Well, this is weird. From the Maroon’s weekly e-mail that lands in my inbox:
“Business econ major approved: Department of Economics chair John List announced the approval in his “Economics for Everyone” class. List had told The Maroon earlier this week that the proposal for a business economics major had been withdrawn.”
Let it go 
If there are a lot of Econ majors who decide this is the best way to prepare them for a Goldman or Citadel career, let them do that. If in turn Morgan Stanley or Bridgewater decides to hire more college grads from U of C because of this new major, is that a bad thing for The College? I am all for intellectual pursuit but at some point everyone has to get a job and make a living 
At the Admitted Students presentation, Levitt mentioned it and implied it was a done deal. “Several of my nobel proze colleagues had to retire before this became possible”. He preceded it by saying there was a lot of demand for the economics major, and economic theory suggested they raise the price; since they couldn’t raise the $ price, they increased the “price” by making it very mathematical which he said was useful only if you were going for a PhD. So this appears to be a straight up acknowledgement for a non PhD path…
@85bears46 - Let it Go? LET IT GO??? S19 is looking forward to this major You thought it ended with my daughter, didn’t you? Hahahahahaha. We have another in the pipeline and he’s strongly considering the College for early decision.
So - what’s the final word? That was the purpose of the thread. Seems there’s a contradiction. Did the College Committee meet in secret or something?
@Tiglathpileser - so we at least know who is pushing for this 
However, it’s already possible to graduate in the major w/o taking the math and CS-heavy requirements for the PhD. Wonder if they are planning to simplify the major going forward.
@JBStillFlying Let it go => Letting the “controversy” go => Set up the Business Econ. Major and Let the students and recruiters decide
If the job market favors an intellectual but also a practical U of C undergrad, why deny the students the opportunity?
^^ No disagreement there - let 1000 flowers bloom - never thought it contradicted a liberal arts education.
The question remains: was this approved or not? We are hearing two different stories but nothing definitive. Guess the Maroon’s on it?
Just like the Fed would signal an interest rate cut/hike before the actual FOMC, this Business Econ Major decision is done. Wait for the announcement in mid April.
I had never a doubt that this was going to happen. It already sounded like a sure thing back in January.
What impact will this have on the egalitarian espirit de corps that @marlowe1 talks about? Will this create a little bit of Wharton undergrad in Hyde Park?
We have to wait a few years to ascertain the impact of this Business Economics Major. Still, Business Economics is NOT Business. I don’t think the Business Econ. majors will be taking accounting, marketing, operation management and other normal business classes.
Nonetheless, let’s get real. This is the quarterly report from U of C itself. As of Fall 2017, there are 850 Economics majors in the entire college. Do you expect all of them to be PhD in Economics candidates?
https://registrar.uchicago.edu/sites/registrar.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Autumn%202017%20EOQ.pdf
^^ But again, the question is what happens to the various tracks of Econ. as it is? Currently a whole lot are graduating in the major and NOT heading to a PhD program. So you don’t need Bus. Econ. in that sense - unless the Econ. dept. is hoping to simplify.
Not criticizing the idea of this new major - just the rationale at this point that it’s needed to ciphon kids away from a needless PhD track. We need more information in order to assess that claim.
I think Bus Econ is redundant. There’s already the BA in Econ for people interested in recruiting for finance positions. There’s BS in Econ for people more interested in the quantitative sides of economics, and there’s a Math spec. Econ for people interested in the PhD track.
@CalvinCoolidge - yeah it’s kind of like two theoretical tracks, one applied track specializing in Math, and another applied track specializing in Business. Something for everyone.
A rose by any other name is just as sweet
Steve Levitt confirmed the new ‘track’ for business within the Econ department at his lecture for admitted students on Friday. He said that the class of 2022 would be the first they would offer it to. Not many specifics, but said that the need was clearly there. Basically, he said, there was a strong need to offer different tracks to future PhDs in economics vs those who want to study economics as a lanching pad to a business career.
From the Maroon newsletter that landed in my email:
“Business econ track won’t require much math: The Econ department said at info sessions for current first and second years this week that econ majors on the business track will be able to avoid many of the mathy classes currently required for the major, including econometrics.”
For me that is a disappointing development. No econometrics? How can an U of C Econ major get his/her degree without exposure to multiple linear regression models? That is preposterous.
Well, assuming this report is accurate, it seems that there’s Econ and then there’s Business Econ. I’d stick with the former. However, it’s best not to rely on 2nd hand information but to see what the major will actually require. It would be odd if, for instance, it didn’t allow for a stats and regression analysis course; however it might not be the theory-heavy versions you see in the more advanced empirical methods track. Not sure that the Maroon can make sense of these distinctions. The little blurb seems designed to incite rather than inform.
The catalog has been updated with some changes for the Econ degree options but no business econ info yet. They did add a Econ with specialization in Data Science that includes more of the math/CS classes.