Investigating the top majors, Sherlock Holmes is on the case. You can profile your picks and review the evidence to find the sure-fire academic answers you've been looking for...

Study Case #12

Faculty:
Arts, Liberal Arts, Business.
Most common associations:
Finance sector, banks, governments.
Economics is the application of math, logic, and natural scientific concepts to the real world. Economics looks principally at money and interactions between bodies such as consumers, producers, governments and different nations as a whole. The subject of economics also deals with concepts like natural resource management and unemployment. Lots to study, and lots to do!
Studying economics will be of great benefit. Aside of developing your skills and leading you to great careers, economics will develop your mind. You will study theories that combine human and social behaviour with scientific and mathematical concepts. No other program will allow you to combine the science and the human factors so perfectly together. In addition, economics will benefit your personal life- teaching you to watch your money, understand government policies, and more.
Economists work everywhere- from the government, to business, and in the academy. Your knowledge of economic concepts can lead you everywhere- governments want economists who can advise them on policy, finance and structure. Business companies use economics grads to predict the behaviour of the external business environment. In the academy you can either participate in active research or teach. You can specialize in public or private sectors, micro or macro, international or labour economies. You can even become a business journalist or go into finance- there's quite a lot of options open.
Successful economics graduates come out of school with many skills and lessons learned.
- Understanding of Economical
Concepts: Understand how money works, and why some
things cost more than others. Understand government policies,
interest rates, and the money markets. Understand employment and
unemployment. Then use this knowledge to you advantage and to the
advantage of whatever company hires you- learn how to best manage
financial resources, materials, capital and labour.
- Communication Skills:
Studying economics will encourage you to work and collaborate with
others, while conducting team projects and research. You will also
need to communicate and present your findings, turning numerical
data into real words and phrases that the public understands. With
such knowledge and experience you will be able to communicate
effectively, and this is important as communication skills are
useful everywhere.
- Analysis Skills:Economics
don't just study theories, they conduct real world experiments.
You'll need your math and data analysis skills to arrive at real
conclusions and support or refute economical theories. Analysis
skills are useful in the real world, whether you do research or
industrial work.
- Critical Thinking: Taking theories, laws and experimental procedures and putting them into real world concepts, recognizing economical trends and patterns. This means having the whole picture when coming to a decision. You will be able to incorporate so many aspects of thought into everyday life and that's a skill in itself.
- Research Skills: Learning economics involves a lot of research. You'll be able to locate and identify reliable sources, which will be important. You will be involved in many real-world experiments which will teach you how to locate and interpret data. Research is an important aspect of economics and these skills are sure to serve you well in the future.

Coming out of high school and not sure how to start your economics career? You can start by taking some useful courses- economics, math, business, accounting, etc. And don't be scared about taking courses like English, writing and public speaking- they'll greatly improve your communication and other transferable skills.
Many economics students benefit from
participating in extra curricular activities that demonstrate
things like communication and leadership skills. To expand your
economic activities, you can join various school clubs such as the
business group or the debate team, or participate in stock market
and accounting competitions. Also, make sure to introduce yourself
to the basics of economics by reading the financial section of the
newspaper every day.
If you're thinking of doing a Master's
Degree, you will first need to most likely have an undergraduate
degree, and the desire to learn and do a lot more research in
economics.

References
WorldWideLearn. "Science Major". Last Updated on October 17th, 2007. Accessed on August 1st, 2008. WorldWideLearn.com
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