Son deciding between Chemical Engineering and Accounting

MassDaD68
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 17:42:22 +0000

I am one who started out as a EE major and switched to Accounting after my second year. I guess I got weeded out during those weed courses. lol. I am fine with it and found that my strong math background really helped me when I dove into the deep finance classes and Econ classes. The accounting classes came easy to me because I have that type of tic & tac personality. I ended up losing a full year from the switch so it was a 5 year plan for me.

The thing is. I thought I knew what I wanted to do and I am glad I scratched that itch. I have no problems saying that I found the second year of EE hard. I am who I am. One thing it did was give me lots of confidence when I deal with all the Quants that cook up these crazy financial products that I have to evaluate. I have the math background and mind to understand and challenge them on finer points.

If he wants to give CE a try, then I say do it from the get go and dive right in for the sequential reasons mentioned above. He can always catch up later by taking some Accounting 101 & 102 courses during the summer.

Tell him it is totally natural to switch majors and not to stress about knowing what he wants to do. Encourage him to shoot high first.