CAS Economics Major questions

<p>Junior year I decided to take AP Chem instead of AP Microecon mainly b/c I thought it would be more beneficial for me to have this extra prep for my SAT II test and I thought I could take AP Microecon as a senior. Then I realized that I want to go into business but I will only have the chance to take AP Micro as a senior and I will never be able to take AP Macro (I could have taken both if I didn't take AP Chem as a junior since AP Micro is a prereq for AP Macro). So when I apply to CAS and talk about my interests in economics as a major, I will have had only a few months of AP Micro (rather than a year of it and a few months of AP Macro). Have I screwed myself over? I have business-related ECs like FBLA but not that are strictly econ.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Aren’t you supposed to be a junior?</p>

<p>Yeah. I am not taking AP Micro this year and I am wondering if I screwed myself over.</p>

<p>I’m an econ major and never took an economics course in high school. You’ll be fine</p>

<p>Oh. that’s alleviating. But how can you express an interest for economics if you have never taken an economics course? And how could the college be sure you are interested/fit for it?</p>

<p>If you want to major in economics, colleges like to see strong math courses…if you are taking BC Calculus right now, you should be fine. AP stat might have been a good course also.</p>

<p>Most colleges understand that economics is a new field of study for many in-coming students. I highly doubt your course selection (not taking AP micro) will have a negative impact on your application.</p>

<p>I myself never took an economics course because it was never offered in my school.</p>

<p>You do realize that economics and business are two different things? Economics involves a ton of quantitative analysis…</p>

<p>Yeah of course. I was always into math but the problem is I go to a magnet high school where A LOT of people have been taking the BC Calc class I am taking as a junior when they were sophomores. Some even when they were freshmen. Because of these crazy math people, I didn’t join the math team/participate in math competitions. Instead I took business courses (mostly dealing with finance). That’s why I am also probably applying to AEM as well. </p>

<p>Every time I hear admission officers say that they compare students to others in their school rather than all the applicants my blood pressure rises lol. My GPA is like 3.8 and that is 45th percentile…</p>

<p>sorry for the rant lol</p>

<p>3.8 is not even top 40%???</p>

<p>Well it changes every year but 45% is about the average. My school doesn’t tell us percentile breakdowns for our class until we are seniors.</p>

<p>i got into cornell ED this year, and took ap calc AB, ap stat, and ap chem as a junior. this year as a senior, i took ap econ (covers both micro and macro), ap psych, ap calc BC, and ap french. i still was able to express an interest in econ and also had an internship over the summer dealing with finance/accounting</p>

<p>You don’t have to commit yourself to a major as an applicant to CAS. If you feel you would look foolish committing yourself to econ when you haven’t taken any econ courses, you can say that you are broadly interested in math-related fields and might consider majoring in math or a field that uses math, such as economics or computer science.</p>

<p>The only benefit to declaring a major on the CAS application is that if it’s one of the less popular majors and you are admitted, you will get an advisor from that department. But econ is a very popular major; there aren’t enough economics professors to go around as advisors, so you would be assigned to an advisor from another department regardless. </p>

<p>My daughter is a junior econ major at Cornell. At the time when she applied (early decision), she was in the first few weeks of AP Economics and she had never participated in any activities or jobs that related in any way to economics. She declared economics as her intended major anyway and was admitted. They gave her a history professor as her advisor.</p>

<p>Thanks Marian. </p>

<p>By advisor, you mean the person evaluating her application, right?</p>

<p>An advisor is a professor you are assigned when you commit to Cornell who is in either your area of study or a related one (or unrelated one, sometimes).</p>

<p>They help you when scheduling and picking classes, talking about your future, helping secure internships or research, etc.</p>

<p>They are very helpful if they care about being an advisor and their resources are used properly</p>

<p>Also, you can always request a switch of advisers if the one you get assigned by the university isn’t really interested in your specific field (well at least I could).
It is really important to form a good relationship with your advisor,
since they help you pan your classes etc.</p>