Advice: Should I take this class?

<p>So basically I'm planning on double majoring in Economics and Applied Physics at Cornell. To that end, the courses I'm enrolling in this Fall are:</p>

<p>MATH 1920: Multivariable Calculus
PHYS 1116: Honors Mechanics
AEP 1200: Intro to Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (The easiest class I'll be taking)
PE Beginning Swimming (Harder than AEP 1200. For me, anyways.)
First-Year Writing Seminar (If they offer one on Greek Mythology, I'll take that)</p>

<p>And the one my questions are about:
ECON 3210: Applied Econometrics</p>

<p>The course is going to be taught by Professor George Jakubson. I've heard some horror stories about the difficulty of the class and tests, how the lectures don't cover all the material you're tested on, etc. Could someone please shed some light on this for me? Is the course indeed as troublesome as they say? (I can't take any other ECON course because my schedule gets messed up. My day then either starts too early or stretches on until 8 o'clock. Neither of which I want.)</p>

<p>Thanks for any help or insights.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t take Econ 321. It’s just known as a hard course because it is purposefully designed to attract the ‘slackers’ within the Econ major. It’s not that bad, but it’s not geared towards a first-semester econ and physics double major.</p>

<p>You’re already enrolled for 16 credits. That’s more than enough for your first semester. Spend the additional free time getting involved in clubs/activities.</p>

<p>Not to directly contradict CR2k5, but you need a serious plan if you’re doing a dual degree across colleges. Like how you’re going to satisfy all the college requirements for both colleges, which is probably a lot more difficult than just completing the major requirements for both. Unless you have a lot of AP credit, you won’t have the luxury of taking only 4 classes a semester, and may possibly have to complete a semester or two with 6 classes (I just completed my second semester in a row with over 24 credits = 6 classes, since I’m a double major).</p>

<p>To clarify: do you want to be an Econ (CAS), Physics (CAS), double major?</p>

<p>Or an Econ (CAS), Applied Engineering Physics (ENG) dual degree?</p>

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<p>That’s a good point. I didn’t realize the OP was trying to dual degree and not double major.</p>

<p>A double major in CAS in physics/econ would be a lot easier.</p>

<p>Yep, dual degree across colleges. Enrolled in the College of Engineering, plan on doing CAS Econ. Is doing a dual degree very difficult?</p>

<p>Yes, yes it is.</p>

<p>You should just plan on majoring in engineering and taking courses in economics. You can probably take all of the required courses for an economics major no problem, the difficulty is in satisfying all of the additional distribution requirements that CAS has – they aren’t going to give you an A.B. degree without taking extensive coursework in the humanities/arts/history etc.</p>

<p>Employers just care if you have taken some courses in economics.</p>

<p>Chendrix, if you know about the process of applying for / preparing for a dual degree program, could you help me out? The way I thought of it was that I would simply take the major requirements plus any additional classes over and above my CoE courses. Am I grossly mistaken? Any insight from anyone, not just chendrix, would be awesome.</p>

<p>Thanks, CayugaRed. That’s extremely helpful. So laying aside the matter of the dual degree for the moment, would you still recommend I take ECON 3210 this fall?</p>

<p>Read this: [Courses</a> of Study 2009-2010: College of Arts and Sciences](<a href=“http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/AS.php]Courses”>http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/AS.php)
That summarizes the requirements for graduation from CAS. It’s a lot, especially since you also have to complete [Courses</a> of Study 2009-2010: College of Engineering](<a href=“http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/ENG.php]Courses”>http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/ENG.php)</p>

<p>The actual Economics requirements aren’t very hard to squeeze into an Engineering degree, but a full second degree requires a lot of planning, summers taking classes, and still even another semester.</p>

<p>Have you taken economics before? </p>

<p>Regardless, I would suggest starting with the Econ 3010-3020 sequence, and then moving on to possibly 3210</p>

<p>Took both APs last year and got 5s. That’s how I have the option of taking 3210, it needs the intro econ courses as prereqs, but I covered that with the APs.</p>

<p>You would still need both Intermediate Intros. Did you also get a 5 on Calc BC and are coming in to Math 1920?</p>

<p>I think you should wait before you take a statistics/econometrics course. You may have a stats requirement for AEP that will be rigorous, and you may only want to take the Econometrics portion of Econ. </p>

<p>Econ 3010/3020 (or for the full intermediate version 3130/3140) are appropriate for someone with a solid economics and math background.</p>

<p>If you’re super set on the idea of double majoring (generally not a good idea unless the two fields are closely related and somehow complement each other), take a look at ORIE stuff in the Engineering School. It may be a bit more applied than theoretical economics, but it’s another option.</p>

<p>i took econ 3210 this semester as an elective. oh. my. god. i hadn’t done math in like 2 years, and jumping right back into multivariable derivatives and integrals was NOT okay. jeeeeeeeeesus. dropped that class after i got my first prelim back, which was just painful.</p>

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<p>I also think you would be better off take Econ 320. You go into the theory behind econometrics more. It’s a pretty enjoyable class. There’s no need to take Econ 319 as you will have taken engineering statistics. Hell, I didn’t take 319 (I only took ILR stats and Math 221-22) and I still got an A in econometrics 320.</p>

<p>It’s technically a harder course than 321. But it’s a better course, if that makes sense.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the tips guys, it really helped. I won’t be taking the course this fall and will consider carefully if I want to dual degree or not at all. Either way it seems jumping straight into sophomore level econometrics is not a great idea.</p>

<p>And yes CayugaRed, that made perfect sense to me. :)</p>

<p>you could do the ORIE or just settle for a business minor :)</p>