Natalie: Seeing double

In hindsight, studying a double degree is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Not only do I get to spend another year as a university student (no sarcasm here, being a uni student is actually the greatest – more on that in my next post) but I also get to build up knowledge and skills in two totally different disciplines, which means that I get to see the world from two totally different perspectives.

Under my Commerce degree, I major in Econometrics and Business Statistics. If you’ve never heard of that before, rest assured, neither had I until my first semester when I took the core statistics unit and was inspired to divert from my original plan to study Marketing. That’s one of the brilliant things about the course structure of the Bachelor of Commerce - the first-year core units give you a foundation in an array of majors (because after all, ‘Commerce’ actually encompasses so much). Doing the core units might confirm your intention to pursue a certain major or help you find the right one if you are a little more undecided.

I actually really like telling people I major in Econometrics when they ask, it is such a fun word to say and makes me sound like a genius! So what actually is it? Of course, you can look it up in a textbook or on Wikipedia if you’re after more official definitions, but to basically summarise, econometrics explores the theories and applications of modelling data. Modelling and data for what? Basically everything!

There are econometrics units to do with finance, economics and marketing, so it is especially perfect if you have the option of a double major. I personally took a few units run by both the Marketing and Econometrics departments, so I did actually get the chance to study a bit of marketing. Through my major I gained quantitative skills and have had practice with some statistical software, which I anticipate will be extremely useful, with data playing an increasing role in business and in our everyday lives. Commerce and econometrics have helped me gain an appreciation for business. Business is everything and everywhere in the world, and econometrics has allowed me to see the value of making sense of this world through numbers and models.

Under my Arts degree, I major in Communications and minor in Human Rights, but I have also taken units in Film and Television Studies, International Relations and History. I have so much love for this side of my degree as I have had the opportunity to peek behind the curtain at all these fascinating and diverse disciplines. I have also become excellent at research and essay writing, which I hope will serve me well in my career. Studying Arts has encouraged me to constantly reconsider and re-evaluate the way I see the world, all the big issues that face it and all the little things that make up it.

At certain points in my degree I have questioned the congruity of all my units, they seem random and irrelevant to each other but when I take a step back it occurs to me that it is indeed advantageous, not to mention fun, to have this much variety in my studies. It is highly unlikely that anyone else has studied the exact same combination of units that I have, and so I have unwittingly designed a unique course path and a unique lens to see things. Isn’t that spectacular?