Should I study economics in university? (1 Viewer)

[cornonthecob]

I've had my eye on doing commerce for most of year 11/12 however, I'm wondering whether I should consider economics as an option? Some context to consider about me:
- I didn't undertake economics as a HSC subject (It wasn't offered at my school)
- I highly enjoyed business studies including the finance topic
- I took 2 unit maths and ended up doing quite poorly due to my poor understanding of trigonometry and lack of study for the subject; I knew it wasn't going towards my ATAR by mid Year 12, so I basically began spending a LOT less time on maths compared to my other subjects. However, I can still pick up the content pretty well and can understand most of it (except trigonometry)
- I definitely want to have a business related career I'm just not sure what it is

My main concern that is preventing me from undertaking economics is simply the maths load and whether I will be able to handle it. Do you have to be good at a certain level of HSC maths?? I also feel like doing economics isn't as flexible as commerce in terms of getting a job and I'm honestly not too sure what I want to do when I graduate....

 

[sida1049]

I did 2.5 years of economics at USYD before I dropped out (due to administrative reasons). I'll address the maths concern first.

You'll definitely come across a fair amount of maths in economics. For a major in economics, I'd say the maths you need is just

• Basic algebra, like solving simultaneous equations.
• Basic calculus, like knowing how to use the product rule.
• Possibly basic probability, as many economics programs will require you to take at least some statistics/econometrics, but basic probability will be taught to you in those courses anyway.

You will not see trigonometry! However, you would need to actively avoid the more maths heavy economics subjects and go for the more essay-based stuff. Also, some universities offer catch-up lectures for basic maths relevant to economics, so if you happen to be able to attend one then that's cool.

When it comes to honours/postgrad, however, not having a reasonable maths background is very undesirable. But if honours doesn't interest you, then this won't be a concern for you.

Okay, now let's get down to business. You're right. I personally don't believe economics is relevant for your typical commerce related jobs. A lot of economics is kind of theoretical, and not particularly practical. And the economics job roles requires being comfortable with working with statistics, and statistics is just maths. My personal opinion? Economics isn't a very good major to go for if a graduate job is very important to you. To get into an economics role with an economics major, you have to be very good and compete against your top performing peers. So if yo don't know what you want to do after you graduate, I would advise against economics. I think economics is more interesting than commerce related majors, but it's impractical. I'd say commerce is better if you're unsure, just because there is a larger pool of majors to choose from, so you can try out a lot of them and pick up more employable skills while you're at it.

 

[cornonthecob]

I did 2.5 years of economics at USYD before I dropped out (due to administrative reasons). I'll address the maths concern first.

You'll definitely come across a fair amount of maths in economics. For a major in economics, I'd say the maths you need is just

• Basic algebra, like solving simultaneous equations.
• Basic calculus, like knowing how to use the product rule.
• Possibly basic probability, as many economics programs will require you to take at least some statistics/econometrics, but basic probability will be taught to you in those courses anyway.

You will not see trigonometry! However, you would need to actively avoid the more maths heavy economics subjects and go for the more essay-based stuff. Also, some universities offer catch-up lectures for basic maths relevant to economics, so if you happen to be able to attend one then that's cool.

When it comes to honours/postgrad, however, not having a reasonable maths background is very undesirable. But if honours doesn't interest you, then this won't be a concern for you.

Okay, now let's get down to business. You're right. I personally don't believe economics is relevant for your typical commerce related jobs. A lot of economics is kind of theoretical, and not particularly practical. And the economics job roles requires being comfortable with working with statistics, and statistics is just maths. My personal opinion? Economics isn't a very good major to go for if a graduate job is very important to you. To get into an economics role with an economics major, you have to be very good and compete against your top performing peers. So if yo don't know what you want to do after you graduate, I would advise against economics. I think economics is more interesting than commerce related majors, but it's impractical. I'd say commerce is better if you're unsure, just because there is a larger pool of majors to choose from, so you can try out a lot of them and pick up more employable skills while you're at it.

Thank you so much for your detailed response! It's because I'm contemplating on whether to study economics at UNSW because it has a lower cut off than commerce or do the Bachelor of Business at UTS and then transfer to commerce in my second year... If first year economics isn't too hard especially with the maths stuff, then should I consider it especially since UNSW gives guaranteed transfers if you get a 75 WAM?

 

[seremify007]

IMO if you can get into Commerce or Business, do that. You only have to do the bare minimum in economics and it's not the heavy quantitative (maths) stuff. You'll get more freedom in majors/minors as well.

That being said, you will need to spend some time getting up to speed again on maths even if you do Commerce or Business because there are statistics subjects which are usually mandatory, and even though I managed to avoid the heavy quant subjects in my degree, you'll still need to be reasonably comfortable with some maths for even the basics of finance when doing things like valuations/pricing. That being said once you graduate and get a grad role, the amount of maths you need in quite a few professions is close to nil but it depends what path you follow.

 

[sida1049]

Thank you so much for your detailed response! It's because I'm contemplating on whether to study economics at UNSW because it has a lower cut off than commerce or do the Bachelor of Business at UTS and then transfer to commerce in my second year... If first year economics isn't too hard especially with the maths stuff, then should I consider it especially since UNSW gives guaranteed transfers if you get a 75 WAM?

I personally think that doing B. Business at UTS then transferring into B. Commerce at UNSW is the better option. Mostly because most of your UTS units should carry over, so you don't have to do as many first year units after transferring into UNSW. But this is up to you.

 

[cornonthecob]

I personally think that doing B. Business at UTS then transferring into B. Commerce at UNSW is the better option. Mostly because most of your UTS units should carry over, so you don't have to do as many first year units after transferring into UNSW. But this is up to you.

yeah i think i will most likely choose this option.. thank you for your insight

 

[sida1049]

yeah i think i will most likely choose this option.. thank you for your insight

Enjoy uni!

 

[seremify007]

I personally think that doing B. Business at UTS then transferring into B. Commerce at UNSW is the better option. Mostly because most of your UTS units should carry over, so you don't have to do as many first year units after transferring into UNSW. But this is up to you.

I thought many of the Econ first year subs are common to both... but it's been a while since I looked at the course handbook. Either way, both paths have their merits and I posted in the other thread about UTS to UNSW that it's a common path as some of my friends have even done this.

 

[sida1049]

I thought many of the Econ first year subs are common to both... but it's been a while since I looked at the course handbook. Either way, both paths have their merits and I posted in the other thread about UTS to UNSW that it's a common path as some of my friends have even done this.

This could definitely be true! It's just that from my experiences at USYD, economics majors are often required to take units like econometrics and a fair amount of the first year economics units, which are superfluous to a commerce student (unless the said student plans on majoring in economics). So I definitely recommend students who are thinking of B. Economics as a pathway into B. Commerce to read up on the degree structures carefully.

On a side note, I actually just realised that at USYD, you can no longer major in economics under B. Commerce?? This is new to me. So it seems that in the case of USYD, students transferring from B. Economics into B. Commerce will end up having done many units which do not contribute to their B. Commerce degree.