NU Quizbowl Brings Economics Students Together
In April 2026, the Daily Northwestern wrote a feature on Northwestern's Quizbowl team and the academic and social connections made through the competition.
For two Economics students, BA graduate Ved Muthusamy '26 and Ph.D. graduate Christopher Sims '26, the competition helped them foster connection through economics and many other areas of interest!
Ved Muthusamy: "I can say that Chris has helped me a lot with course selection as he personally interacts with many of my professors. […] I have also advised younger students like our rising sophomore and star player Aditya Rajesh on economics course selection.
Economics also features in the overall Quizbowl question distribution, but only to a limited extent. This makes it hard to prepare economics for tournaments, and Chris and I often complain about the economics content in Quizbowl. I personally feel there's a disconnect between what I learn and what's tested in Quizbowl relative to other disciplines. I really enjoy economic history and took two electives in that field and I really enjoy discussing economic history topics, and papers I had to read in class with Chris."
Christopher Sims: "[Quizbowl] is a unique venue for graduate and undergraduate students to interact. This extends across majors, but of course it is particularly nice to meet some undergrads in your department to get a bit of a sense of their experiences with the professors, coursework, department events, etc. There are also some (albeit relatively few) questions about economics in QB, and these can lead to moments of triumph when the undergrad beats the Ph.D. student or a gentle chastisement when the undergrad doesn't know something the Ph.D. student thinks they should have learned in class.
Most of all, though, QB can end up making connections across disciplines more explicit. Ved and I both like history, for example, and at ACF Nationals at the University of Maryland on April 18-19 there was a world history question on the Indian princely states. The first (i.e. hardest) clue was about an economic history article by Lakshmi Iyer comparing princely state and company rule in the British Raj. We were then each able to use our interests in history and economics to answer the question, and discussed it afterwards at dinner.
All that being said, though, both of us answer most questions based on knowledge that has little to do with our academic studies. We both are knowledgeable about geography (although Ved moreso) and I am good at questions in classical music and Ved is good at religion. QB is fun in part because it taps into interests that may not be well reflected in your course of study."