Is an Accounting Major Considered a Business Major?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Account­ing is com­mon­ly offered as a spe­cial­iza­tion with­in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degrees.
• Account­ing majors can qual­i­fy grad­u­ates to become Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tants and pur­sue high­er busi­ness education.
• Grad­u­ates can access var­i­ous high-pay­ing busi­ness roles, such as finan­cial man­agers or top executives.

Yes, an account­ing major is con­sid­ered one of the var­i­ous types of busi­ness degrees. Some schools offer bachelor’s of sci­ence degrees in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion with a con­cen­tra­tion in Account­ing. Any type of bachelor’s degree in account­ing will qual­i­fy you to become a Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant (CPA), or con­tin­ue your edu­ca­tion with a busi­ness Master’s or PhD. Oth­er types of busi­ness majors include:

• Finance
• Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion and Management
• Mar­ket­ing
• Real Estate
• Human Resource Management
• Busi­ness Communications
• Inter­na­tion­al Business

If you are sure that you want to pur­sue a bachelor’s degree with a major in account­ing to get your foot in the door in a field of busi­ness, you should start by find­ing a pro­gram that meets your aca­d­e­m­ic and pro­fes­sion­al expec­ta­tions. For your ref­er­ence we have com­piled a list of the Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Account­ing Degree Pro­grams, all of which pro­vide great edu­ca­tion­al qual­i­ty and will qual­i­fy you for a num­ber of jobs. If any of the schools on the list offer an account­ing pro­gram that will get you start­ed in the field of busi­ness, you should request more infor­ma­tion by fol­low­ing the links to the school’s web­site. Grad­u­ates with a bachelor’s degree with a major in account­ing, and spend some time gain­ing work expe­ri­ence in the field of busi­ness, will be qual­i­fied for a num­ber of high pay­ing jobs, including:

• Finan­cial Man­agers, who earn an aver­age annu­al salary of $125,080.
• Top Exec­u­tives, who earn an aver­age annu­al salary of $104,700.
• Sales Man­agers, who earn an aver­age annu­al salary of $121,060.
• Finan­cial Ana­lysts, who earn an aver­age annu­al salary of $84,300.
• Finan­cial Exam­in­ers, who earn an aver­age annu­al salary of $81,690.

As you can see, account­ing can be an extreme­ly lucra­tive major if you are moti­vat­ed in the field of busi­ness. Poten­tial stu­dents (and espe­cial­ly those look­ing to go into an account­ing pro­gram) should be aware of the return on invest­ment that they can expect from their degree, which they can fig­ure out by con­duct­ing A Cost/Benefit Analy­sis of a Bachelor’s Degree. While your bachelor’s degree will not explic­it­ly direct your career path, choos­ing a spe­cial­iza­tion with­in the field of account­ing can help give you a leg up on oth­er appli­cants with sim­i­lar cre­den­tials. Stu­dents who major in account­ing can often choose course­work from one of the fol­low­ing specializations:

• Eco­nom­ics and Finance
• Finan­cial Accounting
• Account­ing Infor­ma­tion Systems
• Actu­ar­i­al Science
• Tax Account­ing
• Foren­sic Accounting
• Busi­ness Law
• Man­age­r­i­al Accounting/Management Accounting
• Oper­a­tions Management
• Cor­po­rate Accounting
• Cost Account­ing
• Audit­ing

If you are cur­rent­ly employed with­in the field of busi­ness and are look­ing to get a degree in account­ing to take the next step towards a pro­mo­tion, you might con­sid­er an online account­ing degree. Online learn­ing will allow you the sched­ule flex­i­bil­i­ty to con­tin­ue work­ing at your job while tak­ing class­es wher­ev­er and when­ev­er it is most con­ve­nient for you. Major­ing in account­ing lends itself to online for­mats, as cours­es usu­al­ly require math and sta­tis­tic work which does not require hands-on activities.

Any pro­gram with AACSB accred­i­ta­tion will pre­pare you for the CPA exam, but there are lots of oth­er ways to take account­ing careers. Account­ing pro­fes­sion­als and account­ing grad­u­ates don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly have to look for jobs with account­ing firms. With an account­ing degree, you can also pur­sue relat­ed careers like:

• Strate­gic management
• Small business/entrepreneurship
• Risk man­age­ment
• Project man­age­ment
• Mar­ket­ing management
• Non­prof­it management
• Busi­ness management

Busi­ness pro­grams dif­fer depend­ing on the busi­ness schools, but gen­er­al busi­ness cours­es will help you learn about finan­cial state­ments, finan­cial records, busi­ness ethics, finan­cial report­ing, book­keep­ing, and more.

If you are con­sid­er­ing an online degree pro­gram, be sure to check out our The Essen­tial Guide to Online Bach­e­lors Degrees. If any of the schools on our list of the Top 15 Bach­e­lor of Account­ing Degree Pro­grams meet your cri­te­ria, be sure to vis­it their web­site for more information.

RELATED LINKS:

25 Best Bachelor’s in Accounting

15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

10 Most Afford­able Online Bachelor’s in Accounting

Top 15 Online Bach­e­lor of Account­ing Degree Programs

The Top 15 Cheap­est Bach­e­lor Degrees in Accounting