Should DS do a Big 4 Apprenticeship or go to Cambridge?

[StressedaboutUni]

DS has managed to get a Big4 Apprenticeship in Accountancy and he has also managed to get an offer to read economics at Cambridge. Assuming he gets the grades, he is not sure which one to pick. Going to the apprenticeship would give him the opportunity to save 60k over three years vs 45k debt. He would also be able to become fully qualified accountant in 4 years. He would not get a degree though.
Cambridge would open doors for him in other industries that he may consider in the future such as Investment Banking or Management Consultancy.
He is really confused on what to do.

Thanks @JL642, yes we are very proud of him, he didn’t expect to get great grades, especially with grades returning to normality this year. I think that also played into his mind when considering the apprenticeship, as they were asking for very low grades and he wasn’t sure at the time if he would have made the grades needed for his Cambridge offer.

Huge congratulations to your DS.

My DS made a similar decision three years ago (with the same grades as your DS) and had a fantastic time at Cambridge. He graduated this summer and started on a prestigious banking grad scheme in London two weeks ago.
He has no regrets whatsoever at the path he chose.

Good luck to your DS!

@illiterato

"There’s no point in studying accounting for a degree. You get a couple of exemptions in your first lot of professional exams- that’s it."

That's not necessarily true. On PwC Flying Start by the time you finish your degree your'll have 12 of the 15 papers, most of your work experience already completed, so you then only need last 3 exams papers and finish off the work experience, your'll be fully qualified ICAEW / ACA within 9 months of starting work for PwC.

But, congratulations to OP's ds. Cambridge. Right choice!

He'd always regret passing up Cambridge... Cambridge grad here and it has opened so many doors for me and I have a great career now as a solicitor. Plus I made friends and professional contacts for life.

Just to add to the loads of good advice on this thread that Cambridge has some amazing financial support for students. Their general view is that no one should drop out or need a termtime job to manage, so colleges will help if and when needed. The accommodation in college is decent and subsidised, so it compares favourably vs other universities. My books for each year were essentially paid for by a college award (course books are a major expense!). Anyone really struggling financially can speak to the college bursar privately and will be pointed towards appropriate means of support. Colleges often help with work experience through alumni networks.

You must be very proud of your son! What great options.

Anyone can become a big 4 accountant. Do economics and Cambridge and have a much wider choice of careers.

Does the apprenticeship not provide a degree as well?

Isn’t flying start a degree apprenticeship so you’re working alongside studying? If so then arguably yes, worth taking that route but I was talking about just going to Uni as normal and studying an accountancy undergrad without the associated work experience.

@illiterato yes, Flying Start (PwC) is a degree alongside work experience which also gives exemptions for 12 out of the 15 ACA exams. The students are at university full time plus spend time at a PwC office. There’s also Big4 accountancy apprenticeships which my DD1 is doing, (last cohort at her particular Big4, but other Big4’s are available) where you work full time as a trainee accountant (paid) and do ALL the ACA exams - there’s no university & no degree, but it’s fast track as just 3.5 years, rather than the 5yrs it’ll take Flying Start to fully qualify or the 6 years Uni & post grad route would take. The downside is you’ve no degree per se (just the ‘post grad’ ACA qual) and the person needs to be very certain!

Gotcha. Man I feel old. When I did ACA it was 3 years post grad. I think if you had an accountancy degree you didn’t have to do the conversion ( first lot of exams) but still had to do the rest of them and if you didn’t have to do a couple you still had to go to work on those college days so almost worse off I did seem to spend a lot of time at college though and was lucky that most of my courses were in the summer.

I'm heavily involved in Big 4 apprenticeship training. My DC has graduated this summer from Oxbridge. I would 100% recommend the route your DS has taken. The new Big 4 students take their first exams in a couple of weeks. It's no match for 3 or 4 years of fun and hard slog at Cambridge.

Also for may university is life changing in other ways - leaving parents, being with all those other young people at the same stage of life, new experiences, even if you don't do much work the freedom can be immense. I met my children's father on my post grad year and may be I would not have 5 lovely children etc had we not met at that stage. My son met his gf at university. I am not saying people don't meet people later or at work aged 18 but university is a huge opportunity for many that going straight to work at 18 is not always.

Thanks @ofteninaspin, glad it worked out for your son, making this decision. It seemed a no brainier from DS but all this promotion around apprenticeships made him question it a bit.

DD has done exactly the same thing as your son, though not Oxbridge. Graduated in the summer and now three weeks into her PWC grad scheme. First exams 19th October.
She benefited hugely from going to university first in all sorts of ways, least of all academically to be honest! Learnt how to work hard and play hard which is standing her in good stead for her current workload.

Congratulations to your son. I'm an ex big four accountant and I think he's done the right thing. That option, and others, will still be there for him when he graduates.

My son's friend applied to Cambridge but didn't receive an offer. It prompted him to turn down some good offers to take up an apprenticeship at EY. Chatting to him, he's enjoyed it but feels he's missing out a bit on the university experience. Fortunately his friend is at UCL sp he's ended up socialising with them and he's living with a group of UCL students next year. But not everyone has that option.

A friend had a couple of first year exemptions for our ACA due to his degree. He failed two modules (not that uncommon) and they sacked him because he'd had the exemptions and they felt it wasn't good enough. Poor chap never even made it into our office for the work part.

I would advise a degree at bath or durham over the apprenticeship but not an accounting degree. They can learn all of that on a graduate programme and will benefit more from something different to become more rounded. If accounting degree the apprenticeship is probably better although you then don’t get the life experiences that come with university.