What to Chose? - B.com or B.com Honours

group of fresh graduates students throwing their academic hat in the air

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Being a commerce student, the biggest question after completion of 12th grade is ‘What is the difference between Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Commerce Honours?’ Choosing a course that excites you and subsequently, a career is probably the most difficult task for a student. Worry not, you have come at the right place!

You must be thinking that since these courses sound similar, what could be the difference between them? These both courses arise from the same stream, i.e., the commerce background. B.COM is known as B.COM Programme or B.COM(P). While B.COM Honours is referred to as B.COM(H). Let’s look at some of the basic differences.

1. Admission Criteria

Before everything, you need to have maths as a subject in your 10+2 with passing marks in a recognized board (CBSE, ISC,state boards, etc). Math should be included in the calculation of 'best of four' score or percentage for B.COM(H).

If you are a student looking for a college to pursue in either of the aforementioned courses, you must know that most of the colleges, keep the cut-off for B.COM(H) higher than that of B.COM(P).

For instance, the first cut-off of 2019 in Delhi University, for Delhi College of Arts and Commerce was 97.25% (in 10+2) for B.COM(H) and 96.50% (in 10+2) for B.COM(P).

Some of the colleges in Delhi University do not offer B.COM(P) as a course for students. They only offer B.COM(H).

2. Curriculum

The commerce subjects studied by the students in B.COM(P) over the three years of the course, will also be covered by the students pursuing B.COM(H). Although, the difference lies where the students in B.COM(H) will cover extra subjects as compared to the non-honours students. Another difference is, the B.COM(H) students are given various choices to choose from for any subject they want to specialize in. These choices can be changed with semesters.

3. Objective

B.COM(P) is a course designed to make the students aware of the various basic aspects of the subjects from the commerce field. This way, they would essentially learn about business and trading background.

Whereas, the students pursuing B.COM(H) will be following a business-oriented approach towards studies. This way, they develop in themselves, skills and knowledge related to business and commerce. This course is known to be very advantageous for the students pursuing Chartered Accountancy as the syllabus is quite similar.

Some of the subjects that the students in B.COM(H) are made to study are same as that in B.COM(P). The difference is, that, B.COM(H) specifies to teach these subjects in detail. Whereas, B.COM(P) teaches these subjects in an overview.

4. Market Value

The placement packages offered to students in B.COM(H) are more than that for the students B.COM(P). Not only are the packages more in number for B.COM(H) students, but they are also better and higher in comparison.

Unless you surely have a degree like Chartered Accountancy(CA) or Company Secretary(CS), it is preferable to choose B.COM(H) as your graduation course.

5. Subjects

In Delhi University, the students in B.COM(P) in the period of three years are not given any choice whatsoever regarding the choice of the subjects. However, the students in B.COM(H) have to make a choice every semester for two years regarding a subject known as Generic Elective. There is a subject from every domain of study (Philosophy, Sociology, Maths, Economics, English, Geography, History, etc).

Some of the subjects in B.COM(P) include: