Four members of the Choate Economics Competition Team participated in the National Economics Challenge in New York from May 21 to May 23 and earned third place.
Ryan Dant ’16, Cecilia Lin ’16, Dominque Williams ’16, and Albert Zhang ’16 competed in the Adam Smith division of the competition, which is geared towards students taking AP level coursework. The competition has three parts: a multiple choice test, a team presentation, and a quiz bowl.
Mr. Ted Hartsoe, adviser to the Economics Competition Team, commented, “I think they demonstrated good ability to able to make it this far, because for the last two years, Choate hasn’t—we’ve only finished sixth place, when we need to be in top four to go to New York. Taking the next step to qualify into finals is very great.” However, Choate has also become a finalist 14 out of the last 16 years.
Dant agreed. He said, “It is definitely an honor and we are all excited. Being finalists is what Choate has been historically able to do and it is definitely good to make it again.”
Lin remarked, “It was a really close competition, and all the teams there were clearly really well prepared and well qualified.”
The team discovered that they had advanced to the national level of the competition on April 15 and immediately began preparing by meeting during weekends.
Dant had expressed concerned over the team’s level of preparation prior to the competition. “Two of our members are in Capstone and others are all in sports, so it is difficult to focus on preparing for the competition.”
However, the team performed very well. After the competition, Lin said, “Overall, we did really well at the competition.”
Mr. Hartsoe believes there is a certain criteria students should fulfill in order to be successful in the competition. “Beyond taking classes, you have to be interested, keep up with current events, and know more about financial markets,” said Mr. Hartsoe.
Dant added, “You should definitely know basic economic concepts. You also have to know well about what’s going around the world and global economy and have good understandings of how these dynamics work. You can read few articles about economics and financial markets a week to keep up with the current events. If you follow these steps, you will be more than enough for preparing for the competition.”
Before attending to the National Economics Challenge, the Choate Economics Competition Team enrolled in the Harvard Economics Competition. This event is hosted by a Harvard alumnus that had majored Economics and many different schools participate in this event. The Choate team was a semi-finalist at this competition.
Lin reflected on her time as a member of the Choate economics team. “I think that as a team, we all agreed that we gave it all we had,” she concluded.
