Glen Ramsay, Chair

10 Chafee Road

Kingston, RI 02881

(401) 874-2212

QUESTIONS FROM THE DEPARTMENT ADVISOR

1. Which degree program is right for you?
2. What else should I take for courses?
3. What do I do if the course is closed?
4. How's that resume?
5. How's that network? 
6. How's that portfolio of skills?
7. What courses should I take - and when? 
8. What can I do to "stand out" from the crowd?
9. What can I do with an Economics Degree?
10. Business of Economics?
11. What about internships?

1. What would Plato do? A (semi-)careerist defense of the liberal arts (Yale Alumni Bulletin)
2. The Hot Major for Undergrads Seeking High Pay Is Economics (Wall Street Journal)
3. Economics Among Top Paying Jobs for College Grads (National Association of Colleges and Employers)

Purposeful.  This is the word identified by coach Jim Calhoun, UCONN's successful men's basketball coach, when describing the guiding principle to his career choices when he spoke on the topic of Coaching Greatness at the Honors Colloquium, Contemporary Sport: Healthy Pursuit or Obsession? - and it is a good guide for you in the choices you make while enrolled at URI.  During your time here at URI you will be making numerous important choices, and you should be guided by the image of yourself getting ready to receive your diploma and head into the next phase of your life.  At that time you are very likely to be "selling" yourself to grad schools or employers, so you want to make choices now that will make your sales job easier, and here we will talk about some of those choices.  What you need to do is begin to develop a PLAN for your time here at URI because there is a lot of truth in the adage, "no one plans to fail, but some fail to plan," and you do not want to fail in your preparation for a rewarding life after graduation.  For those interested in more about why economics might be the right major, check out Why Economics? - A major, a minor, a double major, or general education course?  You also might check out Roadtrip.nation, a very kool site where you will get a chance to listen to many people tell about their transition from college to that "real" world. 

Which degree program is right for you? 

Many students talk about how they think the world perceives BA and BS degrees differently, but I have yet to find an employer who has clearly stated a preference. The reality is that you will be rewarded for the skills and abilities you have when graduation day arrives rather than the degree on that transcript.  The primary differences between the BA and the BS degrees are the level of mathematics and statistics required and a slight difference in the College's General Education requirements.  For all BS students courses in statistics, math, and econometrics are required, while BA students do not need to take either a statistics course or a math course beyond what would be specified in the General Education program.  You will find, however, that everyone will be encouraged to take a statistics course, and many should think about taking the econometrics course (ECN376) which is open to any Economics students. 

What else should I take for courses? 

Think about the job interview when you are looking for that first job or entry into graduate school, and the interviewer who asks, "why did you take this course?"  You do not want to be in the position of saying you took the course because it filled a General Education requirement, it came at a convenient time, or it was easy.  Your success will depend upon your choices, and anyone interviewing will know that and look for evidence that you have a track record of making good choices - and your course selection will be near the top of the list of choices in which they will be interested.  So when you sit down to plan out your time here, be purposeful, think seriously about what you want to be on graduation day - what skills and abilities you want to offer the world.  Your choices should be more focused on your goals rather than your past.  When you are thinking about satisfying the Foreign Language requirement, think less about what you took in high school and what will be valuable to you on graduation day.  If you are thinking about a career in foreign journalism, think about the world you will be living in - a world where the Middle east promises to be a BIG news story for many years - as does China - and let this guide you in that language choice.  The same strategy would be relevant if you were in international business, while if you were interested in a career in social work, or didn't want to travel, then you might think about Spanish since Hispanics will account for nearly half of the nation's projected population growth.  And when you are taking the Letters courses, why not take a course in Middle East, Asian, or Latin America history as a complement to the language courses chosen.  You get the picture.  Make sure each course is taken for a purpose - even if the purpose is you always wanted to know something about the subject or you wanted to take a course with a specific professor - and talk with your advisor, family, friends, and mentors about your choices. One of the real advantages of a degree in Economics is that you have considerable flexibility in your course selection since Economics courses accounting for only about one-quarter of your total graduation credits, so use the time well to help develop the skills and abilities you will need once you leave URI.

What do I do if the course is closed?

There are few certainties in life, and one is you will be closed out of a course at some point in time while here at URI.  If you find an economics course closed you should contact one of two people.  The first would be the instructor of the particular course, while the second would be the chair of the Department since he is the keeper of permission numbers for the core courses.  If I were in your position, I would probably show up at the office during office hours rather than emailing or leaving a phone message since there is no substitute for that personal touch. I would also suggest you practice your answer to the "Why you?" question, and "it fits my schedule" is probably not the best approach. 

