<p>Hello, I'm an admitted student who wants to major in economics and eventually study in the graduate program. However, I recently read an interview with Milton Friedman, in which he said something to the effect of "Economics graduate students will serve themselves better if they major in other social sciences in college."
Do you think that's true for U of Chicago? Is it possible (or better) to major in another social science here (I think Friedman mentioned History and Sociology), then get into the Economics graduate program of a top school?
And just as a sidenote..... Conversely, is it possible to major in Economics in Chicago and then study in a Ph.D program of another social sciences?
Thank you very much!</p>
<p>If academia is your calling, don’t forget Math, a lot of Math! UChicago offers a BS degree in Math with specialization in Economics.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s true at Chicago, though U of C seems to be somewhat more open to interdisciplinary work in a number of fields.</p>
<p>I think an econ major could go into a grad political science program pretty easily, possibly into a grad program in economic history (perhaps at a British uni, where it seems to be a more common field), and, of course, into professional schools of IR and public policy. </p>
<p>In the other direction (from another social science major) into a grad econ program, it might be possible with a strong quantitative background and at least intermediate econ theory.</p>
<p>That’s a very Chicagoish position – the lines between the departments can get a little blurry. Certainly with enough math and a little background, it would be relatively easy to go from sociology, psychology, or political science into economics, and even easier to go the other direction.</p>
<p>The other advantage to majoring in something other than economics as an undergraduate is that the economics major is extremely crowded. At Chicago, almost 20% of the students have an economics major – about 250 per class. That’s a lot of competition for faculty time and attention. Closely related fields like sociology, psychology, anthropology, public policy have 20-40 majors per class; statistics (which would be a bang-up major for a future economist) has 2-3. It’s a lot easier for students in those departments to develop real relationships with senior faculty. And future economists may be well-served by meaningful exposure to more empirical fields.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies!
And if this doesn’t make the topic of the thread a bit messy, answers concerning the crowdedness of Econ major in U of Chicago are also needed. Is it really hard for an academically-minded ungergraduate to make professors look at you twice? (I mean, not all those 250 students mean to become economists…right?) Is there something (research assistantships, expressed interests…) that distinguishes students who wish to pursue the academic path and those who don’t?
Or, are there simply too many people who are like me (wanting to become an economist/X hybrid) in U of Chicago…?</p>
<p>and don’t forget philosophy as a major with math, stat or econ minor!</p>
<p>“Is there something . . . that distinguishes students who wish to pursue the academic path and those who don’t?”</p>
<p>Sure. Many of the former are majoring in “mathematics with a specialization in economics,” an option in the Math Department that is recommended to students who intend to get a PhD in economics. That’s 30-40 more students per class who don’t even show up in the econ major numbers!</p>