Thanks for the reply! I don't know just yet what kind of advocacy I'd be doing - I would hope to figure that out as I went along. Maybe that's a point against PPES, but maybe even being an effective-altruism-minded public figure of any sort would do some good? The PPES degree is only a few years old so there's no real data on where people end up, but similar degrees at York and Oxford list finance among a broad range of commonly chosen careers (http://www.ppe.ox.ac.uk/index.php/a-future-with-ppe) (https://www.york.ac.uk/pep/graduate-profiles/). I suppose this would make PPES the broader option, allowing me to change direction later on. Do you feel that this characteristic is more valuable than speeding up my entry into a potentially high-impact position?

Regarding the universities, all the students I've talked to in both seem to love their respective universities, but Trinity is ranked higher and is much better known internationally.

I wonder if anyone here can help me with my university course choice? I'm between two minds trying to choose an undergraduate degree - I think I'm going to pick either a finance course, with an aim towards earning to give, or a more humanities-focused course - philosophy, politics, economics and sociology. The latter is at a more prestigious university, and is apparently a fairly well respected degree among employers, but doesn't show the same clear route to effective altruism that finance does, though I would imagine it is reasonably strong in terms of advocacy potential, especially if I pursue politics or journalism. It's also a broader course and lets me keep my options open until I figure out what I want to do. I'd describe my abilities as fairly well-rounded - I would say I'd perform reasonably well in finance if I could sustain interest, as I do like maths and do well at it. Can anybody offer any input? I'll include the links to the courses below.

http://www.nuigalway.ie/science/undergraduate-courses/financial-mathematics-and-economics.html https://www.tcd.ie/courses/ppes/