<p>I have four days left until I move back into Princeton for the last time, and as my 1000th post I thought I'd post this topic opening up for questions to anyone interested in applying to Princeton.</p>
<p>I'm familiar with the financial aid, the economics department, the social scene, job prospects / recruiting, the Princeton alumni network, and Princeton admissions.</p>
<p>This is more a general econ question, but Princeton is my top choice so I suppose it can fit here too :). I’m currently a senior in HS and economics is my predominant interest; I’ve self-studied the APs, taken college classes, etc. However, I’m concerned about the amount of math that is involved in upper-level economics. I don’t have difficulty with math in general, but I don’t enjoy it in the way I do other subjects. How much math is involved in an economics major? Could I focus on certain aspects of economics (eg behavioral economics) that would reduce the amount of math? </p>
<p>Thanks 
and congrats on your thousandth post</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>No need to worry about the math in upper level economics courses as long as you are good at calculus, which it seems you are. Trust me, if you like economics, you’ll enjoy the upper level courses even though there is a good deal of math involved. Nothing satisfies me more than when mathematical derivation leads to an intuitive and mind opening result. And yes, there are many upper level economics courses that are light on math.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What kind of job prospects are available to Economics majors? How is an economics major different to a finance one?
My understanding is that a finance degree is more applied but I might be wrong. What engineering is to physics, finance is to economics? Or are they totally different beasts?</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a thread I made over at the Harvard forum, about applicants who have not done any kind of unusual thing. Say, having a jazz album out or organising a fashion show to raise money to help improve infrastructure of a village in Africa. Are the regular, “garden variety” smart kids present in large numbers?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there many statistics courses on offer?</p></li>
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<p>Thanks randombetch and good luck on your senior year!</p>
<p>Is econ ideal if you want to do business in the future? + a minor in finance, for like realty or Owner of company? </p>
<p>On a scale of engineer to “some random joke major” where does the social life of a econ major fall into?</p>
<p>0-10 </p>
<p>Any tips for admission? Such as is a resume neccesary?</p>
<p>Wow congrats Random!</p>
<p>I was wondering,
Which companies recruit econ undergrads after the four years?
Also, would you consider being an econ major cutthroat and competitive?</p>
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</p></li>
<li><p>Mostly finance and consulting jobs, but there are plenty of econ majors who go on to PhD programs, law school, medical school, fellowships, etc. Overall, they’re really good, at least on par with Wharton students. There is no finance major at Princeton, unless you’re talking about ORFE, in which case I’d say the job prospects are pretty similar except more geared toward more quantitatively heavy jobs such as hedge funds, trading, working with financial derivatives, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Well, it’s hard to tell. We don’t really sit around boasting about our high school accomplishments. There are a ton of people where it’s really obvious why they stood out, but there are also students who are just modest and I’ll never guess they were a published poet with a 2400.</p></li>
<li><p>Yup, the economics, ORFE, psychology, and politics departments all offer intro stats classes. More advanced stats classes are readily available in quantitative departments.</p></li>
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<p>I think if you want to go into finance, consulting, or enter the corporate world, then economics is the best major (but of course I’m biased). Finance certificate might help, but I’m not doing the finance certificate and I turned out okay.</p>
<p>With 0 being anthropology / sociology and 10 being math / electrical engineering, I’d say econ can be 2-8 depending on what you want. The math track and 400 level economics courses can be really difficult, and a lot of the non-math track courses can be really easy.</p>
<p>Tips for admissions? Be passionate about something.</p>
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<p>Mostly finance, consulting, and corporate development / strategy divisions of F500 firms are the ones posting on TigerTracks looking at econ majors. All of the bulge bracket banks (ie: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Citi, etc.) and major consulting firms (ie: McKinsey, Bain & Co, BCG, Booz, Accenture, etc.) recruit at Princeton (they don’t care about majors though, so being an econ major isn’t an advantage).</p>
<p>In my experience, economics is not cutthroat at all. Probably less competitive than other quantitative fields such as natural sciences, math, engineering, etc.</p>
<p>Since economics is so strong at Princeton, I imagine many applicants list it as a potential member. Do you think doing so is harmful or could potentially hurt your application?</p>
<p>How many hours do you spend studying per week?</p>
<p>Why did you switch from pre-med to Econ?</p>
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</p>
<p>I think pretending to love a field you don’t really enjoy could potentially hurt your application, but putting down econ and showing how much you like econ cannot possibly hurt your application.</p>
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<p>Let’s count problem sets as “studying”
Freshman year: 30-40 hours per week doing outside of class ungraded work (studying, reading, etc.). Result: GPA around 3.6-3.7
Sophomore year: 20-30 hours per week. Result: GPA around 3.9
Junior year: 10-20 hours per week. Result: GPA around 3.9
Senior year: probably 5-15 hours per week. Result: who cares, I have a job.</p>
<p>My conclusion: sleep matters more than effort at Pton</p>
<p>My teacher who recently graduated from Princeton says that there is absolutely no merit for econ-specialized high school student when he is applying to Princeton. (Even though he majored in Spanish Lit. he said that he took several econ seminars/courses.) This seriously makes me concern a lot, as I aimed to Princeton Econ Department since I entered high school and I virtually devoted all of my time to delve into economics and entrepreneur studies… </p>
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<li><p>I have won several national honors and achieved some noticable accomplishments–such as the president of nationwide club for economic studies (You may compare it with FBLA). I’m an international applicant and I know there are whole lot of econ-specialized students applying to Princeton Econ Dept. But would my achievements be able to distinguish me in admission process? </p></li>
<li><p>Is there a joint program with The Institute of Advanced Studies that an undergraduate student can register? I heard that each of seniors has to write his/her senior thesis and is directly disciplined by professors, and I am curious whether a student has a chance to work in The Institute in his/her junior or senior years. </p></li>
<li><p>Are there many opportunities for internships nearby? How is life in Princeton ;)?</p></li>
<li><p>Other than Paul Krugman, is there another professor whose strong area is international trade economics? </p></li>
<li><p>What are favorite activities/clubs in Princeton?</p></li>
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<p>Princeton has a very strong international group. They have Aguiar, De Loecker, Grossman, Itskhoki, Kehoe*, Redding, and Rossi-Hansberg. Kehoe gets an asterisk because he is currently back at Minnesota and I don’t know if he’s coming back to Princeton.</p>