Sample Economics personal statement
The attraction of Economics for me lies in its immediacy and its involvement in our everyday lives, and particularly the ways in which economic factors determine political decisions. It is a very dramatic time to be an economist. The crisis of 2008 brought about remarkable changes in world events, as prosperous countries suddenly found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy and developing economies saw their markets disappearing. The economic measures which have been taken in response to these changes have a very significant political dimension, impinging as many of them do on people’s assumptions about liberty and the power of government to impose austerity measures to attempt to rebalance a nation’s economy and to eradicate the accumulated burden of debt. It would be exciting to play a part in the process of finding solutions to these problems and explaining the workings of the forces which have affected people’s lives so radically. Studying for a degree in Economics with Politics would provide me with the knowledge and insight I need to understand the impact of such developments in society and the world of business. It would help me to gain a knowledge of the ways decisions are made in households, firms and governments and how they can be related to human behaviour and beliefs, to social patterns and value systems, and to needs and inescapable constraints. My ambition is to work in the financial sector, perhaps as a quantitative financial analyst, or in corporate finance – in short, in an area in which I can combine my interest in economics and public affairs.
I am an eager student of Economics and have read widely in the subject. I enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which relates the world of business to other areas of life such as sociology and even crime and traffic jams in the argument that sudden events can be the result of a virus-like spread of human phenomena. I liked the way he set out his theory using real life examples such as the popularity of Doc Martins or the prevention of crime on the New York subway. I also learnt a lot about both microeconomics and macroeconomics from Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist. His argument about the laws of supply and demand, claiming that it is all a matter of scarcity, was made strikingly clear through his example of the price of a coffee in different locations. I follow developments in my subject through following stories in the media and I am a keen reader of The Economist, which supplies me with a mass of information about the world, about economics and politics and about business and trading.
I am myself a trader on the foreign exchange market, having been through a rigorous training course in trading at Knowledge to Action Ltd. I gained much from the company’s state-of-the-art trading floor, which allowed me to explore real-time financial movements closely and accurately. My work experience has given me a taste of the world of employment. For eight months I was a Youth and Community Worker at the SCD Trust in a local community centre, advising teenagers on education, health and other issues, and sometimes acting as the community representative. I worked briefly for a recruitment agency as an office assistant, and I have also worked in catering. These experiences have taught me much about responsibility, leadership, decision-making and teamwork, valuable areas of knowledge for my future career.
Outside my academic interests I like to keep fit and attend a gym. I am academically able, hard-working, adaptable and full of energy. I particularly relish the challenge of solving a problem, with a particular skill in mathematical thinking and the manipulation of numbers and symbols, delighting in the sweet moment of triumph as I overcome a difficulty! My commitment to my subject and to my future career in the world of Economics is total, and I believe I have the necessary personal qualities to be a very successful undergraduate.
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