I am currently attending UC Berkeley under the College of Letters and Science. I’ve thought about double majoring in Media Studies and Economics. I am interested in pursuing a career in journalism, media, PR, or marketing.
I was initially thinking about only being a Media Studies major but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve considered being an Econ major as well.
As a result, I am behind on prerequisites for the Econ major. I have thought about minoring in Environmental Economics instead since Econ is not offered as a minor.
Do these two compliment each other well? (Media Studies and Env. Econ) I don’t necessarily want to pursue a career in the environment, rather I want the knowledge of someone who is an economics major. Is there a huge difference between Econ and Env. Econ or am I just letting the name get to me?
I am still very clueless as far as if these are the majors I should even be considering if I want to pursue a career in those fields of my interest, any advice helps!
Option 1: Media Studies/Econ major
+my ideal
-behind
-must declare both majors by Junior year
-as a result, I may have an overloaded course load
-not guaranteed admission into the Econ major (capped major)
Option 2: Media Studies/Env. Econ minor
+efficient/not overloaded with a bunch of courses
+I can declare the minor whenever
-not my ideal
-is the minor even relevant?
Option 3: Econ major and Journalism minor
-still behind on Econ
-not guaranteed admission into the major
+/- summer minor
Instead of doing that, why don’t you just create your own minor in economics? It doesn’t have to be an official minor listed in the handbook or whatever. Look at the economics minor requirements for other universities that DO have a regular economics minor, and then take those classes. Or you can choose to take the foundational classes and then 1-2 classes that just appeal to you (or more). A minor is usually about 5-6 classes.
I would recommend as an economics “minor” that you at least take macro, micro, econometrics, and then 2 elective courses. If you want to build a bigger area of expertise, take intermediate macro and micro, too. You can take as many classes in economics as you want to; don’t limit yourself by what’s in your college guidebook, especially since what you’re really interested in the KNOWLEDGE.
(OF course, this may be harder at Berkeley, where the economics major is impacted. There may be limits on the amount of non-major students who can take economics courses. I’d check with an academic advisor about this. But at most other schools this would be a viable option.)
The better question is are you interested enough in both of these areas to study them in-depth? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and do it. (Any field and complement any other field, as most fields can intersect and overlap in some way. Even art history and biology (history of medical illustration!) or philosophy and physics (physics actually grew out of philosophy). So media studies and economics can definitely overlap (the economics of media and entertainment, for example!)
If you really want a formal minor, but aren’t interested in the environment, political economy is another option.