Rate the MQ economics degree. (1 Viewer)

[BackCountrySnow]

All the people doing the B economics degree at macquarie. How do you find the course?
What is all this talk about only being able to do one major and what do you think of it?
Also, What do you think of your tutors and lecturers?

 

[Tabris]

Well what do you want out of the degree? strong conceptual and analytical skills as well as creative thinking and problem solving abilities? A good learning environment?

IMO, the first two years and probably some of third year units, you probably wont get this.

Regurgitation of formulas and principles and filling numbers into formulas is probably the bread and butter of the unit. There have been complaints about standards dropping and international students having some serious skills deficiency:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3909

You will get some serious analytical work once you hit third year where stuff like Industry organisation, Contemporary perspectives of economic thought and economic history really gets into it. Unfortunately, they dont really teach stuff like Adam Smith, Ricardo, Friedman's and von Hayek's free market policies or Marx in the core units.

As for the 1st 2 years, most of the units overlap with accounting and finance courses as well as several of the 3rd year electives.

Its not a great experience stuck in an overcrowded room listening to answers from a Masters/PHD student who has only been practicing english for a few years.

As for the lecturers, they are great speakers and presenters (a few exceptions), but most likely, they wont be taking your tute.

Would i recommend you doing it?? do it with law and the intercontextual work u come across in law electives and jurisprudence really is enlightening stuff....

 

[BackCountrySnow]

Well what do you want out of the degree? strong conceptual and analytical skills as well as creative thinking and problem solving abilities? A good learning environment?

IMO, the first two years and probably some of third year units, you probably wont get this.

Regurgitation of formulas and principles and filling numbers into formulas is probably the bread and butter of the unit. There have been complaints about standards dropping and international students having some serious skills deficiency:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3909

You will get some serious analytical work once you hit third year where stuff like Industry organisation, Contemporary perspectives of economic thought and economic history really gets into it. Unfortunately, they dont really teach stuff like Adam Smith, Ricardo, Friedman's and von Hayek's free market policies or Marx in the core units.

As for the 1st 2 years, most of the units overlap with accounting and finance courses as well as several of the 3rd year electives.

Its not a great experience stuck in an overcrowded room listening to answers from a Masters/PHD student who has only been practicing english for a few years.

As for the lecturers, they are great speakers and presenters (a few exceptions), but most likely, they wont be taking your tute.

Would i recommend you doing it?? do it with law and the intercontextual work u come across in law electives and jurisprudence really is enlightening stuff....

overlap with accounting and finance?
I thought the economics degree was quite separate from that. But the comm degree was closely linked.

Also, is it just mq that has heaps of lecturerswho can't speak english too well?

 

[AsyLum]

Also, is it just mq that has heaps of lecturerswho can't speak english too well?

Probably due to the people who generally do EFS. Not really an issue in Humanities/Arts

 

[aileenli]

All the people who do a degree from the EFS faculty - i.e., accounting, bba, finance, applied finance, actuarial, economics, marketing - do the same first year units, which is basically a unit from each of those areas of commerce. These being namely - accg100/105, econ110, econ111, acst101, stat170, isys123. And then there are electives that you choose for your own area.

 

[yehriteo]

I rate it.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

I rate it.

wtf??

anyway, so the first year for all comm related courses are basically the same??

 

[glitterfairy]

Also, is it just mq that has heaps of lecturerswho can't speak english too well?

It is absolutely only an EFS thing.

A glimpse of my day in Humanities today: Paragraphs are indented, not double-spaced (unless intended for artistic effect), numbers under ten ALWAYS written out in letters not numbered (unless publishing company allows you to begin writing numerals from 20 onwards or something), adverbs need to become extinct, British english and not American english (both in terms of different spellings of words and culture-specific statements)...

 

[BackCountrySnow]

It is absolutely only an EFS thing.

crazy...

hmm, so does anyone here actually like their degree??
(economics that is)

 

[randomguy777]

clean your inbox, got a pm for ya.

 

[Boxxxhead]

crazy...

hmm, so does anyone here actually like their degree??
(economics that is)

I don't like the economics bit of it, I prefer the maths stuff that I do.

On a side note, maths is probably the only assessable thing that I don't hate. I enjoy drawing and stuff like that, but couldn't imagine myself doing art as a degree.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

clean your inbox, got a pm for ya.

done, send away.

 

[gnrlies]

All the people doing the B economics degree at macquarie. How do you find the course?
What is all this talk about only being able to do one major and what do you think of it?
Also, What do you think of your tutors and lecturers?

