<p>taxguy, while you’re right that there’s almost a dearth of actual math in accounting, it’s still a little misleading for a layman to hear. Since you minored in math, you know that mathematics is all about doing proofs and finding double derivatives and topology and those sorts of things. What you might overlook as a math major, however, is that to a high schooler, math equals arithmetic and simple algebra. Admittedly, even then, accounting does not require an excess of arithmetic, and it truly isn’t a major part of financial accounting as a whole. But it bears mentioning that the type of thinking that would make one successful in mathematics, which in my opinion is twofold - one, being able to apply a very high volume of vague, highly underexplained, and rigorous concepts to problems which deviate markedly from those which the student has been exposed to in lecture and homework, and two, being one who will tread the same ground repeatedly to absorb all available knowledge like a sponge and avoid the mere chance of error like the plague. Underestimation of the importance of the latter is the peril of junior-year accountants and engineers who aren’t in the top 25% of their class – extremely low class averages on exams are another hallmark of both math and 300 level-plus accounting.</p>