Business Science or Bcom? (UCT)

[camreid09]

Hi all, really struggling on making my mind up on what to study...

I was told that Business Science is a good degree but cannot find much information on it ? I have heard people say it is a glorified BCom but there must be some advantages to it ? The mathematical factor of it over Bcom is more appealing as that is my passion , although it seems as though at the end of the day I will be doing an extra year for nothing... are there any careers that would be opened up by doing an BBusSci rather than a BCom ? I feel like I would be "wasted" doing a BCom as I wouldn't be doing the thing I enjoy and am good at... and the fact that my marks at school are much above the requirements for the degree...

All advice and help would be much appreciated.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Business Science, and I wouldn't called it glorified Bcom.

 

[camreid09]

Business Science, and I wouldn't called it glorified Bcom.

I apologise for my ignorance , but what are the advantages of the Business Science degree over the Bcom?

 

[DA-LION-619]

I apologise for my ignorance , but what are the advantages of the Business Science degree over the Bcom?

Not really my field but Bcom is like accounting stuff where as Business Science is the analysis and things.
It's more harder so more money, I think you do some computer science modules in Business Science.

 

[saturnz]

don't worry about the differences now, sign up for bbusci and if you are unhappy just downgrade

 

[Dean01]

Hi, Bcom is Accounting Major and BBusci is Finance and Accounting. If you going CA route go with Bcom. It saves you a year.

 

[saturnz]

Hi, Bcom is Accounting Major and BBusci is Finance and Accounting. If you going CA route go with Bcom. It saves you a year.

this is not the case at UCT, you can do various majors in both BComm and BBusci although with Bcomm your options may be slightly reduced.

I agree you do save a year on the CA stream if you go Bcomm, but it is neither here nor there in the bigger scheme of things.

 

[cguy]

I also suggest BBusSci. It opens doors to software development (and certainly financial development) work. It can also push you in the direction of quantitative analysis if you do enough maths and stats as part of it, which is very lucrative.

 

[selby]

No a straightforward question, you should ask yourself what sort of job do you want after you graduate. Then choose the degree to get you there.

 

[bro-da]

depends on your field of study. iirc if you do BBusSci Actuarial science it is equivalent to a honours degree where the Bcom is just the undergrad degree and you have to apply for Honours afterwards (and possibly get rejected).

My suggestion would be to go online and compare the actual courses you would do for the same field of study(Acc for example) under Bcom and BBusSci.
I would suspect that that the first 3 years of the BBusSci to be very similar to the Bcom and the additional year being the major difference.

Also consider you overall path. for example BBusSci Act Sci will give you access to courses you can get board exemptions for. on the other hand Bcom CA should be fine if your aiming to becoming a CA.

 

[selby]

My suggestion would be to go online and compare the actual courses

Yes thats what I was saying too. Many people choose these sort of degrees to put off "what they want to be when they grow up". Rather get a general direction, and then choose th degree to match.

 

[cguy]

depends on your field of study. iirc if you do BBusSci Actuarial science it is equivalent to a honours degree where the Bcom is just the undergrad degree and you have to apply for Honours afterwards (and possibly get rejected).

My suggestion would be to go online and compare the actual courses you would do for the same field of study(Acc for example) under Bcom and BBusSci.
I would suspect that that the first 3 years of the BBusSci to be very similar to the Bcom and the additional year being the major difference.

Also consider you overall path. for example BBusSci Act Sci will give you access to courses you can get board exemptions for. on the other hand Bcom CA should be fine if your aiming to becoming a CA.

The first three years are very different. BBusSci covers a ton of maths and stats that BCom students never see - it's mostly a science course, not a commerce course.

 

[bro-da]

The first three years are very different. BBusSci covers a ton of maths and stats that BCom students never see - it's mostly a science course, not a commerce course.

I disagree.
that said it does depends on your field of study eg ACT SCI and INFO SYSTEMS are broadly similar. however for other degrees they may only be available under one or the other. eg Acounting and law (only bcom i think)

 

[cguy]

I disagree.
that said it does depends on your field of study eg ACT SCI and INFO SYSTEMS are broadly similar. however for other degrees they may only be available under one or the other. eg Acounting and law

Point taken. You are correct - it appears as though if the same specialization is taken the courses are essentially the same (but bus sci has an honours year included). When I was first at university (20+ years ago, so this seems to have changed), BCom students never did CS (they did "IS") or "science math", and the very purpose of Business Science was to do a mix of science and commerce courses - this seems to now be shared.

 

[saturnz]

Point taken. You are correct - it appears as though if the same specialization is taken the courses are essentially the same (but bus sci has an honours year included). When I was first at university (20+ years ago, so this seems to have changed), BCom students never did CS (they did "IS") or "science math", and the very purpose of Business Science was to do a mix of science and commerce courses - this seems to now be shared.

I'm not sure if the intent was to mix natural sciences with commerce courses.

 

[cguy]

I'm not sure if the intent was to mix natural sciences with commerce courses.

I wasn't thinking natural sciences - more along the lines of CS, maths and stats. IIRC, there were maths and stats courses available for BCom, but they were a little lighter on the pure science side and focused more on application (sometimes specifically to commerce), and/or generally were only taken at the first year level, sometimes just a single semester.

I remember doing maths with BSc students and BBusSci students. I also recall doing maths with Acc Sci students, but I actually have no idea if their degrees were BCom or BBusSci (they only ever identified themselves as "Acc Sci", lol! ). I don't believe that there were any (non-acc sci) BCom students with me since I don't know anyone with a BCom from then (other side of campus).