Might economics fit me best?

I'm struggling to decide on a course of study. I know what interests me but I'm not so clear on what might be the best course of study to suit those interests.

Essentially, so far, I've found myself most curious and engaged when looking at rational/optimal decision making whether in formal or informal settings. I'm most interested in when there is a competitive aspect and we're essentially playing against other actors.

To give examples of that in practice:
- I play a lot of poker and study quite seriously. I've played around most recently with game theory optimal vs predatory play (how much weight you place on exploiting others' weaknesses with respect to indifference to everybody else at the table).
- I've audited university courses on game theory / decision theory on YouTube and have found these fully engaging.
- Even when in my personal and working life, when not dealing strictly with formal systems by which to make an analysis, I like to think about interactions and decisions on a strategic basis and how to achieve my best outcome, whether through gambits directly in my job (sales) when talking with potential clients or more formally making a decision about the risk of taking on certain business and going through a process of deciding whether I want to sign-off on accepting it.


It seems most sensible to me that I ought to study something along the lines of maths or economics if I want to study this formally and that management and political science might also good contenders considering how I might be most interested in going forward this this interest in the future (whether in consulting/finance or whatever else). I'm not sure where I might best be suited though.

Having read through course descriptions, it seems plausible that each of these courses of study might include some study of decision theory/science, microeconomics (and game theory), management theory, etc. I wonder how I might get the most of this kind of focus though.

Might I have some help? It's taken me a long time to realise that this is what I'd like to focus on and now I'm just trying to orient myself around the interests. I'm not sure if my interests here might be too narrowed and so more appropriate when considering graduate level courses though really I've no idea.

Any advice or feedback you have is really appreciated

From the sounds of things, an Economics and Management degree proves Economics and Maths degree may suit you. For the latter, you’ll need to be taking Further Maths to make a competitive application.

What year are you in? Also, what are (or what do you think will be) your predicted grades? Do you have strong GCSEs? If you give me a little more background info I can try and be more specific in my recommendations.

Hi Mona!

Thanks for dropping in. I appreciate it.

To give a little bit of background:
I'm 24 now. I have strong GCSEs and was taking A Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics before needing to drop out of sixth form to look after some family. After that, I joined the army, served for a couple of years before becoming injured and medically discharged (fully recovered now). I now work in the insurance industry in sales while also having some underwriting responsibility (making calls on whether other salespeople can take on business or not).

I've always been a comfortable mathematician. I was very confident when in school-- olympiads and Trinity Camp. I think that's why I ended up with the A Levels I went with, having ticked the 'good at science' and 'good at maths' boxes I was advised by tutors that it was probably the best-fit combo at the time. Nowadays, I'm still interested in mathematics for it's own sake and have more recently started getting back into the topics we'd studied in double award maths at a levels. Perhaps maths, FM and economics might be a suitable selection especially given I may end up having to sit exams independently.

If I were to take, say, 'maths and economics vs economics and management', is there is huge difference in what we might expect to encounter as an undergraduate? I imagine that more maths keeps more options open though that's just a guess.

Thanks again