As we have learned thus far in economics, every decision has an opportunity cost. Every decision I make, I am faced with trade-offs, marginal utility, and the value of my future investments. Before I can make an educated decision, I must take all of these factors into account. Currently, I am faced with the choice of picking an elective to take along with three major classes this upcoming semester. After looking thoroughly through the course catalog, I have narrowed it down to three potential electives to add to my schedule. This is my last semester, so I am only able to choose one course, knowing that I will not be able to take the others in the future. I have to make an economic trade-off, by choosing one of them and eliminating the possibility of the other two. The three courses I have narrowed it down to are The Philosophy of Ethics, Introduction to Psychology, and Foundations in Computer Science.
I am very interested in the study of ethics. They are very subjective in nature, and I would love to understand better how people come to make these decisions. This class does not have homework and has been described by friends as an “easy A”. Many of my friends have noted that it is not challenging and they rarely were required to pay attention in class. According to the syllabus, it meets for three hours a week in a large lecture hall on campus. There is one midterm and one final, both of which are multiple choice.
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I am also interested in taking a psychology class before I graduate. Being in a field that deals with other people constantly, having a better understanding of people would be beneficial. As well as having career value, I have a personal interest in the subject. I find the mind to be very complicated and interesting. My friends that have taken this class have said that they learned a lot and were very interested in what they were learning. However, this class has multiple papers due over the course of the semester and involves a lot of time spent outside of class studying and writing these papers. There is no midterm, but there is a cumulative final paper and exam.
The third course I am considering taking is a computer science class. I have dabbled in HTML over the years, writing short codes for my blog. I am interested in being able to tune my skills in simple coding. My friends that have taken this course have described it as difficult, but rewarding. There is one midterm and a final that is non-cumulative. There is no outside work to be done, but I would be required to attend a computer lab session once a week for 2 hours, in addition to the 3 hours a week of instruction time.
When making my decision in which course to take, I first have to take into account the amount of work required of me. My three major classes will be taking up a lot of my time and will require a lot of studying. These courses come first on my list of priorities, and I do not want to have to stress myself out about the amount of work I have left to do. The economic principle of scarcity comes into play here. I only have a certain amount of hours in the day I can allocate to studying, sleeping, and socializing. I value my sleeping time very highly, and need to fit in a few hours of socialization a day in order to keep myself revitalized and on track. This leaves a limited number of hours for me to spend studying. I need to use this time to focus on my major classes, which leads me to lean against taking the psychology class. I am not sure I will have enough resources to efficiently complete all of the assignments asked of me.
The next criteria I am taking into account is how profitable each of these courses will be to me. I am making an investment of time and money into a course, so I want to be sure that I made a good investment and profit from my choice. The ethics course and the psychology class alike will allow me to have a better understanding of how people make decisions in my field. The psychology class will also help me improve in making interpersonal connections with people, which is an invaluable skill in any field. The computer science on the other hand, will not be as useful in my daily life, but will act as a resume-booster and make me a more attractive candidate for many positions I apply for.
In order to more fully understand how profitable these courses will be for me, I have to use the economic principle of thinking on the margin. I need to assess my current skills and see which ones will be most benefitted by my education. I already consider myself to have very good interpersonal and communication skills. The psychology class will boost these skills a relatively small amount. My understanding of how people make ethical decisions is pretty much non-existent, so taking the ethics class will give me an altogether new skill. However, considering my friends have described it as an easy A as well as not requiring much effort, I’m not confident in how strong of a skill it will be. I know that I get out what I put into something, and if I put little effort in, then I will not get much in return. My resume on the other hand, could use some help. I have very little on it at this point in time: a part-time job and some volunteer hours. It could use any boost it can get. This computer science class will marginally add quite a bit to my resume, giving me profitable skills that can help me look more attractive to recruiters.
After examining each course’s attributes, I have decided that I will get the most utility out of taking Foundations of Computer Science. It requires a maximum of five hours of work a week, which will not interfere with my study schedule for my major classes. It may not be as fun as the other two options, but for the price I am paying I will get the most benefit from it. My investment will grow, giving me invaluable skills for the future. Aside from giving me professional skills, I will also be able to use this course to help me improve the layout of my personal blog. Using the economic concepts of investment, marginal utility, trade-offs, and scarcity, computer science has proven to be the best choice for me to take during my last semester of college.