How's that resume?

Think about the process of getting that first job. How will it happen? Some of you may be fortunate to have a person on the inside pulling for you, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but most of you will be relying on your resume to open a door, so it better be good. It may not sound like fun, and it can be quite frustrating, but it is the path most take so you should plan for that day.  This sheet of paper, and it should be one page for graduating students, is how the world will see you, so it had best be good. And do not lose sight of the person reviewing your resume, along with all those others in the large stack of resumes of hopeful applicants.  This is the equivalent of the cold call made by many sale people, and you had best have a good opening line, a resume that will catch the eye of the reviewer.  So what should you do?  Start as early as you can writing your resume, because you do not want the first resume you write to be the one you send out.  You should update your resume each semester, and when you begin to make the choices for the next semester, think about how the choices you are making will show up on that resume. 

The good news is that you should have no problem getting help with your resume.  Most bookstores will have many "How To" books, and you can also find much the same information at Career Services or at the Reference Desk at the university library. You can also find some information on-line where you will find information that helps you to organize all that information, as well as give you suggestions on how to present it all.  You might also want to show your resume to your advisor, to a friend who may have already landed a job, or possibly you know someone who has reviewed resumes who could give you some pointers. As you work on this resume, never lose sight of the image of a reviewer searching through a stack of resumes.  It is your responsibility to create a resume that will capture the attention of the reviewer, so get started.  And while you are at it, you may also want to create your own web page.  To see what some of the other URI students are doing you should check out the University's  listings of student web pages.

How's that network? 

You have certainly heard the line, "it is not what you know, it is who you know," and there is something to it. While it is never too early to start that resume, it is also never too early to begin developing a network of contacts because they can be very useful in your search for either a job or graduate school after graduation.  Once again, think about graduation as you develop your "portfolio" of contacts, those who might step up and help you get that first offer. In addition to the courses you take, some of the most important choices you will make will be the contacts you develop. You could choose to party hard and collect a list of partygoers and party favors to remember those college days, but these are unlikely to be of much help on that career search.  College is a good time to begin the difficult task of balancing work and pleasure, and make sure you choose the right balance. While you are here you should develop a relationship with a member of the faculty or administration who would vouch for you, who would write a letter of recommendation, and possibly make a phone call.  Do not under any circumstances put yourself in the position of one former student who tracked down an instructor (me) he had in a large lecture class sophomore year to write a letter of recommendation in his senior year. Pick your instructors as carefully as your courses, so do some research to find out who is good. Start with faculty members who you have had a course with, your advisor, those SETs that you can find in the library, or maybe check out the online source RateMyProfessor.  Also think about internships as an opportunity to develop some "real world" experience and some good contacts. Experience has shown that internships have often proved very helpful in the job search after graduation, so keep this in mind as you are planning your schedule.  And finally, think about the "seven degrees of separation" concept, and start thinking about who you might know that could help in the job search. 

How's that portfolio of skills? 

You've heard it all before from parents, teachers, and advisors - you need to develop skills if you are going to be successful in making the transition from school to work - and many of you could probably rattle off some of the skills that are in high demand.  I am not going to add to the already long list of those who enumerate the necessary skills, so for those who are those of you who are not sure about the list of skills, you should make sure you do some research.  Now is a good time to check out Career Services, any one of the countless "How to" books you can find at a bookstore, and talk to a faculty member, advisor, or mentor about the skills that are important in today's - and tomorrow's world.   What I will do is share with you are two messages from recent graduates who has landed good jobs with the Economics degrees.

The most important skills are good computer skills, research skills, and problem solving skills.  I know it sounds clichéd, but it is crucial that you have good problem solving skills, almost more so than anything else. My leaders know that when they give us something to do, we are able to figure it out without having to bother them at every step.  We’re not expected to know everything, but to know what to do when you don’t know something.  The computer skills don’t have to be in-depth – unless you want to be a programmer, you don’t need to necessarily know how to program a computer.  You just need to be very comfortable using programs and be able to adapt to new programs.  (I would recommend a good Excel base though – it’s invaluable).

and

One of the things that I stressed in my most recent job interviews is that I have "demonstrated analytical ability." Each of my interviews asked me to walk through a project, telling them my methodology. I used the formula [I learned in economics]: develop theoretical model, identify specific variables, crunch data and analyze results. It is important to be able to articulate this logical process. ...

