Commerce major: Economics or finance?

[cheeseeeee]

I'm currently doing law/commerce at Monash, I've transferred from Melb Uni commerce to law this year, and I've done all the compulsory units and now I have to pick a major for my commerce degree. I'm thinking between economics or finance.

My main concern however, is that I've heard it can get quite mathsey for both majors? I am not terrible at maths per se, but preferably anything that isn't too quantitative and has some relatively interesting content and theory.

I've always loved economics, however I don't know how practical that is, in comparison with finance. I've done foundations of finance which I didn't seem to mind too much, but didn't love it either. I heard however that the second and third year units in finance tend to get quite quantitative...

So was just wondering if I could get some feedback about any of those majors? For economics, I am interested in subjects such as international economics, labour economics, prosperity poverty and sustainability in a globalised world etc. They sound quite interesting, but again I don't know how practical they are in reality (Especially taking into consideration if I don't end up doing law as a career).

I haven't done intermediate micro or macro yet, but I also did hear it's quite mathsey with those units?

[spectroscopy]

if you dont like math then finance would be preferable to economics for you. finance will have math all the way through but not as difficult/heavy math as economics. I've known people to do finance and get high marks and be horrible at math (cant even differentiate etc.) so thats probably a better route. those economics subjects you listed may or may not be super mathy but macro and micro will be so yea. they will be useful though if you do pursue law as they are fields that alot of lawyers go into.  its up to you really but if your main concern is the difficulty of the math then finance is the easier route

[brenden]

I wouldn't stress about Eco as a major in terms of practicability. University is more about learning how to think. If you care about practicability - do a trade or go to tafe. haha. I think Eco is a pretty well regarded major though. Paired with law, you'll have options open to you

[extremeftw]

 You can structure your economics degree in such a way that it isn't very maths intensive at all. As long as you can do algebra and basic differentiation then you're literally 95% of the way there.

 The maths in the units you listed are not difficult. Intermediate micro is just differentiating linear functions and rearranging equations (also Lagrangian Multipliers but I'm pretty sure you didn't even need to know how to do that because you could just do it graphically...). Macro was even easier than that.

 Happy to answer any more questions you have about economics.

[cheeseeeee]

You can structure your economics degree in such a way that it isn't very maths intensive at all. As long as you can do algebra and basic differentiation then you're literally 95% of the way there.

 The maths in the units you listed are not difficult. Intermediate micro is just differentiating linear functions and rearranging equations (also Lagrangian Multipliers but I'm pretty sure you didn't even need to know how to do that because you could just do it graphically...). Macro was even easier than that.

 Happy to answer any more questions you have about economics.

thanks so much for your help! do you have any recommendations for economic units?

[extremeftw]

thanks so much for your help! do you have any recommendations for economic units?

 I'd recommend doing principles of micro and macro & intermediate micro and macro first. That will give you a good base which you can use in specialised units and will expose you to a bunch of different areas so you can find out what interests you the most. My personal favourite unit so far has been monetary economics.

[cheeseeeee]

I'd recommend doing principles of micro and macro & intermediate micro and macro first. That will give you a good base which you can use in specialised units and will expose you to a bunch of different areas so you can find out what interests you the most. My personal favourite unit so far has been monetary economics.

So I've decided to choose economics as my major, and I'm currently doing intermediate microeconomics & environmental economics. Any tips or advice? Also, have you done any of the following: monetary economics, economics of developing countries, international economics, labour economics? are there any that are a lot more theoretical/policy based?

Also, I was having a look at the major requirement for eco: does that mean I can technically only do 1 level 2 subject, but have to do 3 level 3  subjects?

https://www.monash.edu/pubs/handbooks/aos/economics/ug-bus-economics.html

[brenden]

So I've decided to choose economics as my major, and I'm currently doing intermediate microeconomics & environmental economics. Any tips or advice? Also, have you done any of the following: monetary economics, economics of developing countries, international economics, labour economics? are there any that are a lot more theoretical/policy based?

Also, I was having a look at the major requirement for eco: does that mean I can technically only do 1 level 2 subject, but have to do 3 level 3  subjects?

https://www.monash.edu/pubs/handbooks/aos/economics/ug-bus-economics.html

Can't answer your questions but thanks heaps for the update!

[extremeftw]

So I've decided to choose economics as my major, and I'm currently doing intermediate microeconomics & environmental economics. Any tips or advice? Also, have you done any of the following: monetary economics, economics of developing countries, international economics, labour economics? are there any that are a lot more theoretical/policy based?

Also, I was having a look at the major requirement for eco: does that mean I can technically only do 1 level 2 subject, but have to do 3 level 3  subjects?

https://www.monash.edu/pubs/handbooks/aos/economics/ug-bus-economics.html

Hey, sorry for the late response but I only just saw your post.

I'm probably the worst person to ask for advice for intermediate micro because for some reason that was the only unit I've done so far where I didn't get at least a distinction (69 C  ). My advice would be to do a lot of practice questions, particularly on the topics of utility maximisation with indifference curves and budget constraints. I don't know if the course requires you to learn Lagrangian utility maximisation nowadays but if it does then be sure you are comfortable with that method.

Yes, I have done monetary economics and international economics (both good units! Monetary was fantastic, would highly recommend it if you are at all interested in monetary policy & finance). If you (or anybody else) is interested for more detail about any of these units feel free to PM me or respond to this thread.