Economics/psychology TSM v Economics/Maths TSM v BESS

Tk2398

I'm a 6th year student looking ahead to college courses next year and basically, I have a fair idea that I'd like to go into the financial career area , economics being something that hugely interests me and In which I've a natural abilility, I've looked at all the threads on boards about this area and they've helped me a lot but I have a bit of a tough decision which I can't make my mind up about so please any help would be much appreciated (apologies if this is quite long I want to put out as much info as possible!) I'll be putting economics and finance in ucd down first on my cao but considering the points were 590 last year, I don't know if I'll make it I might fall short by about 5 or 10 points especially if the points increase I can see myself getting very highest 585/590 so in terms of 2nd choice I was thinking of the three courses in the title, I'd consider myself quite hard working and intellectual and I like things which challenge me but I can excel in, maths and economics from people I've talked to has extremely good career opportunities afterwards however I'm a bit worried how much of the maths would I enjoy would it just be too hard? I like working with numbers and would be looking to get an a in lc higher maths but would not be a 'whiz kid' in maths, in terms of economics and psychology I'm hugely interested in human behaviour and what causes people to react certain ways etc. however I don't know much about job areas afterwards and I'm wondering could I use this degree in the economic/financial sector and apply psychological principles? Would that be something firms would desire? Finally BESS now all parts of this course I find quite interesting but the points are 60 points lower than the others and I'd feel like I'd have slaved away for 8 months of my life not gotten my preferred course and gotten a course I could have gotten with half the work? In addition I don't know how intellectually challenged I would be having 60 or 70 more points than others in BESS? Also compared to the High level of the TSM's as I am someone who gets quite bored if they are not challenged, I'd also like to stand out to firms with my degree from the standard BESS or bcom degree as there is a huge amount of them, finally the huge course size might be a bit of a problem socially in terms of there being 'cliques' which I've had enough of in secondary school and I've also heard that there's a lot of an arrogant d4 sort of aura around the course which would be quite off putting is that true or have I been misinformed? Any help from anyone who has done or is doing any of the courses or knows anything about this would be much appreciated as I really can't figure out what to do!

qweerty

Except for quantitative subjects, financial companies won't differentiate based on your degree.

TCD economics wouldn't really give insight into human behaviour, although there is a new third year module that seems like it will give some.

CAO publishes the points score of the last successful applicant. The average is about twenty points higher, and a sizable minority will have scored 550+.

BESS students graduate with a single or joint honours BA degree. If you did Economics TSM and concentrated in economics, you would get the same degree as someone who concentrated in economics through BESS. As for being challenged, you would share your economics lectures with BESS anyway.

BESS's reputation is unwarranted.

andrew

Tk2398 wrote: »

I'm a 6th year student looking ahead to college courses next year and basically, I have a fair idea that I'd like to go into the financial career area , economics being something that hugely interests me and In which I've a natural abilility, I've looked at all the threads on boards about this area and they've helped me a lot but I have a bit of a tough decision which I can't make my mind up about so please any help would be much appreciated (apologies if this is quite long I want to put out as much info as possible!) I'll be putting economics and finance in ucd down first on my cao but considering the points were 590 last year, I don't know if I'll make it I might fall short by about 5 or 10 points especially if the points increase I can see myself getting very highest 585/590 so in terms of 2nd choice I was thinking of the three courses in the title, I'd consider myself quite hard working and intellectual and I like things which challenge me but I can excel in, maths and economics from people I've talked to has extremely good career opportunities afterwards however I'm a bit worried how much of the maths would I enjoy would it just be too hard? I like working with numbers and would be looking to get an a in lc higher maths but would not be a 'whiz kid' in maths, in terms of economics and psychology I'm hugely interested in human behaviour and what causes people to react certain ways etc. however I don't know much about job areas afterwards and I'm wondering could I use this degree in the economic/financial sector and apply psychological principles? Would that be something firms would desire? Finally BESS now all parts of this course I find quite interesting but the points are 60 points lower than the others and I'd feel like I'd have slaved away for 8 months of my life not gotten my preferred course and gotten a course I could have gotten with half the work? In addition I don't know how intellectually challenged I would be having 60 or 70 more points than others in BESS? Also compared to the High level of the TSM's as I am someone who gets quite bored if they are not challenged, I'd also like to stand out to firms with my degree from the standard BESS or bcom degree as there is a huge amount of them, finally the huge course size might be a bit of a problem socially in terms of there being 'cliques' which I've had enough of in secondary school and I've also heard that there's a lot of an arrogant d4 sort of aura around the course which would be quite off putting is that true or have I been misinformed? Any help from anyone who has done or is doing any of the courses or knows anything about this would be much appreciated as I really can't figure out what to do!