There you have it.  So get out there and start working on your problem solving skills, brush up on your computer and communications skills, and start thinking analytically. If you are interested in why economics is a good place to "practice," read Why Economics?

What courses should I take - and when? 

Now let's look at the building blocks of your program of study - the courses you will need to take.  You will need to contact your advisor to talk about the details of any plan since most of you will have "peculiarities" that will need to be dealt with on an individual basis, but at least here we can talk about developing a framework that all could use. We begin with the decision to major in Economics, which most students make after they have taken an Economics course.  For the specifics of how you would declare a major, check out FAQ Economics Department.  At that time you should have a folder that contains all course related materials which you will bring to all of your advisor meetings. Included in this should be:

1. Unofficial transcript - or list of courses you have already taken plus those in which you are currently enrolled.  This is an inventory of where you have been.
2. The College of Arts & Sciences' "File for Degree" Form - a "fill-in-the-blanks"  form that you will need to complete prior to graduation.  This is a picture of where you need to be at graduation, and it is never too early to start filling in the blanks by satisfying the that you might as well start filling in at the beginning of your program of study.
3. The College of Arts & Sciences' Basic Liberal Studies Requirements  - the source for information on how to fill-in-the-blanks on the graduation form. If you happen to find that you have not quite satisfied the requirements, but you feel that you have other courses that you would like considered as substitutes, you should check out the petition process and complete the necessary Scholastic Standing & Petitions form.
4. The Department of Economics Worksheet - another "fill-in-the-blanks" form that you will want to keep in mind as you pick courses.  This is a complement to the College "File for Degree" form and contains all of the courses you will need to take to satisfy the degree you are pursuing - the BA, BS Applied, of BS Economic Theory and Methods. 

With this information you can then begin to fill in what I will call the Graduation Matrix or Graduation Spreadsheet.  The first thing you will do will be to determine how many semesters you have to graduation, which will establish how many columns in your Graduation Matrix.  Below you will see an example of a student who decided to pursue a B.A. degree in Economics in the middle of the Sophomore year after having taken ECN201, and that she intends to graduate in four years by taking five courses each semester.  In this matrix I have included summer sessions only as an option for any student thinking about taking some courses.  We then begin to do some reverse engineering the Economics courses.  The student will want to take ECN202 in the spring of the Sophomore year, and will take ECN445 in the last semester, so we begin by filling in these. I have also filled in the General Education requirements for this student who still needs to take six of the General Education requirements (GExxx).  It does not really matter when you take them, so I have simply spread them over the remaining semesters. 

That's the easy part.  After that you have a considerable degree of freedom in terms of the sequence of courses, which makes it a little more difficult.  I suggest that in the Junior year you begin with ECN327 or ECN328 and ECN306. You may take ECN306 in either the fall or spring semester, and in this matrix it has been put in the fall semester.  Also included here is STA308 which the Economics Department accepts as credit toward its degree and four additional upper division Economics electives (ECN3xx).  The final entry is ECN305, a course offered in the spring semester, which i would suggest for the senior year.  This will complete your requirements for Economics and General Education, so now you have eight "slots" to fill - and fill with a purpose.

Probably the advice I would give at this point in time is to consider registering for a minor in some discipline that you either enjoy or you feel is related to Economics or some career choice.  A good example would be choosing a minor in a foreign language which is certainly possible.  In fact almost all minors can be accomplished with six courses, so this student would have ample opportunity to declare a minor - and still have a few truly free electives even if by the end of the sophomore year only one course had been taken in the major. 

So this is it.  You know know the process, and it is now time to get out there and begin working on your program of study. Your situation will most likely be different from what you see above, but you will use the same procedure, so make that appointment with the Department advisor and begin the process of a purposefully filling in all of the blanks you need to prepare for graduation and the "real" world that awaits you after school. 

What can I do to "stand out" from the crowd?

How do you get that interview when your resume will be only one of hundreds reviewed for the position?  This is what you should be thinking about as you "cruise" through URI, and unfortunately, there is no fool-proof solution to the question.  You can, however, work at making yourself "interesting" to the potential reviewer.  One place to look would be think about complementing your economics degree with some courses that would send a signal that you are someone to consider. This could be something official, such as a double major or minor, or it could be something unofficial, such as a collection of courses that give you an area of concentration. By thoughtful selection of your courses you will not be "just" an economics major when you send out that resume.  Two things you should seriously consider would be to take courses in the Honors Program, if you meet the requirements, and explore the possibilities of Study Abroad, since the experience can be quite rewarding. Richard McIntyre is currently the Associate Director of the Honors Program, so if you have any questions about the program, you should contact him.  Closer to home, you should explore the possibility of internships, both at the Department level (internships) and University level (University Year for Action - Internship Program) since these would give you potential contacts and useful experience.  And while you are here, why not get involved with the Economics Club, and if you satisfy the requirements, join the Economics Honor Society (Omicron Delta Epsilon). 

