Master’s Student Elina Starkova: “Here in ICEF People Aren’t Afraid to Challenge Themselves and Move Towards Their Goals”
Elina, it’s nice to know you decided to go back to HSE for your master’s degree. But still, what drove such a cardinal decision to re-orient from engineering to economics and finance? Why ICEF?
I started to take interest in economics as a scientific field while in school. But the majors I was deciding between were two—engineering and social sciences. In the end, after graduating Lyceum No.1—a school with advanced courses in physics and math in my home town Astrakhan in 2020—I chose engineering and was admitted to HSE MIEM.
In the meantime, my interest in economics didn’t fade, leading me to minor in Applied Economics in my second year in MIEM and eventually reorient to economics as where I wanted to be professionally. While doing my minor I learned about ICEF and the scope of theoretical training that it offered. I’ve set myself the goal and here I am.
What are your impressions of the first few months here? ICEF must be something else I guess, compared to your experience at HSE MIEM.
As I expected, my first month here got me totally concentrated on grounding the mathematical concepts required for the study of all further economics courses. And despite my background in engineering and mathematics, I must say some topics keep me coming back to them, each time from a new angle, which is good for me, of course.
How is instruction in English going for you? Are you good with mathematical and financial terms?
Instruction in English is what I see as another special benefit for me in this programme. Every challenge we face leads us to a new achievement. While earlier I used English as my second language, now it seems a natural addition to my native one. To put it another, more abstract yet beautiful, way, in my case the conversion of a discrete function to a continuous one has been safely completed, I guess.
What do you like about the curriculum? Are you doing any extra courses?
I like everything about the curriculum from topics to delivery. I see all difficulties arising along the way as a battery that stores and delivers that charge required for solution, not as obstacles.
My goal is to make my economic thinking as profound as possible by gaining solid grounding in mathematics for economists. To this end, I embarked on extra courses, one being advanced statistics.
I would like to note specially the excellent aptitude and dedication of the ICEF teachers to imparting knowledge to their students. All teachers here are easy to approach and willing to help with whatever issue students may have.
I think I’m lucky that I’m a part of ICEF and the HSE, I mean the people around me. Here in ICEF people aren’t afraid to challenge themselves and move towards their goals, and as someone who shares this thinking I find it easy to go with this flow.
How easy was it for you to make friends with classmates?
We got along well from our first days here. Lectures, seminars, studying together in coworking spaces and the library helps us get to know each other better, we are friends. Whenever anyone of us needs help, whether with studies or outside of classroom, all others will do their best to help. I am glad to have these people in my life and I hope our friendship will grow stronger.
What is a motto or saying that you live by?
I don’t have one. But I agree with the phrase: sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward. One thing to keep in mind is that we all are humans and have, by the very order of things, our limitations. It is by applying a creative, constructive effort that we can get stronger.
What helps you relieve study stress?
Playing the piano. I graduated music school. There’s a nice, spacious lounge with a piano the dormitory I can play. This is my way of getting away from reality, even if for an ephemeral epsilon, while staying connected.