How good is Economics at Nottingham? (prospective student)

Hi, I am a second year who just completed their first year.

The degree is ranked quite high. 7th on the Complete University Guide, however, guides shouldn't be the only basis for your decision.
I took the more mathematical based side of the course this year so I can only comment on them.

Introduction to Microeconomics: The first quarter is very basic because it needs to bring everyone who didn't study Economics previously up to the same level. Although, it does get harder as you go on with the introduction of budget constraints and indifference curves, something you probably wouldn't have seen before.
Introduction to Macroeconomics: Again, a lot of basic stuff is mentioned but it does get progressively harder. The lecturer has a very distinct sense of humour which brightens the lectures up especially if you have a 2 hour one.
Mathematical Economics: This module does have a tendency to over complicate things such as integration by parts / substitution, if you've studied FP1-FP3 the mathematics is fairly simple. The lecturer is clear and concise.
Growth and Development in long run historical perspectives: Avoid - thank me later.
Introductory Econometrics: Attend every lecture. It is necessary. If you've sat exams for S1-S4 it will be fine.
Economic Integration I: Standard module builds on some A-Level knowledge, lecturer may be hard to understand but the slides are self-explanatory.
Economic Integration II: To be fair, it looks an interesting module but I went to like 2 lectures the whole year.
Current Economic Issues II: Seriously interesting module, lecturer is engaging but out of lecture reading is a necessity.

You have tutorials here for each module and they really do help your understanding. You have set tasks based on the previous weeks work and the tutorial leaders are often very engaging and enthusiastic, this is probably due to them being masters/phd students.

Lectures are normally in big theatres which can hold around 300 people but the number differs greatly as the semester goes on.

I can't tell you exact percentages but for modules I sat the percentages were high and only very few people fail.

Hope I answered a few of your question Any others feel free to message me!

How are the internships opportunities and graduate prospects for economics?

Really good so long as you are proactive. Events and information are constantly being put out by the Econ and finance society and members of the society who have secured internships or grad schemes are always offering help and advice. If you are involved in the society then it is really difficult not to secure spring weeks, summer internships and graduate jobs. The internships and grad schemes available by a wide range of firms (from the big 4 accounting firms, top investment banks, and even start ups) will always be made aware to you by the society in group pages, chats and even by email so there is truly a lot of choice. I assume this would be the case at most top universities, but from experience at Nottingham there is no shortage of opportunities, just make sure you are proactive on your course and society. hope this helps!

Happy to help the teaching quality is in general really good. There is of course going to be variation by module as some lecturers are generally more engaging than others. That being said, as long as you are proactive with the course and attend your lectures then you will get on with your lecturers no problem. They will answer questions and offer help a lot more to people they know. Some modules are very large and so make sure you are showing your face to lecturers by asking questions at the end of lectures and visiting during the office hours to ask further questions and show your enthusiasm about the module. If your lecturers like you then they will point you in the right direction with your work Spring weeks are great, they’re kind of like mini internships. Typically, students aim to secure a spring week at firms in their first year and as the name suggests it is a week typically in the Easter holidays (the Easter holidays are a month btw) where you are introduced to the firm and do mini group tasks during the week. They can be pretty fun. Internships usually take place in the summer of your second year and are usually 6-12 weeks depending on the firm. These involve actually working for a firm and a lot of them are paid. Internships are pretty important because a lot of firms will actually offer you a graduate job after the internship if they like you. That being said, this is only the typical route. You can secure spring weeks in your second and third year and internships in your third year as well. There are plenty on offer and members of the society will put on workshops to help you with your application.

Oh that seems amazing. Do you think it is easy to get a job as a financial analyst and not only investment baking, through Nottingham? I have heard students say that Investment banking is one of the top career paths of Nottingham econ students. So I wanted to know about career as financial analyst/managers too.

I am confused between university of Edinburgh and Nottingham. Was there any important factors that influenced your decision which will help me too in making my decision?

Investment banking is probably the most popular path yes, but financial analyst is very popular as well. If you're interested in being a financial analyst or manager it wouldn't be difficult at all. Again the prospects at Nottingham are very good but the most important thing is that you are active in searching for those roles. The fact that you already have an idea what path you are interested in means it should be pretty easy for you.

