Eng/Sci to Eng/Com - Commerce and General Advice Needed!

[Tyleralp1]

Hey AN,

I'm currently in my first year of doing a double degree in Engineering/Science at Monash University. After some thought, I'm considering changing my Science component to Commerce. The reason being is that whilst I do enjoy Science (Physics/Chemistry) in a general sense and learning about it, studying it at university seems heavily research orientated which isn't my thing and doesn't seem to lend itself to many other jobs.

Now doing Engineering (choosing civil), I naturally have a liking for Maths and Science. So I figured Commerce may be another option as majors such as Accounting, Finance and Econometrics do involve math. Actuary doesn't seem too appealing in all honesty though.

Now, the reason of this post is to perhaps clarify a few key questions of mine:

---Commerce Questions---
1. What is the real difference between Accounting and Finance, both in terms of content and job prospects? Is one "better" than the other?
2. How hard core is the math involved compared to Engineering Math? If Engineering/Actuary/Maths Majors are like Specialists, what would this be?
3. How would I know if this suits me, and is worth pursuing?
4. What sort of skills are required to succeed in these areas in industry?
5. How much economics/business theory is involved?

---General Questions---
1. If I want to complete this in the same time, 5 years, I'd need to overload one unit each semester next year. How viable is this, or should I consider summer units or just doing half a year longer?
2. If I do choose to do summer units, what ones would count?

Feel free to mention anything else that comes to mind or other points of consideration to have. All help and advice is very much appreciated!

[RuiAce]

I'll provide some brief answers to the commerce questions. Leaving the general questions out because I don't know what university you're at.

1. Job prospects wise, accounting is needed everywhere; no business can survive without an accountant these days. But finance is so diverse that most people can easily get jobs with that too.
Content wise, finance is more interested in cash flows and its behaviour in specific systems altogether. Accounting is more focused on the life of a business itself and what exactly they own, and how they fund it.

2. Accounting is just lots of numbers - no real maths. Some maths is needed in finance so that you know how to calculate cash flows but it's still low compared to engineering.

3. Most people decide on that one once they've tried out all the compulsory first year courses.

4 (the second one). I did no business stuff in high school whatsoever. I picked up on the concepts in business very rapidly anyway.
But in first year, you're far more interested in simple applications of commerce (just like maths questions, applying what you know) as opposed to an overload of theory. Try being an accountant without GAAP - you will die, but they don't overemphasise the concepts of GAAP in first year.