Economics at University
I was recently asked to explain to someone's daughter why I chose to read Economics at University. My answer wasn't simple. It also wasn't very honest because I could feel parental eyes upon me. This is my honest version...
Before asking why one should study Economics at university, maybe the first question to address should be why study at university at all?
We could easily argue that those who apply to read medicine/dentistry/veterinary science have either: a) been pressured to do so by stereotypical parents, b) are led by passion and drive to become doctors of some sort, or c) will go on to teach. So, what are other reasons for going to university and not studying courses with such specific direction? Merely to avoid going into the labour force? To procrastinate and rack up debt before starting to take responsibility for actual hard life? Valid points, if you ask me.
I personally think there are so many different reasons that we choose to stay on in education after turning 18 i.e. put ourselves through the pain of application, rejection, acceptance, adaptation (into a new environment), and struggle to be some sort of recognised fish in a polluted pond and survive – without any guarantee of the consequences of doing so. At the tender age of 17, when I thought I knew best and had already mastered the ways of the world, I became one of the 582,657 fish who applied to read full-time at a well regarded institution through UCAS, and then became one of 451,871 who were accepted. But as I sit here now, as a third and final year Economics BSc student, I can’t help but wonder why exactly I am where I am today.
If you think I sound pessimistic about higher education, you’re wrong.
I love it! Not only do I enjoy being a student, (living away from home, learning how to cook, checking fire alarms, testing out my DIY skills and picking up other general life lessons whilst surrounded by friends who are doing the same thus not making me feel like I’ve been thrown into the deep end) but I also enjoy reading Economics. Choosing to do so wasn’t so much about the fact of ‘always knowing’ that I wanted to; it was about realising that there wasn’t anything else I would have wanted to study half as much. I went from being told that I was a big fish when completing 13 GCSEs in a state-run high school, to doubting if I was worth of having a place in the pond in a selective girls sixth form voted the 2nd best in the country by The Times. I found it difficult, and struggled to get through lessons that were easy to daydream in – e.g. Chemistry, Biology, and Maths. What surprised me was the interactive nature of Tuesday morning Economics. Who knew that the subject I initially took as only a one year ‘AS Level’ would keep me so intrigued that I would fight to keep it on for five years?
I love it! Not only do I enjoy being a student, (living away from home, learning how to cook, checking fire alarms, testing out my DIY skills and picking up other general life lessons whilst surrounded by friends who are doing the same thus not making me feel like I’ve been thrown into the deep end) but I also enjoy reading Economics. Choosing to do so wasn’t so much about the fact of ‘always knowing’ that I wanted to; it was about realising that there wasn’t anything else I would have wanted to study half as much. I went from being told that I was a big fish when completing 13 GCSEs in a state-run high school, to doubting if I was worth of having a place in the pond in a selective girls sixth form voted the 2nd best in the country by The Times. I found it difficult, and struggled to get through lessons that were easy to daydream in – e.g. Chemistry, Biology, and Maths. What surprised me was the interactive nature of Tuesday morning Economics. Who knew that the subject I initially took as only a one year ‘AS Level’ would keep me so intrigued that I would fight to keep it on for five years?
At university level, it might not appeal to everyone, but I actually enjoy wondering what will happen to the sales figures of Baileys Ice-cream if the price of Cookie Dough decreased to its marginal cost of production. I enjoy wondering if I would confess or trust my partner in crime if we were both arrested and questioned separately. I enjoy comparing the Russian Economy, though my heart goes out to the pain it has been through, before and after Soviet rule. I enjoy realising that whilst no one would willingly pay over 2,000 times more for a sandwich they could get for £1.24 we all do exactly this when we buy many brands of bottled water (as well as increasing the incentive for such companies to litter the little open land that remains in India instead of recycle). I enjoy it much more than I would ever enjoy learning about a single celled Amoeba in Biology – apart from, of course, the odd fun fact on it during an episode of Q.I. with Stephen Fry!
If you’re sociable, open to change, open minded, someone who is genuinely interested in the current topics up for discussion, and can link theory with real-life situations, you would do well to study Economics.
It is a course that takes hard work and good time management to do well in, which leads me on to another characteristic linked with this course that I have come to notice: Economics students usually do well to work optimally when under pressure! The proof to this little pudding is that exam timetables for Economics’ students will usually be as far down the exam period as possible, with all 9+ exams as close to each other as allowed by regulations.
A final point from me: what to do after university with a degree in Economics?
Anything! This is the answer to the question at the start of this short(ish) essay about the benefits of studying a non-career specific course. For example, some graduates that I’ve met have gone into roles within the Government (policy making), accounting/professional services, career-specific or interest-specific masters, banking, advisory roles, research, business management roles, journalism (reading the Financial Times and the Economist pays really off!). Of course, in my opinion, the most beneficial to society: teaching. Whether this be teaching through blogging, through raising awareness, or within walls of good old fashioned academic institutions, this essay would be moot if it wasn’t for those students who grew the courage to go into teaching and pass on their knowledge successfully to those willing to listen and understand it.
Anything! This is the answer to the question at the start of this short(ish) essay about the benefits of studying a non-career specific course. For example, some graduates that I’ve met have gone into roles within the Government (policy making), accounting/professional services, career-specific or interest-specific masters, banking, advisory roles, research, business management roles, journalism (reading the Financial Times and the Economist pays really off!). Of course, in my opinion, the most beneficial to society: teaching. Whether this be teaching through blogging, through raising awareness, or within walls of good old fashioned academic institutions, this essay would be moot if it wasn’t for those students who grew the courage to go into teaching and pass on their knowledge successfully to those willing to listen and understand it.
In a world where specialisation of labour drives the labour force more than any other economic theory that we, as future Economists, could learn about I now realise that at the tender age of 17 when I thought I knew best and had already mastered the ways of the world, I was wrong. I was impressionable, and can now look back and say that I study Economics because when filling out a form asking me to make a decision on what I would like to do for the next three years of my life, it seemed like the rest of my life, and there was only one appealing option. Sitting here now, I realise that it has taken nearly three years of Higher Education study to realise that the majority of models that we have learnt about exist solely in theory and cannot be applied in practice therefore are technically incorrect, but I have had a fantastic time getting to know this nonetheless. Though I now definitely know that I made the right decision, at that age who can really know? I’m glad that I went with my gut: knowing that there was nothing else I could imagine myself doing, and wanting to learn more about whether or not we really have ‘choices’ and what the ‘opportunity costs’ of these choices really are, and knowing that I didn’t want to miss out on university life (which obviously played a part too). Put it this way, if I was given an option to go back in time – there is nothing I would change.
Yours truely,
TML
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