st yr Actuarial Studies at UNSW and then make up your mind. That way, you'll have touched on everything you wanted to do (eg. Accounting/Finance/Actuarial Studies), and you can also transfer into law for the following yr.

Also, it will allow you to keep you cadetship as long as you starting working full-time from 2nd yr onwards.

This is a good option. Probably what I would do if I was coming out of high school again.

Why is it good?

- First year UNSW actuarial is the same as a regular BCom (i think) so you won't have a fcked up GPA.
- Should you choose to change into accounting/finance/law, you won't have to change uni's because UNSW is good in all of these areas.


As for the PwC actuarial cadetship, they don't offer it anymore! I did plenty of bludging with the last cadet through the program actually.

 

[§eraphim]

This is a good option. Probably what I would do if I was coming out of high school again.

Why is it good?

- First year UNSW actuarial is the same as a regular BCom (i think) so you won't have a fcked up GPA.
- Should you choose to change into accounting/finance/law, you won't have to change uni's because UNSW is good in all of these areas.


As for the PwC actuarial cadetship, they don't offer it anymore! I did plenty of bludging with the last cadet through the program actually.

Thanks

There are other advantages which include:

- u do maths instead of QMA and QMB for normal commerce students. maths is a good subject to do as you can do very well in it, and it provides a strong foundation for you to tackle the more technical finance and actuarial subjects. Doing these 2 core 1st yr math subjects also gives u the option of transferring to commerce/science (maths).
- all ur subjects get credited to your combined degree, for example comm/sci.

Also, I think it's smarter to do FINS1613 Business Finance in Session 2 in 1st yr and defer Macroeconomics 1 to Session 1 of 2nd yr. This is because:

- Business Finance is an easy subject
- you will be exposed to both the "financial maths" side and "corporate finance" side of finance
- it counts to the professional qualifications for actuarial studies and accounting, or to a finance major
- if you do a finance major, doing a core subject like this earlier would allow u to finish all the core courses and hence more electives later on
- it's kind of related to the 2nd yr actuarial subject, financial maths.

 

[blackfriday]

yeh i reckon math1151 was so much easier than qma because its closer to what we did in 3u maths coming straight out of high school. transferring to com/sci to do a maths major is pretty good too, because discrete is no longer a required subject (why didnt anyone tell me before?)

 

[§eraphim]

You still need to do 24uoc of 1st yr science. you already did 12uoc for maths 1a and 1b. might as well do discrete and comp as they will be useful for later 3rd yr subjects.

 

[icycloud]

Thanks for the reply guys. Another question - is it more prudent to do a double degree or a double major in Commerce if you're thinking of a job in the field of commerce and finance?

 

[seremify007]

Thanks for the reply guys. Another question - is it more prudent to do a double degree or a double major in Commerce if you're thinking of a job in the field of commerce and finance?

"prudent"... you sound like an accounting student already!

I heard double degree tends to get better jobs in IB (finance) but not really sure about that. If you want a job in Accounting, then Commerce alone is sufficient- you can then go on to do CA. As I said in the other thread, your uni degree is significant, but once you complete post-graduate studies, it really doesn't mean much.

EDIT: Added in the quote at the top to reduce chance of confusion or people going "WTF are u talking about"... @ redruM

 

[redruM]

"prudent"... you sound like an accounting student already!

ahhaha I had to go back to the previous post to get it.

 

[blackfriday]

i cant understand why everyone is wetting their pants to do comp1911 - isnt it a real beyatch of a subject? im doing psyc 1a to fill it up and some of my other friends are doing philosophy, which dont look so bad either.

 

[§eraphim]

yeah, but comp is useful for applied maths.

also, it's a good idea to have some general programming skills as it makes it easier to learn new software/other languages.