Maths vs Economics degree?

By Transient Altruist @ 2022-12-16T23:28 (+2)

Hi, I’m currently in my first year of A-levels considering doing either Maths or Economics at hopefully a top university. I think I would be both competent and interested in either subject, so I’d like to choose based on which would best enable me to do as much good as possible (I’m currently a longtermist). I don’t expect there’s a definite answer, but any advice on how to evaluate this would be greatly appreciated.

I provide details of my personal situation below, but generalisable answers will be good too for other readers in the future.

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More details:

I tend to be very interested in every subject, and for this reason I’m normally good at them too, however I have particular natural ability in maths.

I’m taking Maths, Further Maths, Economics, and Politics - although I’m likely to drop Politics (since I get the impression that it makes little difference for applying to Maths at uni and I’m a slow worker). (I may replace Politics with Spanish since I have learnt it to a pretty high level already.)

I get good grades - 9s and 8s at GCSE, and I haven’t been properly examined yet but seem to be doing very well in all of my A-levels and I’m aiming for A*s.

My main issue is speed of work, which is mostly fine for Maths, but is a problem for essay subjects. For GCSEs I managed to increase my pace enough to do well, so hopefully I should be able to do the same for A-levels/uni.

(Also I have never learnt to code, so unfortunately I have no idea whether AI work would be a good fit for me, but it would be nice to keep that option open.)

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I don’t have a good understanding of what switching subjects is like, so it would also be great to hear whether starting with Maths with plans to potentially switch to Economics is a good idea compared to starting with Economics straight off.

Anything else I haven’t considered is very welcome too.

Thanks so much!