A day in the life of an MSc Finance & Economics student

Our MSc Finance & Economics student ambassador, Michael shares his typical day from start to finish.

Starting the day in Leamington Spa

My daily routine starts at around 8.00am, depending on whether I have an early morning lecture or not, so after having a shower and some breakfast I head to the Upper Parade bus stop in the heart of Leamington Spa high street where I wait for the U1 or U2 bus. Leamington Spa is a lovely town and is a very popular place for postgraduate students to live. Normally, my journey to campus takes approximately 50 minutes, depending on the traffic which can really vary depending on the time of the year.

Heading into WBS

Once arriving on campus I usually head straight to the campus grocery store, Rootes, where I like to buy a small bottle of orange juice every morning which I find helps me concentrate during early morning lectures. After this, I head to the WBS building where the majority of my lectures are located. Today is Thursday, so my first lecture of the day is based on Empirical Finance, which is one of my favourite modules. There are over 100 students in the lecture theatre as the module combines students from both MSc Finance & Economics and MSc Finance courses. During the lecture, the lecturer explains the application of time series analysis to financial data, particularly focusing on spurious regression in this session. He guides us through the theoretical concepts as well as providing practical examples to help apply our knowledge. I find this module particularly enjoyable as I covered time series analysis in quite a lot of detail during a different module last term.

From Empirical Finance to Macroeconomics

After this lecture, I have a one hour break before heading to my macroeconomics seminar. My one hour break gives me the chance to go over the problem set that I will be solving in the following class as I haven’t had chance to review the material beforehand. I find that it is always a good idea to attempt some problem-solving sets before attending my classes so that I can familiarise myself with the questions and identify areas I need to spend more time on when revising. My seminar classes generally consist of a small number of students, due to the fact that MSc Finance & Economics is a very selective course with only 26 students in the total cohort. I find that being part of a smaller cohort means that academics are able to provide a personalised teaching approach tailored to each student. In addition to this, it is much easier to ask questions when there aren’t 100 other students listening to you!

Finding time to socialise and relax

After my macroeconomics class it’s time for lunch so a couple of friends and I head down to the WBS café to grab a bite to eat, and it’s my lucky day as my favourite meal is on the menu – king fried prawns with chips! After lunch, I don’t have any more lectures or seminars to attend so I go to the postgraduate study space to review the slides from this morning’s lecture. I have found this to be the most effective way of revising when the content from the lecture is still fresh in my mind. After a couple of hours studying I go to handball training at the Sports and Wellness Hub on campus which I find is a great way to relax and unwind after my studies. Once training has finished I head to the local campus pub to have a few beers with my teammates before heading back home thinking about what to cook for my dinner.

Discover more about Michael’s course and our range of postgraduate courses