Son deciding between Chemical Engineering and Accounting

millie210
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 07:18:27 +0000

I realize that many colleges make you apply to a major, so this is only partly on point, but here goes.

A good friend’s husband started college absolutely certain he wanted to be a chemical engineering major. It took maybe two months for him to figure out that it was totally the wrong major for him. He majored in Econ, got an MBA at Wharton and enjoys his career as a finance guy in industry.

Similar story for my husband, but it only took him a couple of weeks to realize that chemistry was not his subject. He majored in comp sci.

Friends of ours have a daughter who started college as a business major (mostly at her father’s urging, so this isn’t really about what she thought she’d like), eventually realized she hated it. She transferred and is happily finishing up a nursing degree, but college was longer and more expensive than anyone originally planned.

I think the idea that 17 year olds who have little to no academic or practical exposure to any area should declare a major before they get to college is ridiculous.

Chemical engineering and accounting are very, very different fields despite both using math. As is reasonable for a person of his age and experience, your son doesn’t know what he wants to do for a major or a career. Lots of varied things look interesting. If he gets to college and takes classes in subjects he’s never been exposed to before, he may find other things that also interest him, maybe even more than the two he’s thinking about now.

In short, if at all possible, I’d urge him to apply to schools where he doesn’t have to commit to a major before he’s been to his senior prom. Go somewhere that will allow him to try things out and explore different options. By time he has to declare a major he’ll have a much better clue.

Oh, yeah, and he doesn’t have to major in accounting or even take serious amounts of accounting undergrad to become a CPA. My husband the comp sci major didn’t take accounting classes undergrad, but he focused on accounting in B school. He’s a CPA with an MBA who works on the finance side for a major advertising and media company and he never really used his comp sci degree. Very few 17 year olds have any idea what they want to be when they grow up.