What can I do with an Economics Degree?

Undergraduate training in economics does not generally lead to work after graduation as an economist, but it does provide a liberal arts education that prepares students for a wide array of interesting career options including graduate work in business, law, environmental studies, health care administration, and public policy, plus employment in banking and financial services, education, management trainee programs, government administration, and public service. The economics curriculum is less vocationally oriented than the undergraduate business curriculum, but it provides an educational experience that allows economics majors to apply for many of the positions open to graduating business majors.  Majoring in economics is valuable because graduate schools and employers will tend to view this as evidence of your abilities to think logically and critically and your mastery of basic quantitative skills. And there are some rewards for these skills. Surveys of college graduates indicate that the starting salaries of economics majors are among the highest for all business and social science degrees.

For those interested in looking more generally at career options, you should check out the University's Career Services site and University College's site on minors and majors where you will find a number of career related links.  For those who want some "personalized" info, you should check out the statements of some recent graduates concerning what has helped them succeed.

1. A student who has moved on to law school.  While there is no specific major required for law school, it is in a student's best interest to pick a major that emphasizes analytical thinking and critical analysis.  An economics major helps to provide a student with the skill set necessary to succeed on the LAST and in law school.  Furthermore, a thorough understanding of economic theory is absolutely necessary to fully comprehend the implications of many areas of the law (ie antitrust, labor, employment law, etc.), and methods of legal analysis (ie cost benefit)  Finally, the way the economics program is structure at URI gives the student the academic freedom to take classes outside  the department, giving exposure to a wide variety of ideas essential to develop the all important critical thinking skills.
2. A student who is currently employed by NASD as a Sales and Market Analyst. One of the things that I stressed in my most recent job interviews is that I have "demonstrated analytical ability." Each of my interviews asked me to walk through a project, telling them my methodology. I used the formula Prof. Lardaro teaches in Econometrics: develop theoretical model, identify specific variables, crunch data and analyze results. It is important to be able to articulate this logical process.

   I spend up to a week on a given report, doing some really cool stuff... hitting walls and finding ways around them... and when I finish, I am generally proud of the analysis. In the end, all of this work must be condensed into a single chart or a graph. …One little anecdote: I was asked to help choose a site for a major conference in 2007. We were looking at San Diego, San Francisco, L.A., and Phoenix. They wanted to analyze how many firms were located in the prospective states. So, I performed that analysis. Then I decided that Nevada should be included for its proximity to S.F. and L.A.
   Let's think about it though, LA/SD and SF might as well be different states. How can I account for this? So, I went online and located a shareware program designed for bulk mailing centers. It allowed me to determine distance from one zip code to another... and allowed batch processing. So, I plugged in the zip codes of all 5200 firms (in 5 mouse clicks) and calculated the distance between each firm and each prospective city. The people here had never thought that possible and I won big points for that. I understood what they were asking and came up with a more accurate model than the one they proposed.

Business or Economics?

So you want to go into business.  You are certainly not alone, as nearly 275,000 students were awarded degrees in business in 2002 – more than twice as many as the second largest major (history and social science, which includes economics). More than one of every five bachelor degrees awarded that year was in business.  It is not really surprising that increasing numbers of students look to more vocational programs of study such as business as they, and their parents, look for a return on their increasingly costly investment in a college education and a way to compete in an increasingly competitive and “flattening” world.  But is it the best strategy for positioning yourself for a successful entry into a rewarding and successful career?  It could be for some, but it is not the only route – and it may not be the best for many of you.

How could it be that the best way to success in business is not an undergraduate degree?  It is very simple. In the hypercompetitive world into which you will be graduating it will be your passion and the skills you possess that will be the key determinants of your success, and there are many ways to find that passion and develop those skills. Unless you are in some specialized fields such as engineering, biology, or pharmacy, you will find that the degree is not the most important factor in your success.  A degree in economics is just one way to position yourself for a successful transition into that “real” world or graduate school, which is probably why the Wall Street Journal reported that it was the “top major at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Chicago; second at Brown, Yale, and the University of California at Berkeley; and third at Cornell and Dartmouth. [1] ” In that article the executive director of admissions to Yale’s School of Management wrote that the economics degree showed a student had “the intellectual fire in the belly to perform well in an MBA program”, while the director of admissions to Berkeley’s law school identified economics as one of the four or five top majors for admissions to the program. This is why many employers will include economics majors on the list of majors when they recruit business majors on campus, and if you want to see first-hand what you might be able to do with an economics degree, check out URI’s Career Services office and some online sites such as Monster.com where you will find a link to career advice for entry-level positions giving you access to a Career Converter that provides a list of potential careers. 

