What’s it like studying Economics?

What is Economics?

Hey! I’m Fred. I’m a first-year undergraduate Econ student. Although I’ve only done Economics for one term right now, it’s been quite fun so far, to be honest. Economics is basically the study of scarcity and human behaviour.

Why Economics?

My reason behind picking Economics at university is quite different to most people. I had a taster of Economics from Years 9-11, in Nigeria, and I honestly fell in love with it. I’d decided by Year 10 that I was going to study it at university, and just stuck with that feeling. I found the areas covered in Econ quite interesting, and it’s very satisfying to see the models actually work in real life.

Why Durham?

I didn’t know much about Durham, so my reasoning behind choosing this uni was mostly based on external opinions. Durham was spoken about highly by both teachers and my peers at my A level college. The main reason I applied though was because of my dad. He urged me to apply here, and even though I didn’t expect to get in, I somehow did.

My favourite part about studying here

I’ve always been a bit of a math geek so, true to my nature, my favourite part of economics is basically anything math related. A topic I quite liked was constrained optimisation, where we analysed the optimal consumption of a bundle of goods, subject to a budget constraint. (In simpler terms, it’s finding out the perfect amount that a person should consume of two goods that would make the person the happiest, based on the amount of money they have.)

My recommended society

A really good society for anyone planning to do Economics at Durham is the Durham University Finance Society (DUFS). They quite frequently have speakers from places like Bank of America come over and inform us about different jobs and what they entail, as well as host sessions to boost our knowledge on different aspects of finance. Additionally, their current co-presidents, Jack and Flavia, are some of the nicest and most real people you’ll meet. (They also gave out stickers and pens!)

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Frederick Adadevoh

Hey! I’m Fred. I’m an international student from Nigeria. I’m a fresher at Jo Bo (Josephine Butler College) who’s studying Economics and is in the Durham University Fencing Club. I’m a friendly and charismatic guy. If you ever see me when you come to Durham, come say hi!