Final year dissertation (Economics)... how hard is it?

First, that's what she said.

More importantly, I was wondering (yet again) if Warwick faculty usually let erasmus students write one. The thing is I don't find many modules appealing and I know I will make the most of my year by interracting with teachers at a more personal knowledge--so they get to actually know me and maybe write me a recommendation letter at the end of the year.
I realize my writing isn't as good as it used to be when I lived in the US but I give it a week or two before it all comes back.

Plus, I admit, the fact that I will be able to pull off a 10,000+ word dissertation in a foreign language would look really good on my grad school applications. I have like a dozen potentially good ideas as of today, topics that I actually do care about. I would really like to put them on paper so I hope I'll find a prof who'll agree to help.

Has anybody heard about a similar situation ? Please share. :smile:

Reply 1

zules01

OK nevermind I can answer this one for myself. EC331 is a class so I can take it :smile:

Reply 2

mangomaz

Its not actually that hard at all. You're supported all the way through and have to give presentations throughout the year which forces you to keep on top of it all (rather than having to do all of it in a few weeks which happens with other depts). Aaaand its only 5000 words woop! So yeah really not that bad and its probably the only time in the course that I felt I was actually using some stuff that I learnt.

Reply 3

zules01

Sweet. I'm totally doing it. I'm thinking of something leaning towards international students, secondary education in America... or my favorite : Is America ready for our (France's) TGVs (trains that go around 200 miles/hour, such as the Eurostar, for instance.) Basically I'd talk about the increasing demand for alternative means of transportation, governement subsidies, lobbying, etc.

Reply 4

mangomaz

Ok but make sure you have a dataset to back everything up - thats probably the most important thing. Its a research project not a standard dissertation type thing where you just talk, so you need to be able to have some numbers etc to work with!