Economics: What Can I DO with That?
Written by Luke Daigneault
What are you hoping to get out of your time in college?
A piece of paper?
Knowledge?
A job?
“You go to college, ultimately, so you can learn how to think,” economics professor Dr. Ivan Pongracic says. “Economics is one of the best majors for that.”
Because of this, a degree in economics can land you in just about anything after college. Dr. Charles Steele, another economics professor, comments, “If you get your B.A. in economics, you most likely will not go on to become an economist. The analytic style of thinking that you learn in economics is very desirable to a large variety of businesses.”
Our own Hillsdale students demonstrate this very thing. Many students go to some of the top graduate programs in the country. For instance, Andy Cochran went on to get a masters in economics from Montana State, and Katie Barnes went to law school. She is now a legal advisor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The vast majority of economics graduates, however, go directly into the workforce. We see a lot of students entering the banking and finance sector, working at places like Wells Fargo, Fidelity, and U.S. Bank. Think tanks like the Koch Foundation, Goldwater Institute, or American Majority hire a few graduates as well. Recent graduate Jonathan Slonim, for example, is now a researcher at McKinsey and Co.
Our economics majors end up in many other fields too as teachers, configuration specialists, reporters, and even pro-life field agents.
With all these different career opportunities, you don’t need to be “undecided.” Just major in economics!
Luke Daigneault is a sophomore at Hillsdale who will never disclose his ACT scores unless they are pried from his cold, dead hands. He majors in economics and Spanish, and he is a card trick aficionado and a cross country runner.