Are accounting and finance a stem major?

For students who are asking if accounting and finances are a stem, this post is for you.

In this post, we’re going o dig into the details and give a real-life example that most people don’t know about.

Are Accounting and finance a stem major? 

Accounting and finance have been lately considered as stem major occupations which means most domains that belong to economics are going to be considered as stem majors.  So in general, accounting and finance use deeply the mathematics which is a principal pillar in stem major

 Accounting and finance are the famous occupations in the economy, they deal with anything that relates to collecting financial data, and controlling the financial situations of companies or individuals. Accountants and financials use the economics knowledge which is Mathematics, especially statistics, probability, and calculus to study the change in the market.

Accounting and finance are both stem occupations, but the main difference between these jobs is accountants don’t dig deeper into math as financials do.

Accountants take and gather all company expenses and revenues and give a general report of the financial situation of a company. While financials go far away than that, by expecting and studying the market opportunities which require using advanced and complex math subjects like calculus.

  for instance, if we have a small restaurant an accounting will be focusing on these 3 things:

  • calculate and determine the expenses of the restaurant including food bills, raw materials, maintenance, salaries
  • determine the total revenue,
  • determine the independent or the net profit a restaurant earned

The financial go away from that, it bases on the all accounting data and make his studies based the finance science to predict how the restaurant is doing, and suggest new strategies to follow to raise the income of a business.

Why Accounting and finance are stem majors?

Before responding to this question we have to understand what does it means STEM.

 STEM is an abbreviation word for science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics.  So to consider if a major is a stem or not, it must at least include one of these 4 pillars or characteristics. 

 so if we have to consider a domain like accounting and finance, at least it must involve one of the following subjects:

  •  Science
  •  Technology
  •  Engineering
  •  Mathematics

 To confirm that accounting and finance are pure stem majors were going to check if data science programs Include these 4  subjects.

1 – Is accounting and finance a science?

The principal occupation of accounting and finances is to use science to explain the market economy or on small scale help industries or organizations enhance their business.

For instance, financial advisors use all accounting data to make a better decision for the next product a company should release and even increase according to many factors like:

  • an easy cost of entry, the product is easy to make or manufacture like making pies is easier than building a car
  • cost of investment, investing in a restaurant is easier than a manufacturing company that requires bigger budgets to invest in machines
  • sales, and demand market which the most interesting thing is financials depend on each business.

So accounting and fiances implement all these scientists’ knowledge, especially mathematics like statistics business, and computer science. As result, to give better solutions to a company This proves that accounting and finances use a lot of scientific components on which STEM is based.

2 – Is accounting and finance using technology

Today accounting and fiances have evolved a lot. A lot of baking companies are using technology especially artificial intelligence. They use this technology to prevent payment fraud and improve the financial process by including more automation in their systems.

So the accounting and finances that you might be thinking about using charts, notebooks, and binders are no longer existing. Today’s accountants and financials also use technology which makes them technology STEM occupations.

In addition, there are some bankers who have a Computer science background that allows them to take some banking software occupations  by doing  theses following operations:

  • risk management
  • using Python and java for pricing applications,
  • trade management platforms.
  • reprogramming trading systems
  • analyzing, predicting, and developing software solutions

You could read this article where you will find 20 computer science jobs that have the relation between economics end technology. 

So this is one of the principal reasons that’s made accounting and finances be aggregated as a stem major.

3 – Is accounting and fiances engineering

It is hard to adopt accounting and finances as engineering occupations, accounting and finances tend to be more to be servicing occupations that deal with humans more than systems for machines which engineers do. 

 Regarding that financial advisors’ design of the future plans, companies can follow,  it can be considered like engineering future  Assistance or programs to follow to help a company or individuals reach their goals.

But normally accountants and Financials don’t deal with technical tools and the platforms like computer science for engineers do. So, for this reason, it is hard to consider them an engineering occupation, there are economists and consultants more than any other thing.

4 – is accounting and finances using math

accounting and financials are using a lot of math, especially financials go deeper into math complicated subjects, such as:

  • calculus 
  • algebra 
  • statistics and probability

The hardest math subject that fiance students study is calculus. But accountants don’t go deeper they focus only on algebra and basic arithmetics mathematics stuff.

 So for students who are interesting to major in STEM economics major and arent good at math. Therefore accounting is better for them.

In addition, learning the other important subject like statistics and probability is also really interesting to calculate and predict Customer Behavior.  For instance, determine the odds of a customer is going to buy the A product or B product.

Conclusion

So there is no doubt that accounting and finances are pure STEM fields because they involve the 3  pillars of stem including science engineering technology mathematics that being said.

  • accounting and finances  are science fields 
  • accounting and fiances  use a technology
  • accounting and finances are a mathematics field

So as we said at the beginning of the article to consider a field as a STEM it must have the least involved one of the 4 stem pillars.  So in our case, this major is evolving 3 pillars.

yassin.ajanif

Yassin ajanif is a physics graduate and electromechanical engineer width more than 5 years in the field. My goal and my team are to share our experience to help you succeed in your career as a stem major. we talk about all tips, problems, and struggle STEM students face in their career and how to overcome them.