Bachelor of economics or Bachelor of commrece (majoring in eco) (1 Viewer)

[piethepker]

Is there a significant difference to consider here? I have only read that commerce may be viewed as more practical.

I don't have a particular job in mind - just curious about the differences here

thanks

- I spelt commerce wrong. Opps!

 

[si2136]

There's no differences if you're majoring in Eco, just some additional bonuses by doing a Commerce degree, which is pointless, just wasting time transferring and doing extra semesters.

 

[sida1049]

There's no differences if you're majoring in Eco, just some additional bonuses by doing a Commerce degree, which is pointless, just wasting time transferring and doing extra semesters.

^ YES.

If you're definitive about going down the economics path, don't bother wasting your time and money on pointless business courses. A strictly economics student would unlikely complete a course such as Leading and Influencing in Business or Accounting, Business and Society (compulsory units for commerce students at USYD). (I picked Bachelor of Arts over Bachelor of Commerce for economics to avoid business units like the plague.)

A Bachelor of Commerce is an extra year long.

The main advantage to a Bachelor of Commerce is that it gives you a wider range of study areas to choose and experiment from, and the extra year can be viewed as a benefit for people wanting to study a second (or third) major, as well as those who are unsure. If you are interested in, say, finance or business majors along with an economics major, then a Bachelor of Commerce would be more suitable.

 

[piethepker]

So, if you did eco through arts, what would the additional courses be? or would there be none at all?

 

[sida1049]

So, if you did eco through arts, what would the additional courses be? or would there be none at all?

Absolutely no additional courses at all! My degree is Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics)/Bachelor of Arts, and while there are some compulsory electives for science (e.g. 24 junior credit points [4 units] from at least two different areas of science), I didn't have any compulsory courses for B Arts, i.e. everything I do in my B Arts is directly related to economics (I chose to maximise my B Science with maths and statistics). However, under B Arts, you are allowed 60 senior credit points (10 units) under a single subject area, though that's more than you need (as you only need 24 senior economics credit points to major in economics), this means you'd have a bunch of free electives, which you can use to complete another Arts major if you like.

If you are definitely going for economics, Bachelor of Economics is the best route. In some universities such as USYD, B Arts is used as a leverage in combined degrees to major in economics (i.e. there is no Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Economics, hence Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts substitutes those economics students [since economics is often administrated under Arts/Social Sciences]). So in summary, if you choose against Bachelor of Economics to major in economics for some reason, Bachelor of Commerce often requires you to do a commerce/business major along with compulsory business units regardless, and Bachelor of Arts may put an upperbound on the number of economics units you take.

But in the end, regardless of whether you did B Arts/Commerce/Economics, you would graduate with the exact same economics major and studied the same units with the same cohort.

Good luck!

 

[piethepker]

Thank you very much!

 

[seremify007]

I would caveat though that the B Business/Commerce degrees can sometimes be more appealing/attractive even though the subjects/content is no different to Eco. You'd also want to ensure that any career paths/etc you're considering aren't going to close any doors just because your degree has a different name.

 

[sida1049]

I would caveat though that the B Business/Commerce degrees can sometimes be more appealing/attractive even though the subjects/content is no different to Eco. You'd also want to ensure that any career paths/etc you're considering aren't going to close any doors just because your degree has a different name.

That's true, especially for commerce-y majors (e.g. business, finance, accounting, marketing...).

Though I would contend that for economics, a Bachelor of Arts should fair just fine. Many well-known economists such as Greg Mankiw (was a policy adviser to the Republican administration), Alan Greenspan (chairman of the Federal Reserve) and Ben Bernanke (chairman of the Federal Reserve) studied economics under Bachelor of Arts.

Students who are certain about pursuing economics (with no interest in commerce majors) would benefit more from a Bachelor of Arts with several units of formal mathematics and statistics, than a Bachelor of Commerce with an economics major squeezed between several compulsory business units and possibly a commerce major (which some degrees specify as a requirement).

 

[wrong_turn]

sida1049, I think there are a few of things to consider.

First consideration would be the uni that you choose to study economics. Different unis have different constructions of what an economics major might look like. For example, when I studied economics at unsw, we were expected to complete accounting in first year even if we were going to major in economics. Albeit, you can study economics through an Arts degree, however make sure you are able to take quantitative courses (aka econometrics) within the major to make sure you are not closing any doors as seremify said. I would imagine a quantitative background in the context of economics might be quite useful

Second consideration - what career are you looking to pursue? Almost all economics careers require quantitative interpretation or calculations of some form. It would be useful if not required for you to build quantitative models using economics theories.

Third consideration - if you are looking to get into the RBA, unless they have changed tact, usually consider honours graduates more favourably.

 

[D94]

Though I would contend that for economics, a Bachelor of Arts should fair just fine. Many well-known economists such as Greg Mankiw (was a policy adviser to the Republican administration), Alan Greenspan (chairman of the Federal Reserve) and Ben Bernanke (chairman of the Fedeal Reserve) studied economics under Bachelor of Arts.

To be fair, they studied during an era or at a university where the main degrees offered at undergrad level were the BA and BS. Their universities might not even offer more than a BA or BS, so obviously they could only receive a degree under those titles.