I’m trying to decide between these two degrees at my school.
The B.S. in Economics requires calculus, stats, econometrics and a bunch of other stuff and I was thinking about adding the math minor to help myself develop my quantitative skills further.
The B.S. in math is obviously more math intense with some economics and finance classes…
I’m not totally sure what I want to do after school…I know that I’d like to work in the field for awhile, whether it be for a Federal bank or doing research, etc. but I would eventually like to consider going back to school for law school or an MBA in finance… so with that in mind do you have any suggestions?
Well, it’s difficult to answer this question. Either is a valid option with lots of post-graduation options, but it kind of depends on your interests.
While economics is a very quantitatively oriented field, it is, at its core, a social science - it’s about the economic activity of human beings and trying to understand the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services by people. A lot of people think it is essentially applied math - but it’s not. Economics uses applied math, and sometimes quite a lot of it, but it’s an entirely different field.
Math, of course, is the queen of the sciences, and is very different.
So it depends on whether you want to study mostly math with some elements of economics or mostly economics with some elements of math,
I’d vote Math if that’s your first love. Even MBA programs are recruiting STEM majors.
The year my student applied to Harvard, they later reported (2014) 70% of applicants applied anticipating an Econ major. Not sure it syncs up with the percent they reported who applied as social science majors, so take it with a grain of salt.
If you can do Math, you’ll be in higher demand in my opinion, not just for college apps, but professionally in life, I believe more doors will be open to you. Just my two cents, of course.