As promised, a (belated) reflection on the final two pre-core courses: economics and case methodology.
Pre-Core 3 – Economics
The pre-core economics course was a great introduction for people who have never taken an econ course before. We were introduced to a lot of the basic concepts of econ, including supply and demand curves, sunk costs, opportunity costs, and how we calculate them. A lot of my classmates struggled with the subjectivity behind opportunity costs in particular – I suppose when you are accustomed to engineering or IT, you get used to the idea of one right answer, but economics is full of problems where the answer is “it depends”.
We did get into the more numbers-based part of economics as the days progressed. Looking back now, the numbers stuff is essential to my understanding of the current course material.
Pre-Core 4 – Case Methodology
Of all the pre-core courses, I think this one was the most valuable. I never dealt with case studies in my undergrad, so the whole concept was very new to me. The best thing about this course was that it gave a framework and a process for looking at cases. Without that framework, it’s very easy to look at a case and see a jumble of unsolvable problems, or just jump to conclusions.
This course gave us the chance to practice on two full cases before jumping into the core, where there’s a case on the final day of orientation. One of the major skills we focused on was making observations without making judgements.
The basic steps of case studies are:
– understand the background of the case
– observe the problems/issues
– analyze the cause and effect
– brainstorm a lot of potential solutions
– consider the criteria you’ll use to make your decision
– make a recommendation
– describe how to implement it.
Without this class, my first case memo would certainly have been less … organized.
