What's Your Major? - Economics

Hello, my name is Patrick and I'm a fourth year at Virginia Tech. My major is economics, which is the science of choice and how people make decisions under certain conditions like scarcity. Economics introduces and teaches about a wide range of subjects such as data analysis and economic behavior at the individual, state, and federal levels. I chose to major in econ because I have always had a strong interest in math and politics and economics as a subject where those two topics intersect and an interesting way. Students in econ can pursue a variety of pathways including economics of healthcare, environmental economics, behavioral economics, and so on. As a major, there are four degree options one can take. The first is the general economics option. The second is economics with business, which is an option for students interested in finance and/or business management. The third is economics with managerial economics and data science, which is an option for students interested in data analysis encoding. The fourth is economics with policy and regulation, which is an option for students interested in politics and government agencies. Students can also minor in economics or economics of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The undergraduate level, most econ research has to do with individual decision-making. For example, my current research has to do with the simulation of asset markets and those, and the formation of bubbles in those markets. Think of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. I plan on teaching economics and other social sciences at the high-school level. Economics has given me the ability to understand economic concepts as well as how those concepts relate to historical and current events. It has also provided me skills related to data analysis, providing me with a unique amount of flexibility and my potential career paths.