IMO combining Econ with Psych (as opposed to Maths) won't do anything; employers won't care. You'll just come out knowing less Economics and in particular less Maths; and if you want to do Postgrad Economics or Finance, the more maths you have the better.

I don't think you should be worried about BESS not being challenging enough. Remember, CAO points reflect the demand for the course, not its difficulty. Getting a first overall in BESS is still not a particularly easy task. That said, I think you could argue that maths is a particularly challenging subject, and so Maths & Econ is probably more difficult (but still doable if you like maths and are willing to put in the work). But BESS would be plenty stimulating too. At University level it's hard to do well in any course; it's not just about how hard the material is, but the fact that you're competing against people just as smart as you.

I think If you're good at and enjoy Maths and want to get into finance, then Maths and Econ would be a no-brainer. Even more so than UCD (4 year course + TCD's reputation). I'd also point out that there's not much of noticeable intellectual difference between someone who gets 500 and someone who gets 600 points in the LC. Anything over 500 puts you in the top ~8% of Leaving cert students, and so you shouldn't let fears about making friends stop you from doing BESS. I also don't think intelligence/'smartness'/being 'intellectual' is as much of a determinant of your social group in college as it might have been in school. Anyway, many (most?) people make friends outside their course via societies and clubs.

qweerty

andrew wrote: »

IMO combining Econ with Psych (as opposed to Maths) won't do anything; employers won't care. You'll just come out knowing less Economics and in particular less Maths; and if you want to do Postgrad Economics or Finance, the more maths you have the better.

I don't think you should be worried about BESS not being challenging enough. Remember, CAO points reflect the demand for the course, not its difficulty. Getting a first overall in BESS is still not a particularly easy task. That said, I think you could argue that maths is a particularly challenging subject, and so Maths & Econ is probably more difficult (but still doable if you like maths and are willing to put in the work). But BESS would be plenty stimulating too. At University level it's hard to do well in any course; it's not just about how hard the material is, but the fact that you're competing against people just as smart as you.

I think If you're good at and enjoy Maths and want to get into finance, then Maths and Econ would be a no-brainer. Even more so than UCD (4 year course + TCD's reputation). I'd also point out that there's not much of noticeable intellectual difference between someone who gets 500 and someone who gets 600 points in the LC. Anything over 500 puts you in the top ~8% of Leaving cert students, and so you shouldn't let fears about making friends stop you from doing BESS. I also don't think intelligence/'smartness'/being 'intellectual' is as much of a determinant of your social group in college as it might have been in school. Anyway, many (most?) people make friends outside their course via societies and clubs.

All very good. Just one objection:

If you were to specialise in economics through BESS after first year, you would be in a position to take an extra second year module (Economics of Public Policy) and an extra three in third year, compared with TSM. There would be no difference in fourth year. While I would also be of the opinion that employers (especially finance) wouldn't care about whether you combined economics with psychology, I do think it would be a shame to chose single honours economics over econ/psych purely for four extra modules. IMO, if you did Econ/Psych, the only hard decision would be whether to chose Investment Analysis or Mathematical Economics as your optional module. (If you do Maths/Econ, you wouldn't have that problem.) The other ones, available to view on the website, aren't going to stand out to a financial employer.

But echoing what Andrew said, if I wanted to go into finance, I would chose Maths every day of the week! (Maybe with comp sci, if that were possible.) Because it's pretty much obligatory to go and do a finance-orientated MBA after two or three analyst years at an IB or hedge fund, any finance you learn at undergrad will be eclipsed.