<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I am a UC-UC transfer from Santa Cruz. Can anyone share their experiences with the Econ program at Cal? What are the best clubs? Would I be able to take business/accounting classes as well? How is the job recruitment? What is an attainable GPA with a fair amount of effort? How hard are the Econ classes? How is the workload?</p>
<p>I would greatly appreciate any help.</p>
<p>Yes, please! I’m also a new admit as an econ major and would love to hear about peoples experience in the major.</p>
<p>I’m an Econ major, going into my third year. The classes aren’t too hard and there are a lot of options for upper division classes - like you can take all quantitative classes or all qualitative classes if you want. And yes you can take some business classes from Haas too to satisfy your Econ requirements or just in addition. There’s a complete list here: [Current</a> Majors](<a href=“http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/current_electives.shtml]Current”>http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/current_electives.shtml)</p>
<p>Ask me if you have any specific questions… but yeah I’ve had a good experience with the Econ department here so far.</p>
<p>hey flutterfly (and any other econ majors for that matter), I’ve heard a bit about how some take a lot of quantitative classes, some take a lot of qualitative, and some mix.</p>
<p>Is it true that the quantitative classes are mainly the social-science-policy-prep-for-Econ-Phd kind of stuff, whereas the qualitative classes have mostly students looking for a finance/i-banking type of career?</p>
<p>flutterfly would you say you’re more quantitative or qualitative, econ wise.</p>
<p>What classes do you recommend for someone who is interested in the more mathematical side of finance and economics?</p>
<p>^missionewokzz, i think you’re switching quantitative and qualitative? lol</p>
<p>I’m more qualitative, mostly because I’m double majoring MCB and Econ and am probably going to grad school for MCB. Econ’s more my side major and I’m just taking the classes I think sound interesting like Game Theory, Econ & Psychology, Developmental Econ etc. I do still want to do the Econ honors program though.</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school for Econ though, you definitely need to take the more quantitative ones. From the department website: </p>
<p>Economics PhD Programs: The minimum requirements of the Economics undergraduate major are not designed to be training for doctoral economics programs. Students who plan to continue their education should take more quantitative (math and stats) courses than the minimum required for the major. Specific recommendations include Math 53 & 54; Econ 101A, 101B, 141, 103, 104, and 142; and additional upper division math and statistics courses. Preparation should start early in your undergraduate education. Students who plan on going on to doctoral programs should participate in research as an undergraduate, and plan on writing an honors thesis during their senior year.</p>
<p>sorry to be possibly the 3148328498219th person to ever ask this on the Berkeley forum, but if you’re interested in the sort of investment banking/finance career path, would it be a better idea to take the qualitative rather than quantitative “track”?</p>
<p>Do you know what the definitions of quantitative and qualitative are?</p>
<p>Ok sorry, that was rude. You should do quantitative.</p>
<p>ah **** i got so excited about html bolding my words i mixed em up again lol</p>
<p>thanks for the help tho</p>
<p>lol, no problem.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How many core Econ classes (UD) do you personally take per semester and how long, on average, would you say that you study for each class? I have heard stories (particularly on this website) that students need to kill themselves to pull off As (3.4+). Would you agree or disagree with this statement?</p></li>
<li><p>Are the career fairs overpacked, or do you get a chance to talk to all of the recruiters that you wish to talk to? Is there a clash between the Haas and Econ grads in the eyes of recruiters. In other words, do recruiters prefer Haas students over Econ students?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the gym?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>hey those are good questions. please to any current Econ students/econ grads, could you answer for us and other newbies!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>1-2 per semester. I don’t spend that much time studying for Econ honestly. I took 100B (Macro) last semester and went to every lecture and every discussion section, but only really studied like the 2 nights before each midterm by going over notes and the old exam problems. Taking 100A (Micro) right now and I stopped going to lecture but go to every section and still only study like the night or 2 before each exam. I got an A last semester and think I have a borderline A/A- right now. I don’t think anyone really studies that much for Econ, you’ve heard a lot of exaggerations. </p></li>
<li><p>I’ve been to like 2 career fairs and there are a lot of people, but you can definitely talk to like 20 company reps in an hour if you want to. And I don’t think there’s really a preference for Haas v. Econ for a finance/econ related job. </p></li>
<li><p>The gym (RSF) is pretty cool.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@flutterfly</p>
<p>Excellent. Thank you so much for your responses.</p>
<p>Whats the difference between Econ 100A/B and 101A/B?</p>
<p>101s are smaller, harder, more math based (require multivariable calc and linear algebra). You need those if you want to do the more quantitative/financial classes later and go to grad school for Econ.</p>
<p>so i guess the people wanting to go into the more Wall Street-type careers take the same track (101’s) as those wishing to pursue graduate degrees in Econ? Is this right? For some reason I always felt they took different tracks…?</p>
<p>So in that case, what kind of ppl take 100s?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Definitely not. Unless you want to become a quantitative analyst or something, you don’t need super mathematical stuff for Wall Street. I have (not immediate) family doing Wall Street type stuff, and it’s a whole different game. Get your MBA, work long hours, be cut-throat and do your job stellar, and you get promoted fast and shine like crazy. It is hard work but it’s not a ton of mathematical sophistication that gets you there necessarily at all. Whereas econ grad school means a good substantial amount of math.</p>
<p>Thanks flutterfly_28.</p>
<p>Also which stats class do recommend stats 20,21 or 25. I’m trying to decide between 20 and 21.</p>
<p>Yeah, you only need 101 if you want to focus on theory and deriving it using math for an eventual Econ PhD.</p>
<p>The 101s have <100 people and the 100s have like >400 in them. The people in 100 include people double majoring Haas/Econ or people just wanting to get an MBA later, people doubling Econ and Political Science or something else in the social sciences.</p>