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  • Faculty of Economic Sciences Holds Online Mathematics Camp for Incoming Students

Faculty of Economic Sciences Holds Online Mathematics Camp for Incoming Students

Faculty of Economic Sciences Holds Online Mathematics Camp for Incoming Students

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

In the last two weeks of summer, the HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences invites future bachelor’s and master’s students to prepare for their upcoming studies. More than 200 international and Russian applicants have signed up for online classes in mathematics, probability theory, and statistics. The classes also allow first-year students to advance their academic achievements, build a foundation for getting involved in the faculty’s research and project activity, and foster cooperation between Russian and foreign students.

Sergey E. Pekarski

Economics is a relatively young science where we can see ideas and models develop right in front of us—even while we’re still at university. Mathematics is integral to modern economic theory. Certain fields of economics, such as game theory and mechanism design, have developed in tandem with applied mathematics, and entire industries have sprung up at the intersection of economics and maths. Data opens up possibilities that were unimaginable fifty years ago.

We endeavour to provide our students with economic intuition and a mathematical toolset sufficient not only for understanding models, but for independent work, academia, applied fields and business. The students who apply to our courses are very capable, but the quality of their mathematical education differs. Events like this one are aimed at levelling the playing field of knowledge and creating more comfortable learning conditions in the faculty’s programmes.

Participants of the boot camp are also invited to three expert talks from 2022 graduates of the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Their theses were highly rated by the committee and feature interesting and complex theoretical models and the application of cutting-edge data-analysis methods:

  • Macroeconomic forecasting using news data. Speaker: Dmitry Mikhailov
  • Is working while studying worth it? How students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences make this difficult choice. Speaker: Anastasia Altunina.
  • A study into the relationship between of women’s reproductive behaviour and their position in the labour market. Speaker: Valeria Bugaenko.

Elena Vakulenko

The mathematics camp is a great way to prepare for your master’s studies at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, as well as meet your future coursemates, teachers and graduates of the faculty. This year is the first time we’ve run such a course for future master’s students, but as the results of the spring session show, the fact that it’s the first time doesn’t affect the quality. The mathematics camp is held online and is completely free for anyone interested. I hope that we will continue and build upon this successful experience.

One contributor to the mathematics boot camp for bachelor’s applicants said: ‘For many, the hardest thing is calculus, even though most students achieve very high scores in mathematics. Calculus at the Faculty of Economic Sciences is taught at a much higher level than in schools. Many students have difficulty preparing for seminars simply because they lack the required knowledge. And even those who pass this subject with flying colours in both first-year semesters think that it would be much easier if they were given introductory material before the start of the calculus course that structures and summarises all the necessary knowledge and helps them prepare for future tasks.’

A participant of the spring session for master’s applicants said: ‘A huge thank you to HSE University for running events like this, which help students to build a foundation for a new specialisation. This not only improves the overall level of knowledge and skills, but also facilitates social mobility by providing opportunities to immerse oneself in a new and interesting specialisation. I am extremely happy that HSE University holds these boot camps. I liked that everything was explained in simple language, the lecture was conveniently split up into sub-points, and that those conducting the seminars were supremely patient.’

Applications for the following master’s programmes remain open:

Financial Engineering (applications accepted until August 25 inclusive)

Master of Business Analytics (100% online) (applications accepted until September 20 inclusive)