Uni degree: Accounting and Finance vs Economics
Hello everyone,
My first post on WSO.
I am hoping to get into investment banking in the future . Therefore, I am planning to apply to University of Warwick and currently struggling with the course choice: Accountancy+Finance vs Economics. I have relevant "work experience" (mostly just insights) with Finance and Accountancy but nothing with Economics, so that might a problem in my personal statement (or not?).
Also the entry requirements for Finance and Accountancy are AAA, however for Economics is A(*)A(*)A which is a big factor.
What is your opinion on this situation?
Thanks in advance!
Sorry, meant to say A(*)A(*)A
Was in this position for the last 2 years. I had a few factors to consider when applying for the course which could be applied to u. I'm assuming money isint a factor btw and warwick is expensive for internationals so take this info with a pinch of salt.
I've done the research and you could also do the same through looking all the admits for the past 3 to 4 years, I looked at 2018 to 2021 personally. This info is from reddit, 6th form, linkedin, thestudentroom, whatdotheyknow(forgot the specific website name). This is to make sure I'm not pulling out numbers randomly and lying to you.
Factors would include your grades, extra curriculars and if your an international student.
Based on the last 4 years on the websites mentioned, most ECON uk applicants in the last 2 years who are accepted or received an offer has an average of predicted grades 3 A Star, 1 A for A levels and a very high degree of extra curriculars. For international, its around ECON 2 A star, 2 A with little or no requirement of extra curriculars. A&F is less stringent at predicted of 1 A star and 2 A for both uk and international. Tbh, I'm not sure about A&F and the info because a&f just does not have many applicants compared to ECON so pooling a definitive set of data and drawing a conclusion was difficult. But around 1 A star, 2 A or 2 A star, 1 A with some moderate emphasis on extra curriculars.
You might say it's unfair for uk students as international students has less predicted grades required and ECs required but do note, warwick has has become very expensive in the last few years, more so in the upcoming years. I'm going to Warwick and the total cost is around 100k pounds. Considering my financial position, most international applicants from sea can't even dream about applying to Warwick. Scholarship would help with the cost and bringing it down, but relative to the competition, most people don't have the igcse, a level, extra curriculars that their peers have and hence, only some people will receive scholarship and thereby limiting the applicant pool.
And uh tldr, if you don't mind which course, just take a&f so you won't have to put high amounts of effort for degree course and spend your time doing other things.
UK universities, especially good ones, do not care about extracurriculars. They're always harping on about "super curriculars" though.
Honestly degree type doesn’t matter too much, it’s all about the name.
History at Oxford or Cambridge > Finance at Bath or Manchester for example.
Some banks also specify any degree type is accepted.
Warwick is a very decent university, and both courses can get you through the door, I’d just do whichever interests you most.
Alright so as I said before, UK universities don't care about extracurriculars - the only time people need them is if they're genuinely academically awful and need something on their personal statements AND are applying to pretty poor universities which accept this OR they're applying to Medicine. LSE, Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL etc are all gonna tell you not to harp on about extra curriculars because they don't care. They want to see why you will be good at the course and what you did to explore the subject. There isn't really any such thing as economics work experience, its mainly just showing you are good at maths and have read economic papers/books and expressing your own opinions on them. Had you shadowed or worked with an economic think-tank or professor then perhaps that would be worth mentioning. Find economics here: https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/super-curr…;
The main issue is that economics has become ridiculously competitive at targets these days. Most non-oxbridge targets are very easily achievable with A* A* A+ achieved (and some predicted) but courses like economics are exceptions to this rule. You could easily get into something like biology/chemistry at UCL/imperial and probably even oxford if your grades are good enough since there's not alot of other factors they consider (minus oxford interview). Of course, don't study if you don't like them.
thats actually insanely cool, never seen a post covering this before. unconsciously used similar resources for my personal statement, how did you even find it?
I did a lot of outreach events and summer schools at Oxbridge when I was younger and they drilled this stuff into us. It’s a lot more widely available now with student sites like The Student Room and school teachers now knowing more.
I am so proud of you. This is the type of content someone like you should be contributing. Information you have first hand knowledge of and insight you’ve gained from your real life experiences. 🥰
Have considered making a post with UK university application guidance/resources but wasn't sure if there was enough demand
EDIT: I meant to reply to @San-Chan, not this guy.
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