July 6th, 2021
How Difficult Will Economics Be in College?
When you study economics, you learn how goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed. It’s something that affects us all and it’s at the foundation of how businesses run, earn, and make a profit. But if you’ve never taken an economics class or if you have a bit of math phobia, the subject can seem intimidating. A college-level economics class can be challenging because you need to grasp new concepts like supply and demand, scarcity, diminishing returns, and opportunity costs. It requires you learn new vocabulary and to use critical thinking skills. But those theories, concepts, and terms build upon one another. At college, you also work through course levels, moving upward as you gain more understanding and knowledge. And economics insight can help you in your career and your personal life.
What You’ll Learn in College Economics
If you took an economics class in high school, you probably played the stock market game. You chose a few fantasy stocks to own, and then bought and sold them based on the real ups and downs of the stock market. Or, maybe you had to prepare a report on the nation’s gross domestic product or another country’s imported and exported goods. Those may have been a good introduction to the subject of economics, but in a college-level class, you can expect to dive more deeply into concepts and theories. The larger field of economics is also broken down:
Macroeconomics
This is the study of the economy as a whole. You’ll look at the economies of different countries and the factors that stimulate their growth. You’ll take a deeper look at the gross domestic product, or GDP, and how the unemployment rate affects it. You can also expect to learn about fiscal and monetary policies and how the decisions that a government makes can affect the economy. Although these may sound foreign, each topic builds upon another and as you grasp new concepts, you’ll see how they all integrate with one another to form a big, understandable picture.
Microeconomics
Microeconomics examines the economy from a bottom-up approach rather the top-down approach of macroeconomics. You’ll learn about economics from an individual perspective and explore the factors that influence consumers’ decisions—including your own. You’ll be introduced to concepts like supply and demand, consumer theory, incentives, scarcity, choices, and opportunity cost. And you’ll understand how you and other consumers may make the choices they do.
International Trade and Business
In a high school economics class, you’ll spend most of your studies on the U.S. economy. But at the college level, you’ll also learn about the economies of other countries and how they might impact the U.S. You’ll study international trade and banking, foreign investment, and global business strategies.
If you decide to major in economics, you can expect to take math courses to support the financial aspects of the subject. But economics is a more well-rounded major than you might expect. You’d also take communication courses to hone your interpersonal business skills as well as computer science classes to sharpen your technology skills, which are necessary for any industry today.
How You Learn Economics in College
When it comes to economics, it’s not just what you learn but how you learn. In college, your coursework will help you learn to think critically about the material you learn, rather than make you simply memorize vocabulary or important facts. You can expect to take what you learn and think about what decisions you would make as a consumer, business manager, or member of the government. You’ll also gain the ability to make inferences and connect the dots as you study the relationships between variables such as price and quantities or supply and demand. And you’ll strengthen your analytical skills and your ability to break down bigger concepts into easily digestible ideas—skills that you can use across your academic career, your professional career, and your life.
Once you start to explore the world of economics, you may find you’ll want a career that will put your newfound knowledge to use. At Limestone University, we offer a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Economics that could prepare you for a career as a loan officer, a public policy analyst, a stockbroker, or even an economics teacher. Request more information to learn more about the program.
