<p>I originally put down Econ as my prospective major/area of interest on my app, but I'm becoming more and more interested in the EPE major (that is, if I can make my parents get over their knee-jerk reaction of disapproval to the "politics" part of EPE). </p>
<p>From what I remember looking at the major webpage it's an honors major and 50% get in. Since you're competing with students who got into Yale, the 50% is a little deceptive, right? Any current students care to share your thoughts on EPE?</p>
<p>Eh, don’t worry about EPE yet. I think about 50% of the freshman class comes in thinking they want to do EPE, and ultimately, not very many apply, hence the big acceptance rate. It’s also not an “honors” major, just one with limited seminar space and thus a limited number of spaces for students. </p>
<p>In terms of choosing EPE over, say, economics, it only makes sense if your major field of interest really involves econ, poli sci AND philosophy. So if you wanted to, say, study micro-loans in Southeast Asia, it might make sense to do EPE over just econ. Otherwise, just choose one. </p>
<p>I’m a senior, and not an EPE major. However, I came into Yale thinking I was going to be one, and have several friends in the program. Ultimately I decided not to even apply for EPE, for the following reasons:
I love philosophy and like poli sci, but I don’t like econ very much. Unless you really enjoy all three subjects, don’t do it.<br>
The major is quite restrictive. You have way more required/limited classes than you do in any other humanities/social science major at Yale. I wanted to be able to take a broader range of classes than EPE would have allowed me to do.
Several of my friends who were EPE majors were dissatisfied with the program, largely for the aforementioned reasons.</p>
<p>So, don’t worry about EPE now. You can’t even apply til November of your sophomore year, so you’ll have nearly 3 semesters of Yale under your belt before it’s time to even think about applying. Start off taking econ classes, mix in some philosophy and poli sci, and if you love all three, go for it. If not, do something else. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Thanks for the really helpful response, mochamaven.</p>
<p>Some random EPE related questions that you brought to mind:
How does DS synergize with EPE? Is there any problem with overlap or anything like that? Right now, I’m thinking about either doing DS and then majoring in econ (more exploration), or exploring freshman year and then majoring in EPE.
Where do people end up career-wise after majoring in EPE?
How mathy is the econ. in EPE? (I’d prefer a really quantitative-based major)
Can you focus on one part more than the others? Can I devote my time to economics and politics and minimize the philosophy courses I have to take?</p>
<p>Also, kinda off-topic, but how many classes do people generally take before language proficiency: I’m really interested in starting Mandarin freshman year, but I fear that between DS/EPE, I may not have the extra classes available to devote to the language each semester, and you’re supposed to take language classes, right?</p>
<p>Woah. That’s a lot more questions that I thought I had. Anyways, thanks in advance mate.</p>
<p>I’ve been told that EPE is very DS heavy – that is, DS is generally a pretty good feeder for EPE. Of course, I can’t substantiate this rumor with any figures, so take it with a grain of salt. The programs are somewhat related in that they both attract very humanities-oriented, politically-minded people, but nothing about DS explicitly prepares you for EPE than other courses you might take if you didn’t do DS.</p>
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<p>How much math you do in econ really depends on which course you’re taking. Classes like intermediate micro/macro involve much more math than do their intro level counterparts. Many of the econ majors I know have taken econometrics, linear algebra, and perhaps differential equations (a fair number have taken even higher level math courses).</p>
<p>You’ll have slots in your schedule for courses outside of the EPE major, which you can fill with more econ and polisci courses. The major only requires that you take a certain number of courses in the different departments.</p>
<p>Although, as a philosophy major, I can’t help but pitch the philosophy department to you. It’s really worth exploring.</p>
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<p>DS is only 3 courses. You can take Mandarin along with it for 4.5 credits. EPE really doesn’t prevent you from taking language courses – you’ll have enough space for an intro language course and probably another course or two of your choosing. </p>
<p>That said, Mandarin is definitely one of the hardest languages here. Daily homework requires pretty strong memorization skills.</p>
<p>DS overlaps fine with EPE, plenty of people do both.</p>
<p>Career-wise…I suppose similar to people who major in any of the other humanities and social sciences at Yale. I can’t really discern any patterns in major –> career choice so far (except for science and engineering folks, who go into, uh, science and engineering more than anyone else). People in humanities and social sciences take all sorts of paths after Yale, including but not limited to: finance, law, nonprofit, politics, and PhD programs. You would think econ majors would mostly end up in finance, and EPE or poli sci majors in law, but you’d be wrong. I know philosophy, history and poli sci folks working for hedge funds and econ majors doing nonprofit work. Really not much of a correlation that I can see.</p>
<p>I don’t think the econ part of EPE is super-mathy, since you won’t be able to take as many higher-level econ classes as you would as a regular econ major, simply because you have to fulfill the ethics and politics parts. You can choose to take no more than the minimum required philosophy courses, but there are still several that are required, including Shelly Kagan’s Intro to Ethics, which is graded very rigorously. If you really want mathy econ, you might want to go for the Math & Econ major – no, it’s not a double major, it’s an actual program – instead. One of my good friends is doing it, and really loves it. </p>
<p>Intro languages generally take a lot of time, because they meet 5 days a week. It’s doable with DS, though, plenty of people manage.</p>
The EPE FAQ site claims that EPE majors are ready to do [pretty</a> much anything](<a href=“