<p>Ok so here is alittle background. Basically all throughout higschool I have been wanting to be an engineer and haven't really thought about anything else. Well now I am starting to wonder. I am really interested in maybe double majoring in Economics and applied mathematics. Would this be a good combination? Should I just major in one or the other? What schools in the midwest region would be good? I live in kansas and really dont want to got to either one of the coasts. I have a 3.3 because I slacked off freshman and sophomore year. I had a 4.0 all last year and this year I am taking 3 AP classes. I go to a highly competitive public highschool and a 3.3 is just barely in the top 50% which kinda hurts. I scored a 28 on the ACT. Just trying to get some feedback and some on the college process.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Nathan</p>
<p>if you're interested in engineering at a public college then you probably should apply as an engineer since the programs are usually in high demand and it can be almost impossible to change into engineering from other majors once enrolled. However you face a problem with this; you might be rejected as an engineer even if you could have been admitted as some other major. </p>
<p>Econ itself is just a liberal arts degree. Its pretty much the same as majoring in poli-sci or history or something like that. If the schools you are looking at have accounting or other more specific training thats different, but the vanilla econ degree won't put you right into a job. To get a good job with a liberal-arts degree the biggest key is getting internships while in college.</p>
<p>Applied math will help you stand out from the crowd since you'll have technical skills in analysis and you can parlay this into jobs in all kinds of areas. Reaches would be things like management consulting or investment banking, but these are incredibly competitive jobs to get. But lots of businesses are looking for hires who aren't afraid of math; you could work in sales forecasting, insurance, manufacturing, literally dozens of areas. Again, the key to a good job with a degree in this area is internships.</p>
<p>I'd recommend against a double major. How about a major and a minor? The reason I say this is college is more than just vocational prep; its the last chance you'll have to explore the world of learning, take classes from great profs just for the adventure of it, and so on. A double-major will likely have so many required classes that you'll have little room left for exploration and fun. You get to work the next 40+ years of your life, but this is the only shot you'll get at college. Do you want to spend all of it just focusing on work?</p>