Why I Majored in Economics

David Arias 鈥25

Growing up in a Colombian immigrant household, my parents instilled in me a deep appreciation for the transformative power of education. This mindset was pivotal when I left home to attend boarding school at Choate Rosemary Hall, where I first encountered economics and developed a passion for understanding how it intersects with decision-making and human behavior. Joining the finance and investment club at Choate sparked my interest in exploring market trends and their broader impacts on society, laying the foundation for my academic pursuits at Pomona.

I chose to major in economics because it provides a powerful lens for understanding both individual decision-making and macroeconomic forces. Macroeconomic Theory with Professor Kuehlwein was especially transformative鈥攈is clarity and enthusiasm for the subject matter helped me grasp the drivers of economic growth, inflation, and monetary policy, prompting a deeper curiosity about the financial systems shaping both the American and global economies. In Corporate Finance with Professor Zemel, we learned about financial decision-making processes within firms, optimizing capital structures, and valuation methodologies, which honed my analytical skills and ability to assess a company's financial health. Economics of Latin America with Professor Cordova introduced me to the region's unique economic challenges and opportunities throughout history while enabling me to apply empirical methods and economic principles in varied geopolitical contexts. Every Pomona professor has brought economics to life in ways that challenged and inspired me, fostering a love for problem-solving that has prepared me well for the fast-paced world of investment banking.

My passion for investment banking stems from the field鈥檚 steep learning curve and the opportunity to acquire valuable technical skills at an accelerated rate. Through my experience in economics, I have developed the ability to analyze multifaceted problems, and I see investment banking as a way to deepen this skill set, particularly in M&A and strategic advisory. The opportunity to work on dynamic financial transactions with a tangible impact on the global economy, while becoming an expert in various industries, aligns with my drive to continually learn.

I recently interned in investment banking, focusing on the Power, Utilities, and Renewable Energy sectors. This hands-on experience allowed me to connect my economic framework to real-world financial models and transactions. Working on valuation models and pitchbooks for prospective deals expanded my understanding of how macroeconomic factors, such as interest rates and policy changes, influence the energy and power sector. After graduation, I will be joining the investment banking industry full-time, where I look forward to contributing to revolutionary advancements in the renewable energy space.

Kevin Wu 鈥23

There鈥檚 an old story that goes something like this: A physicist, a chemist, and an economist are stranded on a desert island, and they鈥檙e famished. Then a can of soup washes ashore. Chicken noodle soup let鈥檚 say.

But, famished as they are, our three professionals have no way to open the can. So, they put their brains to the problem. The physicist says, 鈥淲e could drop it from the top of that tree over there until it breaks open.鈥 The chemist says, 鈥淲e could build a fire and sit the can in the flames until it bursts open.鈥 The two squabble a bit, until the economist says 鈥淣o, no, no. Come on, guys, you鈥檇 lose most of the soup. Let's do this. First, assume we have a can opener...鈥

Basically, I like to tell people I chose to major in economics so that I could assume and model my way out of any problem. Joking aside, economics is the intersection of math, psychology and decision making that can describe a wide array of experiences and phenomena that we hardly notice in our daily comings and goings鈥攑henomena that are nonetheless incredibly revealing and insightful. It was both the wide breath and media coverage of the subject that initially drew me in, in addition to the fact that my high school economics teachers were really cool. Thanks Mr. Geers, et al.

Economics not only offers the opportunity to play with math, numbers and models, but it also enables us to better understand and recognize embedded assumptions in stories and models that drive how people think and interact. It marries stories and reality to models and numbers that we can digest and understand to get a better picture of what the heck is going on in the world around us.

As with any Pomona major, my most memorable experiences have been speaking with alumni, students and professors or working with them to get a better grasp of a specific problem, subject, or career path. There is a lot of content to cover in economics and some topics may be both mathematically and intuitively challenging, but when you sit down on zoom, and have an entire whiteboard filled with abstracts of Ash Ketchum, bizarre scribbles, and half-completed graphs鈥攁mong many other things鈥攁nd you鈥檝e spent time with others really digesting a tough problem or discussing current events and plans for the future...that鈥檚 when you say to yourself: this is awesome.

For future students, all I have to say is try it out! Economics is so broad that you could find a niche in any of its verticals. What you learn along the way are the problem-solving mechanisms that will carry over to any occupation or club or obstacle you experience in the future, and faculty are really willing to sit down and help.

My Econstats companion and I last semester wrote a topic on the relationship between COVID-19 cases and the impact on the restaurant industry for different geographical relationships in the U.S. We were given the tools and the freedom to explore a variety of topics we were interested in and turned it into something we could pin to the refrigerator at the end of the year--which was really cool. It was like: Hey mom! I鈥檓 not just sitting around eating shrimp crackers during college. I鈥檓 doing something with my life.

One thing I鈥檓 really excited about鈥攂ut kind of slow to complete鈥攊s an economic analysis of South Park (a TV show I鈥檓 into), SouthParkonomics if you will. It鈥檚 fun just taking some of the content learned in class and trying to apply in some quirky places to see how things hold up/what they look like. Taking theory to application, so they say. There鈥檚 a lot of that type of stuff at Pomona (not only in the econ department) where people are taking what they like to do and put it into something tangible. I didn鈥檛 really get it when I first got to campus, but it鈥檚 kind of contagious, so now I kind of do.      

If you ever have any questions, always feel free to reach out, you will find that more than often people will have a lot to give, even to complete strangers. Reach out to others in your classes and form a team to bounce ideas off and work with, building that team will be critical to your success. As with anything though, it takes time, so even if things aren鈥檛 going well鈥攊f you can even take one inch forward or find somebody to talk to鈥攜ou鈥檝e really gone a mile in accomplishing things. Fight On!