Community college transfer Political econ vs normal econ

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

Transferring from a well established Los Angeles Area JC.

GPA 3.8
Straight As except two Bs in Calc 1 and 2 which is my biggest problem

Extracurricular Activities:
Student government Mathematical Sciences Division Representative
Honors transfer program
Work about 20-30 hours a week
Collegiate swim team
AGS honors society board
Bilingual Japanese/english

I met with a UC Berkeley counselor at my JC. who told me to apply political econ rather than econ (because it will disregard the two B’s from my in major GPA making it a 4.0 from a 3.5) and then apply to econ once I get in, as every transfer student is pre-econ. Is this a common strategy or something that is do-able? Is the political econ major in it itself a useful major?

2

https://www.econ.berkeley.edu/undergrad/prospective/transfer-students describes what you need to do to major in economics as a transfer student. Note: if you want to take the higher-math intermediate microeconomics course (101A), you should complete multivariable calculus first.

http://iastp.berkeley.edu/degree-programs/major-programs/political-economy/ describes the political economy major.

3

http://career.berkeley.edu/Survey/2016Majors is the career survey by major for 2016 graduates.