Macro. Micro. Marginal utility. The invisible hand. You love ‘em all. Or maybe you don’t just yet, but you think you might want to study economics in college. You’re not alone, it’s one of the most popular majors in the Ivy League and beyond, and probably the most popular social science major alongside political science. Maybe you’re interested in Econ because you want to go into business or finance, or maybe you’re not even sure why you’re drawn to it. But now you’re here, and we can help.
The best time to start preparing for college applications is sophomore year. No, it’s not too early. You’re already ahead of the curve by knowing what your general interests are, now you just need to take it deeper. Today, we’re going to walk you through exactly how we help our clients explore economics as a sophomore.
Identifying the Niche
Unfortunately, it is not enough to just say “I like econ” and call it a day. Oh, how we wish that were the case, but schools want to see you get specific and focused on not just a major, but something more specific within that major. When we first meet with clients, we find out what their main interests are, find out if there’s anything else they might enjoy learning about, and help them explore it.
Having a niche is great because it helps with apps, but the process of actually finding that niche helps a lot too – you’ll be able to learn what you actually want to do and what you’re actually interested in! And have time to explore it!!! So let’s talk about how we find, develop, and execute that niche in sophomore year:
Classes and Books
We start at the beginning, obviously, because that’s where you start things. We won’t just throw you into the deep end of economics, we start with the intro stuff. After getting to know your interest areas, we set clients up with a curriculum that’s tailored to those interests with books and online courses designed to help you go deeper within economics. You may start out with some intro texts for econ (there are a lot!), and once you read a few, you might realize you are really interested in economic theories, so then we’ll put you down a course for even more specific books. The same goes with classes – sure, you’ll start out with intro to econ, but as time goes on, you’ll realize that a few of those topics appeal to you more and then you’ll continue down the funnel.
Extracurriculars
Beyond the exploration of topics, the next biggest thing we help clients do is start building out their extracurriculars. There are extracurriculars you can do in school (think clubs), and there are ones you can do outside of school (like research). And we don’t just mean adding a lot of stuff so you can stuff your resume, we mean things that actually fit nicely into what you want to do! In school econ extracurriculars can look like starting an econ club, joining debate, writing for the school paper, or joining finance/business clubs. Out of school extracurriculars can range from getting a job, to finding research opportunities, to doing your own research project, or finding internships or job shadowing opportunities.
Those options might seem broad, but that’s because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to building your resume. When we work with students, we help them select their extracurriculars based on what they’ve explored. We wouldn’t give a student interested in behavioral economics the same work as a student interested in studying the OG economic theorists!
Summer Plans
The next piece of the puzzle is the summer. Shockingly, summer is the most crucial part of high school, because it’s the largest block of uninterrupted time you have to explore and deepen your interests. We know you’d rather lounge on a beach somewhere. Or maybe you hate sand and would rather be watching TV, but you need to have a solid summer plan in place to show how you’ve pursued this topic.
We help students plan their summers each year, and like the extracurriculars, they’re tailored to each student. One way a sophomore can explore econ is through summer programs. Almost every top-tier college has a pre-college program, and we like the econ ones at UPenn, UChicago, Harvard, UCLA, but there are so many more that exist out there. Summer programs are also great because they can help expose you to colleges you might be interested in, and they can go towards helping you ‘demonstrate interest’ in that college, which a few do care about.
Beyond summer programs, we might help you find and apply to internships, or we might help you reach out to professors to secure research opportunities. We might help you launch your own self-ran research project, or we can even help you find a summer job!
Starting this process as a sophomore is the best time to begin. Students who join us early on find a lot of success come college decision time, because they took the time to fully explore their niche and build out a profile that screams “I love econ!!”
If you want to start strategizing for college, sophomore year is the best time to start. Reach out to us today if you need help with your college prep plans.