Another way of looking at the situation would be to do some reverse engineering by beginning with the skills recruiters are looking for in new college graduates and then matching them up with certain undergraduate degrees.  Below is a table containing two lists of skills that are representative of what you will find out there when you look for career advice. As you look at the lists there should be few surprises. Common to both of the lists are communications skills and an international perspective that shows up as globally minded or foreign language skills. It is just common sense that as the globalization process “flattens” the world there will be an increasing demand for those who can effectively communicate with others from around the world. There is also nothing in these lists suggesting that an undergraduate business degree is the best way to develop these skills and abilities. There are many ways to hone those critical thinking and teamwork skills while at the university, and visionary qualities, self-motivation, and leadership are unlikely to be related to one’s major. This was a point driven home in an article in the Yale Alumni Magazine where one of the trustees noted that “A liberal arts education teaches you how to think: how to analyze, how to read, how to write, how to develop a persuasive argument. These skills are used every day in business. [2] ”

What the Market is Looking For

A third feature of the list is that it looks very much like a list of skills that a student in economics would develop during a course of studies. Below is a list of skills that appeared on Virginia Tech’s Economics Department web page, and you can see the overlap between this and the lists of skills recruiters are looking for in college graduates. 

Skills Learned in Economics

• Financial
  • Maintaining accurate records
  • Tabulating figures
  • Manipulating numerical data
  • Developing budgets
  • Performing cost/benefit analyses
  • Creating and evaluating financial reports
• Research/Analysis
  • Designing projects
  • Generating/developing ideas
  • Organizing materials
  • Computing data
  • Analyzing results
  • Testing an idea/hypotheses
  • Using computers
  • Applying statistical methods
• Communication
  • Writing reports/articles
  • Summarizing
  • Writing proposals
  • Justifying a position
  • Reading and interpreting reports
  • Speaking persuasively
  • Explaining ideas/goals
• Problem Solving
  • Assessing needs
  • Defining problems

The good news is that there are some payoffs to the economics degree.  You can see that while the salaries of young workers with an Economics degree may not be up there with those with a Pharmacy or Engineering degree, they are certainly competitive with business majors.

Median Earnings With Bachelor’s Degree
(Age 25-34 in 1993) [3]

So what are you to do?  Here is a little advice for you as you plan out your course of studies.  Be purposeful in your choice of courses while you are here.  Think less about taking a standardized program of studies and more about getting a head start on that “vision” thing by beginning to craft out a program of studies that will position you well for graduation.  Think about what you want to be in your senior year as you begin your most important marketing job – marketing yourself.  Will you be in a better position if you have just taken the courses you were required to for a business degree or if you demonstrated some proficiency at using information and critical thinking skills in selecting a set of courses that make you very marketable?  It’s your call, but I think you can see how these are two very different, and viable, routes to the same place. 

To give you a concrete example of the choice, consider the situation facing the student interested in international business.  One option would be to enroll in the College of Business’s International Business program and follow through the courses listed for that concentration. Another would be to look at the world and think about positioning yourself for the future with a major in Economics. If you chose the BA route, you would need to take 11 courses in Economics for your major, which would give you 29 elective courses to choose “purposefully”.  When you take these courses you will need to continually ask yourself the question: how does this course prepare me for life after graduation?  If you are interested in international business, it would seem to make sense to work on gaining proficiency in a language of a country that will be important in the future.  As we head into the 21st century, one that many have already dubbed the Chinese century, it might make sense exploring Chinese.  If you decide on that route, you should also think about choosing your general education courses purposefully. If you are going to study Chinese you might want to think about Asian history or religion as a letters course, maybe an international Politics or the Politics of China, and even a study abroad semester in China. 

This is only one of the possibilities, and if you are interested in exploring the Economics option, you should check out the department web site where you will find information on the department and the three degrees offered.  You should also track down Art Mead who is the Department’s advisor and would be happy to talk with any of you about majoring or minoring in economics.