My best advice is to ignore all of the above because its a total load of crap.

All lecturers AND tutors within the economics department are of an extremely high calibre, can speak english (in fact all but a few were born in Australia, and those who werent come from europe and can speak perfect english anyway). Macquarie's economics department is about half the size of Sydney uni, so it may not be as diverse, but I think it is good because you can form a better relationship with your tutors and lecturers (which comes in handy when looking to pursue your studies beyond undergrad level). Apart from the big core units like macro / micro you will have the lecturer as one of the tutors. Alternatively it will be an equally qualified tutor (who does not have english difficulties).

It is true that a lot of accounting students are asian international students. Subsequently many of these students who perform well in units like stat170 which is first year statistics are asked back to help in practicals etc. Some postgraduate students who may not have good communication skills are selected as tutors. But these are just stat classes, and maybe some other first year units not related to economics. The economics, business and actuarial departments are probably macquarie uni's strengths.

Also, just as an anecdote to Peter Abelsons opinion piece - it is important to note that the standards arent falling. I.e. while there may be more inferior students attempting the units, the standards havent been lowered to accomadate them. This maintains the integrity of the degree. Nobody out there is claiming that the macquarie economics degree is easier to obtain than anywhere else.

 

[Boxxxhead]

Also, just as an anecdote to Peter Abelsons opinion piece - it is important to note that the standards arent falling. I.e. while there may be more inferior students attempting the units, the standards havent been lowered to accomadate them. This maintains the integrity of the degree. Nobody out there is claiming that the macquarie economics degree is easier to obtain than anywhere else.

Yeah, I know a LOT of people who failed econ110, a fair few of them getting 90+ UAI as well, which shows that they would have gotten in when they had "higher" standards, and would have still failed.

 

[Tabris]

I disagree, maybe u had better tutors but some of my ones commanded a very poor grasp of communication and teaching skills.....

Yeah, there were some great ones such as the third year one or if u have edwin franks but that depends on you choosing the right tute.

As for standard, Abelson made a valid point, but i guess thats a subjective judgment of the glass being half full or half empty

 

[gnrlies]

I disagree, maybe u had better tutors but some of my ones commanded a very poor grasp of communication and teaching skills.....

Yeah, there were some great ones such as the third year one or if u have edwin franks but that depends on you choosing the right tute.

As for standard, Abelson made a valid point, but i guess thats a subjective judgment of the glass being half full or half empty

Which units are you refering to? I would be interested to find out....

I would seriously doubt any of them would have been econ units given that no-one in the department has english difficulties and they dont accept just anyone as tutors.

As for abelson well, you know I guess he is more talking about entry standards rather than the standards of the course. But this is hardly surprising. Almost everyone goes to uni now. Back then only those who really wanted to go went (remembering that it wasn't as crucial as it is now to get a job with a degree). I doubt this is a phenomenon that is unique to the mac program. At . Least it's good to hear that it is a rigourous program.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

Macquarie's economics department is about half the size of Sydney uni, so it may not be as diverse, but I think it is good because you can form a better relationship with your tutors and lecturers (which comes in handy when looking to pursue your studies beyond undergrad level).

What do you mean when you say it's not as diverse?

It is true that a lot of accounting students are asian international students. Subsequently many of these students who perform well in units like stat170 which is first year statistics are asked back to help in practicals etc. Some postgraduate students who may not have good communication skills are selected as tutors. But these are just stat classes, and maybe some other first year units not related to economics. The economics, business and actuarial departments are probably macquarie uni's strengths.

ok, I havent no intentions of going into accounting anyway. lol. Thanks gnrlies.

 

[gnrlies]

What do you mean when you say it's not as diverse?

I simply mean that there are approximately 40% more academics and therefore 40% more opinions and views on the way the world works. This is not an issue for undergrad economics but if you want to do a PHD you will usually study at a university that has supervisors that will relate to your thesis.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

I simply mean that there are approximately 40% more academics and therefore 40% more opinions and views on the way the world works. This is not an issue for undergrad economics but if you want to do a PHD you will usually study at a university that has supervisors that will relate to your thesis.

Personally I want to do mine at the London School of Economics so it doesn't even come into the equation.

Oh, i see. Are you currently a postgrad student?
I'd like to do my postgad studies outside of Australia.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

I went to macquarie library today and looked at some economics textbooks.
The introductory micro and macro textbooks were quite straight forward.

But when I flicked throught the intermediate textbooks there were so many formulas.

Every page had all these complex curves and equations on it.

How big is the leap between intro and intermediate economics?