Management Information System

I’m a rising junior in college and since I couldn’t find a job over the summer, I thought I would take some classes. I decided to take introductory accounting because I figured the skill would be useful and it could look good on a resume, although I don’t think it’s interesting. However, I’m not an accounting major and I’m not sure if I will even go into business any time soon – I might do volunteer and humanitarian work after graduation (that’s in two years) so I wondered if I would even be able to retain this information. Is introductory accounting basic enough that I could still remember it some years down the line or is this class a waste of my time?

The course description is as follows, please let me know if these are useful accounting skills or non-accountants:

This course introduces the basics of financial accounting with emphasis on accounting as an information system which aids in the decision-making process. The focus is on the analysis and classifying of accounting information necessary for the preparation of external general-purpose financial statements. Topics include transaction analysis, development of financial reports, the accounting cycle, accruals and deferrals, receivables, payables, payroll, promissory notes, inventory costing, plant assets and depreciation methods, corporate equity concepts, bonds payable, and present value.

Yes, you should take introductory accounting. It’s one of the most useful classes on a college campus.

If you can understand a balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows, that will help you out later in life when you are analyzing things such as investing in stocks.