Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further
Success!
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Or is it? It took three separate google searches just to center my header. I still have the rest of the website to code.
Following in my dad's footsteps, I chose to jump into computer science. After any mind-numbing computer science puzzle, the sense of accomplishment I feel is unparalleled, but the lack of usefulness of my task is undeniable. From Facebook to Google, computer science has greatly furthered mankind; however, the average computer science major is simply coding something that his company orders him. He is working without a real sense of how his work is useful. Where's the success in that?
With this belief, I walked into my first economics class my junior year. And immediately, Mr. Clement related economics to life. Given that a person would give up a hot date for $20 or receive an average grade on a quiz for $10, what is his best option for Thursday night? The opportunity cost of the date is greater so it is better for me to spend Thursday evening picking out a nice suit rather than studying. From then on, I knew economics was going to be a major part of my life.
Throughout the year, I learned that economics is F.U.N. The F stands for freedom. I can apply my economics knowledge to almost anything I want. I am not constrained to coding, but can use economics to understand people's decisions, to speculate stocks, or to simply manage money. I am free to concentrate my skillset however I wish.
The U stands for us. A key part of economics is understanding ourselves. Economics relies on the decisions that people generally make to make assumptions about the flow of economic activity. In fact, behavioral economics takes "know[ing] thyself" to a whole new level by systematically accounting for emotional factors in shaping people's lives.
The N stands for novel. Economists see "conventional wisdom" through their lenses and determine whether what we thought obvious is actually correct. For example, the seven members of Dyson's Business Opportunities in Leadership and Diversity (BOLD) Program who went to Haiti learned that the large clothing donations developed countries make to Port au Prince ravishes the native textiles industry. By trying to help, we are hurting Haitians. Who knew? These seven members learned and are now teaching us. I want to be a part of BOLD to learn these novel lessons and in the process help Haitians and others across the world.
Unlike a computer scientist trapped in a cubicle, these seven members of BOLD clearly understand how their work is useful. As an economist, I will too. Now, that is true success.
Mm.. the essay itself is very interesting. But its kind of risky, just imagine if your admission officer is a computer science major. I think he would denied many parts where you said computer science is not useful and only those "super" computer scientist got to do something useful. Besides that he may also argue that an "average" economics standard would just be crunching numbers in a cubicle to make a company to earn more money. I think it is more about a person's initiative to do something useful rather than the major. An computer science could code a user friendly program such as "Kickstarter" that raise fund for poor people that need money to start a business. Or even code a program that will raise the awareness of how the donation in Haiti is actually hurting the Haititian's business.
This is just my two cents. Don't be discourage and I may not even be right