Edinburgh is a great university, very similar level to Nottingham in terms of graduate prospects. You can't go wrong with either. Id recommend making your decision based on where you would like to spend 3 years of your student life. For me, Nottingham was a great combination of both academics/graduate prospects and also student night life, which is why I chose it. Edinburgh has less of a night life scene but is a beautiful place to live. So it really depends on what you prefer and where you think you'd enjoy being. They're honestly both amazing universities and both yield great prospects (again as long as you are proactive - university is really a place where the more you put in the more you get out!) so the defining factor between the two should be your preference of the general city and lifestyle (think where you would be happier - I highly recommend visiting both places or researching as much as you can about the cities). The happier you are at university the more likely you are to be proactive and make the most of your time there!

Thank you so much for all your help! Last question😓, in your opinion what are the cons of the uni or course? Anything that you wish you did differently?

no problem! like I said I am more than happy to help

Cons regarding the course and the uni will vary heavily depending on the person - I will speak from experience and my own opinion but that does not mean yourself or others will feel the same. I would say the biggest con of the course is that it can be very tedious at times due to the scope not being very wide. For instance, the course involves very in depth coverage of micro/macro theory, econometrics as well as relevant mathematical/statistical techniques. This is great if you are truly interested in this, however there will inevitably be areas you find boring and the sheer depth of some modules can get pretty frustrating. In my opinion, the course would be better if it cut back on some of the depth and instead increased its breadth to include more coverage of finance, accounting, marketing, entrepreneurship, management etc. That being said, you do have optional modules and there is an optional finance module in second year that you would enjoy given you would like to be a financial analyst. You can also do optional modules from other schools that you are interested in - for instance I did a module from the school of psychology in my second year.

Another con is that the course is very large and so it is very easy to lose touch and feel overwhelmed. That being said, if you find a good group of people and stay active with your course (go to lecturers, seminars and get to know your lecturers) then the size of the course will not be an issue at all - actually it will be the opposite since there are many great people to meet. Just make sure you don't get into a bad habit of not going lecturers and falling behind on work. This leads on to my final con of the course - it is really hard! University is not like school - you won't have teachers chasing after you and making sure you understand everything. You have to do a lot of independent study and a lot of reading. You may find it frustrating that friends on 'easier' courses seem to be going out a lot. Second and Third year are hard and will require a lot of work but thats the case for most courses. The difficulty of first year is really going to depend on your A levels - if you did A level Economics and Mathematics then it will be pretty easy since there will be some overlap. A level Mathematics, particularly statistics, comes in very handy. If you didn't do those A levels, no need to worry, but you will have to study more, simple as that.

Although I talked a lot about cons of the course I really enjoyed it. In my opinion the key to enjoying the course is to make friends on your course and keep on top of work.

The cons of the University are really dependent on the person. For me, I disliked that there was only catered accommodation on the campus as I preferred self-catered. That being said, there are self-catered options just outside campus but because the campus is really big (like really big - you will be walking up a lot of hills) your journey between lecturers, library, gym etc can be quite time consuming. There are free bus services on campus, but like typical British public transport, they are very unreliable. The university is a campus uni and is around 15 mins from the city centre by tram. Some areas in Nottingham have a reputation for being rough (i.e. radford) but I didn't personally experience anything negative in this regard.

There are probably an endless list of cons I could speak about but I did not personally experience any regarding the overall university. I really love the University and am glad I chose it. I should mention though - many have complained about the lack of mental health services. From my experience It seemed that the University was doing a lot in this regard but this is not something I personally dealt with so I cannot really talk further about it.

In terms of things I wish I did differently - rather than joining 5 societies and being loosely involved in them I wish I had joined 2 and been very involved in them. At freshers fair there are so many societies to choose from (over 100) and so it can be tempting to join loads. I highly recommend joining a sports society (if thats not your thing then I recommend joining an activity you enjoy and are interested in meeting people who also enjoy it) and the Econ and Finance society.

Just some general advice: join 2 societies and be very active in them, make good friends on your course and don't fall behind on work, enjoy your first year and really put yourself out there as much as possible, work hard in your second and third year. Finally, University is a place you will develop a lot as a person and learn a lot about yourself - it is not only a place where you go to get your degree.

btw if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask - I just finished exams yesterday so I have a lot of time atm.