USF and academics

[JerseyBull06]

this is mostly a quick vent, hence the reason I'm putting it on here...so here it goes

I do not make it a secret that I love USF for it's athletics and not for its academics and I once again have been reminded of why. I am working on a group project and upon seeing other people's contributions I can not figure out how some of these people graduated high school let a lone made it into Junior level classes in college!!! It's disappointing and I pray that this is simply a result of people not trying and not caring because if it is their best efforts it's just sad.

I could use about 3 days to make this good, I have a few hours...hence I'm done ranting!

Thank you and GO BULLS!!!

[Bull Martin]

Your program needs a weed out class.  I felt the same way going through chemical engineering at one point.

Low and behold here comes a weed out course.  70% of my class failed it.  Then my senior design class needed every last bit of knowledge we'd learned over the past 2 years.  A lot of people had to repeat the class.

It made me happy some of those people weren't representing the USF degree.  Not that they were dumb, they just hadn't put forth the effort.  I think most of them have graduated now, but at least they know their **** now.

[JerseyBull06]

desperately needs a weed out class

I did engineering for 2 years at another university and have an accounting degree from USF. Both programs had at least 1 or 2 weed out courses...for me engineering had a weed out semester!

i'm in marketing right now and it's a totally different animal from accounting and engineering 

[No_Willie_Jokes_Yet]

desperately needs a weed out class

I did engineering for 2 years at another university and have an accounting degree from USF. Both programs had at least 1 or 2 weed out courses...for me engineering had a weed out semester!

i'm in marketing right now and it's a totally different animal from accounting and engineering 

Remember a few things:

1. Anyone with an AA degree gets into most Florida Universities. That's problem 1.

2. Marketing. I know some really smart people that are marketing students but it is not the norm. Having taught Principles of Financial Accounting at USF I can tell you that the marketing majors were not on par with most other majors. 

Why would you go back for a marketing degree when you have an accounting degree?

[bulldad10]

desperately needs a weed out class

I did engineering for 2 years at another university and have an accounting degree from USF. Both programs had at least 1 or 2 weed out courses...for me engineering had a weed out semester!

i'm in marketing right now and it's a totally different animal from accounting and engineering 

Remember a few things:

1. Anyone with an AA degree gets into most Florida Universities. That's problem 1.

2. Marketing. I know some really smart people that are marketing students but it is not the norm. Having taught Principles of Financial Accounting at USF I can tell you that the marketing majors were not on par with most other majors. 

Why would you go back for a marketing degree when you have an accounting degree?

Jersey and Leavittation -

What would say is the weed out class in the Accounting program?  My daughter just changed majors and is in the COBA now.  She is taking Principles now and seems to like it.  Says it seems A LOT less stressful than her previous major (Nursing).

[No_Willie_Jokes_Yet]

desperately needs a weed out class

I did engineering for 2 years at another university and have an accounting degree from USF. Both programs had at least 1 or 2 weed out courses...for me engineering had a weed out semester!

i'm in marketing right now and it's a totally different animal from accounting and engineering 

Remember a few things:

1. Anyone with an AA degree gets into most Florida Universities. That's problem 1.

2. Marketing. I know some really smart people that are marketing students but it is not the norm. Having taught Principles of Financial Accounting at USF I can tell you that the marketing majors were not on par with most other majors. 

Why would you go back for a marketing degree when you have an accounting degree?

Jersey and Leavittation -

What would say is the weed out class in the Accounting program?  My daughter just changed majors and is in the COBA now.  She is taking Principles now and seems to like it.  Says it seems A LOT less stressful than her previous major (Nursing).

There are really two levels of weeding so to speak. One at the college level and one at the department level.

Principles of Financial Accounting (POFA) is the first weeding course for the college of business. About 40-50% of the students enrolled in that course will drop or fail in a fall semester. The course is not that hard but students MUST do their homework to pass the course. For many students they have made it pretty far in college just cramming the night before an exam. POFA requires you to stay current with the class and the homework. You daughter may like the class now, they generally cover easier topics to begin with. When the focus shifts to debits and credits (in the next week to three) she may not like the course as much. It will take practice but she should do well if she does her homework.

The next level of weeding is at the department or major level. Intermediate Accounting has forever changed peoples lives and choice of major. Intermediate I runs through everything from POFA in the first three weeks. Then you move on to more complex items. When I took that course we had 45 start and 12 finish, with only 7 of those passing. It is important for her to talk with other students, find the recommended teachers, get into a good study group and to work hard.  She should get good advice from her advisor and then follow up with the professor to see if her class load is to difficult when she takes intermediate. If she has an easy course or two to go with Intermediate I, that would be a great plan.

I'm at UNF now, but if whe has any questions regarding POFA, have her send me an email (check your inbox) I'll be glad to answer class related questions. I would not feel comfortable with teacher recommendations, besides, other students are better at that since there are new faculty.

Good luck to her and you!

[Bull Martin]

Leavittation, you the man!  :cheers

[bulldad10]

Thanks so much for the great information.  I will pass this on to my daughter for sure.  Luckily she is one of those rare students that keeps up with her work every day.  She has been doing the homework and attending study sessions, so I believe that she will do well and keep up.  She learned her lesson the hard way in High School about trying to skate by. 

[JerseyBull06]

desperately needs a weed out class

I did engineering for 2 years at another university and have an accounting degree from USF. Both programs had at least 1 or 2 weed out courses...for me engineering had a weed out semester!

i'm in marketing right now and it's a totally different animal from accounting and engineering 

Why would you go back for a marketing degree when you have an accounting degree?

I mostly got an accounting degree because it was the most challenging degree in COBA and is the most stable degree to have in business.

I was doing tax accounting and was miserable - started looking for another job but I didn't have the experience to even get a staff accounting position and I really wanted to get out of accounting all together - I'm taking a few classes to start work towards marketing and to become eligible for internships as they are the best way to get entry level in the industries I'm interested in 

As for the weed out stuff Leavittation definately covered that well but a few other thoughts:

- POFA: that course was when my brother decided he didn't want to be an accounting major anymore; personally I got a D in the class and learned a valuable lesson...don't take an exam when you're horribly sick and can't study because of it. (I got an A the second time for the record)

- Financial Accounting is definately the weed out course for Acct majors but I don't recall our passing rates being quite that bad, there are more difficult courses than Intermediate I but usually if you make it through that you make it through the rest, Intermediate II is kinda the final weed out course but only with a small number of people

- USF has an excellent accounting program, ESPECIALLY if you want to get into financial accounting and get your CPA

- One semester I took 15 credit hours including 3 upper level accounting courses,  and worked about 20 hours a week as an asst manager in retail - I wouldn't recommend this

if your daughter has any questions about the accounting program feel free to PM me at any time - I promise not to share my study habits...most accounting majors are very dilligent and stay on top of things; I wasn't that person

[bulldad10]

Thanks Jersey!!!  So many great people on this board!  I am going to be talking to my daughter later this week and I will send all this info to her.  I am sure she will take all the help she can get.  While she is a very good student (insert dad bragging here), she needs to stay on top of her studies and not try to do it all at once.  Luckily she learned that lesson in high school early.  She is looking at getting her CPA, but of course it is still too early to tell.  After all she just had her first test in POFA and she won't know her grade until Friday.