Thanks for the reply! I don’t know just yet what kind of advocacy I’d be doing—I would hope to figure that out as I went along. Maybe that’s a point against PPES, but maybe even being an effective-altruism-minded public figure of any sort would do some good? The PPES degree is only a few years old so there’s no real data on where people end up, but similar degrees at York and Oxford list finance among a broad range of commonly chosen careers (http://www.ppe.ox.ac.uk/index.php/a-future-with-ppe) (https://www.york.ac.uk/pep/graduate-profiles/). I suppose this would make PPES the broader option, allowing me to change direction later on. Do you feel that this characteristic is more valuable than speeding up my entry into a potentially high-impact position?
Regarding the universities, all the students I’ve talked to in both seem to love their respective universities, but Trinity is ranked higher and is much better known internationally.
Oxford PPE → Banking is a very well trodden route.
I would definitely choose Trinity over the other. Trinity is respected; the other is a no-name. I expect you would find it easier getting into finance with PPES from Trinity than Finance from the other place.
It will be easier to get a job in almost any sector with a degree from Trinity rather than a degree from Galway (particularly outside Ireland), you will probably meet more interesting/driven people there, and you can try to make your PPES degree more quantitative if you want through particular choices (eg the econometrics option in third year economics or quantitative methods in fourth year economics), although it is certainly too early to be making specific choices about modules at this stage!
As others have said, it will also keep your options broader, which is valuable for all of us but particularly those of us who are still trying to work out what we are particularly good at.
Getting into finance, at least high-end finance, from a relatively unknown university is hard. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that you woud have to network very hard or have something else on your CV that will catch a recruiter’s attention. Given that, and without knowing that much detail about PPES, my starting guess is that it would actually be easier to break into banking from PPES at Trinity than from finance at a comparatively unknown university. Since the Trinity course seems better for almost any other option you might pursue, that gives it something like ‘full spectrum dominance’ in my mind.
Separate to that, it sounds like you have a fairly balanced skillset and no standout interests that you want to turn into a career. I think you should strongly prioritise keeping your options open, give your interests and abilities another few years to develop, and then hopefully you’ll have a better idea of what route you want to go down.
I prize being around the best people as pretty important. Seems like the finance degree is mostly better for finance so it might be interesting to watch some online finance courses to think about whether it’s something you want to commit to. It’d also be interesting to think about whether you get any good electives in the ppes.
Thanks for the reply! I don’t know just yet what kind of advocacy I’d be doing—I would hope to figure that out as I went along. Maybe that’s a point against PPES, but maybe even being an effective-altruism-minded public figure of any sort would do some good? The PPES degree is only a few years old so there’s no real data on where people end up, but similar degrees at York and Oxford list finance among a broad range of commonly chosen careers (http://www.ppe.ox.ac.uk/index.php/a-future-with-ppe) (https://www.york.ac.uk/pep/graduate-profiles/). I suppose this would make PPES the broader option, allowing me to change direction later on. Do you feel that this characteristic is more valuable than speeding up my entry into a potentially high-impact position?
Regarding the universities, all the students I’ve talked to in both seem to love their respective universities, but Trinity is ranked higher and is much better known internationally.
Oxford PPE → Banking is a very well trodden route.
I would definitely choose Trinity over the other. Trinity is respected; the other is a no-name. I expect you would find it easier getting into finance with PPES from Trinity than Finance from the other place.
Strongly urge Trinity.
It will be easier to get a job in almost any sector with a degree from Trinity rather than a degree from Galway (particularly outside Ireland), you will probably meet more interesting/driven people there, and you can try to make your PPES degree more quantitative if you want through particular choices (eg the econometrics option in third year economics or quantitative methods in fourth year economics), although it is certainly too early to be making specific choices about modules at this stage!
As others have said, it will also keep your options broader, which is valuable for all of us but particularly those of us who are still trying to work out what we are particularly good at.
Getting into finance, at least high-end finance, from a relatively unknown university is hard. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that you woud have to network very hard or have something else on your CV that will catch a recruiter’s attention. Given that, and without knowing that much detail about PPES, my starting guess is that it would actually be easier to break into banking from PPES at Trinity than from finance at a comparatively unknown university. Since the Trinity course seems better for almost any other option you might pursue, that gives it something like ‘full spectrum dominance’ in my mind.
Separate to that, it sounds like you have a fairly balanced skillset and no standout interests that you want to turn into a career. I think you should strongly prioritise keeping your options open, give your interests and abilities another few years to develop, and then hopefully you’ll have a better idea of what route you want to go down.
I prize being around the best people as pretty important. Seems like the finance degree is mostly better for finance so it might be interesting to watch some online finance courses to think about whether it’s something you want to commit to. It’d also be interesting to think about whether you get any good electives in the ppes.