USYD commerce majors and prospects (2 Viewers)

[erckle999]

I will chime back in with on the maths/economics issue.
If your aspiration is to undertake graduate study in economics at a relatively reputable university then you will probably need to write the GRE in maths. I am not sure if this is an absolute necessity for Australian universities (although if you want to do serious graduate work you should consider going overseas) but it certainly is for most American unis and top European ones as well. This tests undergraduate maths. It will extremely difficult to do well if you have to teach all this to yourself. Nothing but a maths major will prepare you fully for that.

In general, you can go from an undergraduate maths major to a lot more graduate fields than the other way around. Same for statistics.

Whilst the UNSW pre-honours program is not stratified as Sydney is, the actual honours year has a great reputation. There is a small cohort (15 or so) and a lot of resources go into it. The bull pen first year subjects effectively subsidise the really top-notch honours year.

What were your experiences in university mathematics? Did you enjoy it? Were you particularly strong in mathematics prior to university? And finally, in your perspective, is a major in econometrics or mathematics more beneficial to the further pursuit of economics?

Regarding university mathematics, I would say that an interest and ability to do well in competitions like the UNSW high school maths comp (the one with 6 questions in 3 hours) is probably as good a reflection - perhaps better- of your capacity to enjoy (and succeed) in university mathematics as the HSC is. Sure, first year maths courses are often huge and are pretty much studying to the test like the HSC is, but as you progress further, unless you really enjoy seeing and grappling with proofs and high levels of abstraction, (pure) maths will get the better of you.

What is it you have enjoyed about Extension 2 maths?

 

[sida1049]

Regarding university mathematics, I would say that an interest and ability to do well in competitions like the UNSW high school maths comp (the one with 6 questions in 3 hours) is probably as good a reflection - perhaps better- of your capacity to enjoy (and succeed) in university mathematics as the HSC is. Sure, first year maths courses are often huge and are pretty much studying to the test like the HSC is, but as you progress further, unless you really enjoy seeing and grappling with proofs and high levels of abstraction, (pure) maths will get the better of you.

What is it you have enjoyed about Extension 2 maths?

Regarding Mathematics Extension 2, the most enjoyable topic I've had so far is probably the first, complex numbers. While it isn't the easiest, it had by far intrigued by more than than the other topics so far (I've completely every topic except for mechanics), as it really broadens one's perception of mathematics. Graphing and polynomials were quite enjoyable too, partially because they were easy, I think. Conics intrigued me in terms of its concepts, but it's proofs were quite long and tedious. Integration was alright; it was interesting in that there exists various ways to solve each question. Volumes was fun.

I'm considering the UNSW undergraduate courses too, but so far it seems that the reputation of the honours year for economics is relatively even for both universities, and the lack of the pre-honours program does sway me towards USYD. Also are there benefits in majoring in economics and mathematics/econometrics from B Comm over B Econ? The industry placement opportunities seem to be the only positive counterbalancing against its compulsive business units.

 

[sida1049]

Have you considered the Commerce (Liberal Studies) degree? That might be a good halfway point in between.

Yeah I'm also considering Liberal Studies. There's a point of confusion regarding Liberal Studies though. According to the 2015 USYD undergraduate handbook, it states as follows:

"Students can complete up to three majors, at least one from accounting, business information systems, commercial law, finance, industrial relations and human resource management, international business, management, marketing, quantitative business analysis."

Whereas according to the USYD website I must complete at least two majors from two broader lists (e.g. economics, chemistry, mathematics, et cetera).

I suspect that the description from the USYD undergraduate guide is outdated and refers to the pre-2013 B Comm (Liberal Studies) degree. Would I be able to major in economics, econometrics and mathematics under this degree? The greatest benefit (and a significant one I think) is that it takes 4 years to complete (excluding the honours year).

Perhaps another elementary question: is it possible to pursue advanced units of mathematics even if I'm majoring in it from a B comm or B economics (i.e. not B Science (Advanced Mathematics)) by excelling in the regular units? Or is the advanced units only available to those enrolled into Advanced Mathematics?

 

[mreditor16]

Disclaimer - I do Actuarial/Commerce.

The guys above have provided some very valuable input. However, I just wanted to add one small thing.

Have you considered doing Actuarial/Economics (at UNSW, Macq doesn't offer that option)?