Economics or Finance

[leftandaright]

DC has (hoping to have) offers for Economics and Finance at Exeter ….. and Finance at Durham.

So hard to choose between them. DC personal preference would be Durham as a place but would Exonomics and Finance be viewed as a better calibre degree than straight Finance?
Although I think Durham as a uni has a slight advantages in reputation over Exeter.
What do others think?
thanks.

Do you have the offers yet? Economics and finance at Exeter is a more competitive course, ucas tells you that the most common grade combination is Astar AA and lowest is AAB.

My ds has applied for this course and got an offer.

He didn't apply to Durham for economics because he isn't doing further maths and they don't offer eco and finance as you know.

He didn't apply to any straight finance courses and as you can see the most common grade combination of AAB and lowest of BBB make it a less competitive option.

Sorry I haven't been much help, it depends how much your ds wants to go to Durham over other unis.

Has offer for Econ + Finance @exeter. Not heard from Durham. Has AAA in hand so offer from Exeter is unconditional. Am guessing Durham would be a cert because grades in hand exceed the usual AAB requested.
can’t decide if the more prestigious Econ course (albeit with finance) is outranked by having a Durham degree, arguably seen as a notch above Exeter …. But I suspect the difference these days between unis is negligible - and more consideration should be for the course.
Bur I’m just not sure as have no experience in what recruiters want.
(Career aspiration is to be City bound I’d say.)

@leftandaright

"Bur I’m just not sure as have no experience in what recruiters want. "

Whether it's Econ & Finance or straight Economics or straight Finance will be largely irrelevant to recruiters. Maybe Durham has a slight edge but it's marginal.

What will be far more relevant is how rounded your DS is. Can he demonstrate that he can work well in a team? Can he demonstrate that he lead people? Examples of showing initiative. Examples of solving tricky situations or problems.
Can he do public speaking. Can he summarise an issue and come up with his own opinion.

Etc etc etc

Does he prefer the course modules at one uni over the other?

This. Get him to sit down with the two detailed course descriptions and the options. It's also worth looking at any compulsory topics if you want to do specific topics in later years.

They are both good unis. Which of the two courses appeals to him most. Employers will look at his grades and it will be a lot easier if he's enjoying what he is studying.
After that, grad prospects, housing costs and general vibe are all factors to take into account

Thanks. Will do a detailed module review aim the first instance and see if that illuminates anything in the decision making process.
DC is fairly well rounded but always room for improvement so leadership, problem solving and public speaking are three areas to develop for sure.

@leftandaright OP, very interesting and my DC may be in a similar boat with an offer at Exeter (Economics & Finance) but waiting to hear on some of the others, including re the BSc Finance course at Durham. My DC has A*AA and has not heard yet.

Although the entry grades are higher for the Exeter course, I have also seen that the offers for the Durham Finance have been going out to some applicants. Having lurked, reading their messages it seemed all the early offers have gone out to those with all A* predictions. So it does seem as the Finance /Durham attracts higher grades in some respects (although maybe due to some offer holders presumably coming through the Foundation course, perhaps these individuals bring the average historical grades down?).

For banking, and I know it's supposed to move towards more uni blind recruitment across most sectors, I always thought that Durham was seen as a semi-target (with the top target schools being Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, LSE, Imperial, UCL - uni more important than the course).

So, yes, I'd also like to know if anyone has specific insight on this.

Yes Durham and Exeter is semi-target and are as equally as good as each other. Econ&finance Vs finance honestly will matter very little. Choose the course content you like the most.

Interesting. Although heard great thinks re Exeter, when you do research on semi-targets it tends to list: Durham, Bristol, St Andrews, Edinburgh, King's.

And the city/uni. Durham is a small city uni in the north, Exeter is a campus uni outside a small city in the southwest. Has he visited both? Which does he prefer? If he hasn't visited, he should.

Yes I forgot to say that. What I was getting at was that in my mind both courses are equally good career wise and he should chose what he wants to do for 3 years.

I know this is an old thread but did he make a choice and how is it going?

Chose Durham as he felt better uni than Exeter over doing finance which is a lesser degree than econ but unless you’re doing econ at the to econ unis then decided this didn’t matter. Starts next month

Which A levels did he do? My Yr12 son considering Economics / Finance type degrees - any advice very welcome!

Mine also doing finance and did maths, physics and business

Thankyou!

My DS taking maths biology economics...

My DS has an Economics degree and did Maths, Physics and Economics A levels, he now works in finance.

Thankyou - does he recommend Economics or Finance degree?

My ds also did Math, Economics and Biology A level and is studying Economics and finance at Bristol. He is glad he chose this over straight Economics as he is enjoying the accountancy modules the most.

Thanks yes that sounds interesting the combined as keeps options open