Could you please introduce yourself ?
Hello, my name is Paula Gonzalez Alvarez, I am 19 years old and I come from Spain but I have also lived in Luxembourg and the United States. I am a second year student here at the bachelor majoring in Economics and Mathematics
Why did you choose the Bachelor of Science of Ecole Polytechnique ?
I chose the Bachelor of Science at Polytechnique because I knew that I liked math and I wanted to go into STEM but I felt that I didn’t know enough about all of the possible fields to make a choice. I love the structure of the program where we basically start with four majors (mathematics, physics, economics, and computer science) and then we drop the two majors that interest us the least, leaving mathematics, which has to stay.
Could you tell us how the second year is going ?
To be honest, I feel like it is flying by. It is both more complicated and easier than the first year in different ways. Of course, the academics have gotten harder, but at the same time I feel more adapted to the work level required and I feel like I have a more regular routine which helps me stay organized and up to date with my classes. It also helps that the classes become more interesting and so I have more motivation to study.
Do you have a favorite course?
I’d have to say that my favorite course is finance. I really like finance, because I am learning lots of new concepts about financial markets, institutions, financial theories and much more which are not only super interesting, but I also feel like they are very applicable in real-life and will be very helpful for me to understand in the future.
What would be a great memory of your second year in the Program that you would like
to share with future students?
It’s very hard to choose, but thinking back, one of the events that jump out from this year is the Bachelor-giving because all bachelor students and administration got together and dressed up for a big international dinner in the grand hall and bachelor students prepared some incredible performances for everyone.
What are your ambitions for the future?
In the future I would like to do a masters and possibly even a PhD, because my goal is to work in either environmental economics or developmental economics because it might sound cheesy, but I really do want to have a job where I play a role in trying to make the world better and I can see the impact I have.
Any piece of advice to future Bachelor students that you would like to share?
I really recommend any bachelor student to start strong and work hard from the beginning to adapt to the workload here. It’s a very intense program and it’s easy to get carried away with the integration weeks, but it really is important to start strong.