MBA in Finance v. MBA in Accounting

I would like to get some feeback from members on comparing the utility of the MBA degree when comparing both Accounting and Finance. The more I read about both degrees it's seems to be almost the same.

 

I guess I should mention that I'm also working on CPCU and ARM and hope to get this done while completing my MBA courses. Not sure if Finance would give the same benefits as Accounting based on the designation I want to complete below.

Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU)
CPCU 553 Survey of Personal Risk Mgmt, Ins. & Financial Planning - done
CPCU 510 Foundations of Risk Management, Ins. & Professionalism - done
CPCU 551 Commercial Property Risk Management and Insurance - done
CPCU 552 Commercial Liability Risk Management and Insurance - taking next week
CPCU 520 Ins. Operations, Regulation, and Statutory Accounting
CPCU 530 The Legal Environment of Insurance
CPCU 540 Finance for Risk Management and Insurance Professionals
CPCU 560 Financial Services Institutions

Associate in Risk Management-ERM (ARM-E)
ARM 54—Risk Assessment
ARM 55—Risk Control
ARM 56—Risk Financing
ERM 57—Enterprise-Wide Risk Mgmt: Developing & Implementing

 

These are the two degrees I have my eye on. I'm seriously considering taking the STAT500 even though I took Stat last year. I can't believe how much I forgot and Davenport Univ. is using MiniTab for their stat course.

MBA in Accounting
1. ACCT640 Managerial Accounting
2. BUSN650 Business Analysis
3. ECON625 Managerial Economics
4. FINC620 Financial Management
5. MGMT645 Organizational Development and Culture
6. MKTG610 Marketing Strategies
7. ACCT730 Taxation of Corporations and Trusts
8. ACCT750 Information Systems Auditing
9. ACCT760 Internal Controls and Legal Issues
10. ACCT780 Forensic Accounting
11. ACCT781 Asset Recovery and Legal Environment
12. ACCT795 Accounting Research
13. CAPS790 Capstone

MBA in Finance
1. ACCT640 Managerial Accounting
2. BUSN650 Business Analysis
3. ECON625 Managerial Economics
4. FINC620 Financial Management
5. MGMT645 Organizational Development and Culture
6. MKTG610 Marketing Strategies
7. FINC675 Derivatives and Risk Management
8. FINC680 Corporate and Shareholder Taxation
9. FINC750 Advanced Financial Management
10. FINC760 Investment Management
11. FINC765 Money and Capital Markets
12. FINC770 International Financial Strategies
13. CAPS790 Capstone

 

It depends, there are far more people with MBA in Finance as this is an interesting and challenging area. However, there are far more jobs in the boring area of Accounting.
Most people with an MBA in Finance become Financial planners, consultants or investment analyst. However, the opportunities are limited as only large corporation or Financial consulting firms hire Finance specialist. On the other hand, every company needs an accountant so every single organization can be a potential employer.

 

If you want to work in Finance, get an MBA in Finance. If you want to be an accountant, then get a MAcc, because that is the degree the majority of your competition for jobs will have. The MAcc is a pure accounting degree, while the MBA in Accounting is a general business degree overweighted with accounting electives. There were a lot of accountants in my MBA program, but most of them were looking to do something else when they finished. The finance guys, however, all planned to return to finance after school. Good luck!

 

I don't know. In industry, I see a huge blur between accounting and finance and most corporate finance jobs actually specify 'Degree in Accounting &/or Finance'

What's true is that the accounting stuff is typically limited to making sure we post everything correctly while the finance stuff is more open-minded (how might this project go). Yet, there are thousands of people with the title 'Senior Financial Analysts' in industry, who are essentially management accountants.

I currently work for a Fortune 500 and that's the way it works in our firm.

 

I consider finance as more of a strategic discipline in comparison to accounting. However as you’ve mentioned, some organizations probably do not differentiate between the two.

Major56

M.B.A. Tarleton State University (current)
M.Ed. Prairie View A&M University
M.B.A. Taylor University
CGSOC U.S. Army Command & General Staff College (Diploma)
B.B.A. Sam Houston State University

 

I think you will find a bunch of similarity between an MBA in finance, and MBA in accounting and a general interest MBA, especially at the same school, because they are all MBAs.

Where you start to see the differences is between a MBA, a Masters in Accounting and a Masters in Finance.

I have both an MBA and a Masters in Finance (MSF). The MSF course work was much different than the MBA.