Hello,

I’m going into third year honours economics and I applied for an internal transfer into commerce II this year and was accepted. The downside is that I have to repeat level two if I accept the offer because not all my credits will be transferred and I will have to do the mandatory level two commerce courses. Do you guys think it’s worth the extra year and tuition to transfer into commerce or should I just stick with what I have so far and continue with economics? How are the job prospects with both degrees?

Thank you

Originally Posted by tommy8598

Hello,

I’m going into third year honours economics and I applied for an internal transfer into commerce II this year and was accepted. The downside is that I have to repeat level two if I accept the offer because not all my credits will be transferred and I will have to do the mandatory level two commerce courses. Do you guys think it’s worth the extra year and tuition to transfer into commerce or should I just stick with what I have so far and continue with economics? How are the job prospects with both degrees?

Thank you

I advise you to transfer, a B.Comm degree will definitely be more marketable in the job force. Beyond that, you can take specific courses for certain designations like CPA accounting. Personally I think a B.Comm is > BA any day.

I would recommend transferring. I transferred from Honors Econ to Commerce last year

ehhhh it really depends on how you apply the skills you learn. Econ is surprisingly tough in the later years. An econ degree will prove fruitful should you take courses such as econometrics, monetary, etc.

The other side of the argument is that you can just minor in econ, do well, and do a master of arts economics.

Depends. How well do you like econ currently? Second year is a lot of theory, and things do get a bit more fun (but yes, more mathematical and complicated) from here on out. I loved my third and fourth year classes much more, and there are some fantastic profs to work with. It's definitely not for everyone though and if you hate it now, you probably won't like it much more next year.

Economics often (but not always) ranks higher than business administration in terms of high-earning degrees, and a recent poll of CEOs selected econ as the second most preferable degree (after engineering) so it's certainly not a useless degree and among the most practical of the liberal arts.

What kind of jobs are you looking for? A BA in econ alone won't offer you the same opportunities as a commerce degree, but many job postings I see want applicants with a commerce OR economics degree (banks for example), while others specifically want somebody with a quantitative degree like econ (analyst positions). Most of the jobs I see that are specific to commerce grads are accounting or finance related. I think overall, you'll probably have an easier time finding work with a commerce degree, but I don't think the discrepancy will be major.

Generally if you want to do something specific to economics, however, you'll need a masters. That said, IMO, an MA in econ would be preferable to an MBA (simply because the latter are a dime a dozen these days) and would open up opportunities for both government and private sector jobs. You should only consider a masters if your math skills are strong and your grades are solid (which I assume they are, since you got approved for the internal transfer).

Good luck with whatever you choose!