Economics at Warwick

I've applied to do straight Economics at Warwick and was wondering if any current students could make any comments on the course there, a typical week for an eco. student, etc.

Also, despite Warwick having a stronger Economics reputation than Durham, I'm also considering Durham due to its surroundings. I'd appreciate any views on the Warwick campus and the surrounding area.

Thanks.

Reply 1

fatyeung

for 1st year micro and macro.... basically its 'read for a degree'
dont expect anything from the lecturers

world econ history was quite good...

maths.... again.. 'read for a degree'

the business school optional modules (e.g. accounting and finance) are quite good though.

frankly if you appreciate durham's surroundings (i.e. old buildings and that sorta stuff), go to durham. warwick has nothing to see really.

sorry for the short reply becos everybody s having tests next week

edit: expect the maths content (quite a bit) as well as the essays you have to write

15/6 hours per week for L100, whereas

10 hrs per week for subjs like politics/psychology etc (my flatmates doing politics)

Reply 2

jipip

Thanks.

Just out of interest, you say L100 is 15/16 hours a week with subjects like Pschology only 10 hours a week. Is Economics a subject with more hours compared to most other subjects or are these other subjects just really light workloads?

Reply 3

fatyeung

well... compared to art subjects... yes.

btw, the quality of lecturers / seminar tutors may vary from year to year. some are good some are bad.

Reply 4

jipip

fatyeung

btw, the quality of lecturers / seminar tutors may vary from year to year. some are good some are bad.

When you say the quality of lecturers/seminar tutors varies, is this for all students in that year? Also, are they worse in the sense that if you get 'bad' lecturers/tutors, you suffer in terms of the quality of teaching i.e. you'll be at a disadvantage in as far as how well you can do compared with others, or that they are just more boring etc. Obviously a lot of what you get out of a degree is what you put in, and therefore you could still do well with worse lecturers/teachers, but will it require a lot of extra work?

Thanks, Mig.

Reply 5

fatyeung

well i m not sure if it is true for all subjects/years. but within economics, yes. some tutors wont give you answers to questions. some will. - that makes a lot of difference. yet, generally you wont be disadvantaged by getting a poor tutor. cos you can switch between tutor groups.

extra work? i dont think you have time for that.

Reply 6

jipip

Ok, thanks a lot for your help.

Mig

Reply 7

mangomaz

Econ at warwick is pretty much as respected as you can get. Amount of maths can vary each year depending on the options that you take (I'm not doing any maths this year as a finalist wooooooo).

As a first year as fatyeung said, its 15-16 hours a week which isnt really that bad especially seeing as you dont need to go to a lot of it. Maths students have like 24 hours a week haha. Arts students will always have less theres no point trying to compare yourself to them.

Quality of teaching varies a lot... but for most of the modules you can generally just read the textbook or its a sit down and learn the maths yourself kind of thing.

Erm... not sure what else to say really. Second year is pretty tough but then third year is quite smooth going so far which is making up for it :smile:

Reply 8

jipip

Concerning the maths, how much maths can you include in your degree and how how hard would the maths be if including it?

Mig

Reply 9

fatyeung

Mig

Concerning the maths, how much maths can you include in your degree and how how hard would the maths be if including it?

Mig

basically if you have done AL maths .. that would be all right (AL f/m preferable though)

as of maths... in the 1st year you could choose maths for economists, then 2nd year econometrics and so on...

if you fancy languages, you could take up a foreign language and continue with that in yer 2nd yr, 3rd year etc. you can also take a year abroad.

Reply 10

Rosicky88

Sorry OP, I don't mean to steal the thread, but I don't see the point in posting a new one and I just have a quick question.

I know this issue has been touched upon, but for you guys doing Economics at Warwick at the moment - I'm worried that the Economics course will not be mathematical enough for my liking.

I will have done Further Maths at A2, and generally love the maths stuff rather than writing essays. I'm tempted to make Warwick my firm offer ahead of LSE because I think I wouldn't like it in London. I know I'd be losing out slightly on the reputation of the university aspect of things, but I really do need to know whether the Econ course at Warwick can be just as mathsy as the LSE one. Anyone have any ideas?

Once again - sorry mig

Reply 11

mangomaz

First year you do:
Macro
Micro
Maths and Stats
World Economy
Option module

The option you can choose a maths module, and macro micro are not really essay, just theory really. (macro a bit more essay but not a whole lot)

Second year:
Macro
Micro
Econometrics
Option

Micro is basically all maths (dear god I hated it!!!!) and if you do a maths option then you're pretty much doing all maths apart from macro, which has a decent amount of maths theory.

Third year:
RAE (dissertation)
3 options
You can choose mathsy stuff for all of these if you want and RAE you can make your topic very econometricsy :smile:

So economics can be as mathsy/unmathsy as you want. Hope that helps, the module website should have more detailed info as well methinks!

I think the LSE course has more maths because I was comparing with my friend what we do... but I have a lot of friends at warwick who like you want as much maths as possible and are happy with the course.

Reply 12

fatyeung

mangomaz

the module website should have more detailed info as well methinks!

which is available here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/ug/ughandbookandyear1guide0607.pdf

btw, i did AL Further Maths (FP1 FP2 FP3 M1 M2 M3) as well..

but in my case the modules i took werent helping me much in economics. Especially the mechanics modules.

Reply 13

rraze

So you can make the degree unmathsy if you prefer? (if you prefer writing essays instead)

Reply 14

fatyeung

rraze

So you can make the degree unmathsy if you prefer? (if you prefer writing essays instead)

sorry mate. you cannot i m afraid.

there is a core in maths and stats... and econometrics in 2nd year...

well u could choose to write a bit more essays.. choose industrial econ, languages, psychology etc.. as your option.. instead of "maths for economists"

Reply 15

Rosicky88

Sounds good. I know it's not that simple, but approximately how much of your first year is maths in %?

e.g. 40% maths/60% essays, writing or what?

Reply 16

mangomaz

rraze

So you can make the degree unmathsy if you prefer? (if you prefer writing essays instead)

Second year you can't really avoid the maths (econometrics and micro are half your course haha) but in final year you totally can which is awesome for me haha.

First year if you dont take a maths option its technically 20% maths (1 maths module out of 5) but in practise it takes up a lot of your time because its pretty intense and I would say its what you will spend about 35-40% of your time on (minimum). You can let other modules slide a bit but maths is one that you really have to keep on working on all year or at the end you will be feeling pretty screwed!

Reply 17

rafabenitez

Micro in year 2 is taught SO SO BADLY. Just a warning to current first years, it may be easy in first year but second year is tough!

I have 11-13 hours a week.

Trics - good
Macro - I love it
Micro - hate it
Mathematical Economics - Love term 1, dislike term 2

Also, seminar tutors in year 2 are much better than first year; they actually know what they are talking about.