George, a talented economist sees his future in economics or finance

George joined Sedbergh in Year 9 and has always loved economics. He is studying Economics, Maths and Psychology at A level with a view to applying to university to complete a degree in economics. He did his EPQ on the topic of the four-day working week and so explored more deeply an interesting current hot-topic in the economics discipline.

WHAT A LEVELS ARE YOU STUDYING?

I’m studying Economics, Maths and Psychology. Economics and psychology are my favourite subjects; economics because I like the business side and the maths, and psychology because looking at people’s behaviour is interesting to me. There’s an area called behavioural economics which is a crossover of psychology and economics that I really enjoyed learning.

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM FOR UNIVERSITY?

One of the university courses that I’m looking at is a joint honours of psychology and economics at Edinburgh University – they can go hand-in-hand. I’m also looking at economics and finance courses at Durham University, Leeds University and University of Manchester – I’m possibly interested in St Andrews but I’ve heard it’s really hard to get into so I might not apply. I’m looking at universities that are fairly local to the north of England so that I can stay close to my family. Although when preparing my shortlist I’ve also considered the ratio of seminars to lectures in the way the course is taught; I prefer more seminars because I tend to ask a lot of questions as we go along, but lectures are more common.

IS ECONOMICS SOMETHING YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN?

Yes, my Dad was in the finance industry – he worked for an insurance company – so, I’ve always paid attention to it and read the news. It’s difficult to say what my dream job would be though; possibly a financial advisor, or maybe an accountant or I might even go into banking.

HOW IS SEDBERGH HELPING YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR AMBITION?

I’ve had a lot of guidance on UCAS and we went to a university convention where around a hundred universities exhibited. We can also take two days off each term to look at university open days; I’m going to see Durham, Leeds and Manchester.

ARE YOU PURSUING ANY EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS?

I’ve been to a few School of Athens sessions and loved them all, but I tend to work late to keep on-top of things – half an hour after prep ends – and so I don’t get a chance to attend all of them. I’ve watched quite a few TED Talks because I think they’re really interesting.

I do volunteering. On Thursday’s together with a friend I volunteer at a local food bank. That’s definitely something that Sedbergh has taught me the importance of; a big part of Sedbergh is giving back to the community. I think giving back to people is one of the best feelings you can get and I’ve definitely got a lot of satisfaction from helping people out.

I am going to try to get an internship for work experience in finance over summer because I know a lot of courses like that [work experience].

WHAT DO YOU DO TO KEEP YOURSELF CALM AND RELAXED DURING EXAM TIME?

I find sports is very important; its an important ‘escape’ and way to clear your mind. Planning out when I’m going to revise helps me too because I know that if I’m not revising it’s OK because I’ve scheduled it. I also make the most out of my free time by spending it with my friends.

WHICH OF SEDBERGH’S HARK VALUES DO YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?

Kindness – to me kindness means being the best version of yourself and treating everyone well because if everyone was kind to each other the world would be a much better place. I think its a very important value because even such little things like looking at someone in the street and saying ‘hi’ can cheer someone up a lot.