Hey I’m in my HS Senior year and I want to become a businesswoman and a scientist. I want to do a double major in Econ and Math and then go off to grad school and pursue masters in Physics and eventually a Post Graduate Degree. I did some research and found that some universities take students with Math backgrounds for masters in Physics program. I first need a confirmation on that. Secondly, if they do, would a double major with Econ and Math be fine? I mean would I be studying all the courses in Math that somebody doing a Bachelors in Math would? I really need help and I would appreciate any. Thanks in advance. :’)
A graduate program in physics will generally expect undergraduate preparation equivalent to a physics bachelor’s degree. If you do not have that, some graduate programs may not admit you, and others may require you to take undergraduate junior/senior level “catch up” physics courses.
You could major in physics, add some of the more important math courses (some are commonly recommended for physics majors anyway), and add some economics courses of interest. That would be a simpler and more obvious path for your goals.
Why would you want to major in economics and math if you want to get an MS and presumably a PhD in physics? Like ucb says, most physics programs will expect you to have an undergraduate major or the equivalent in physics.
If already know you want to get an MS and PhD in physics, you should major in physics. You can minor in economics if you are interested in the business part. There are many science majors who become businesspeople without majors in economics or business. At the very least, double major in economics and physics, not econ and math.
Calling @xraymancs to comment too; he’s a professor of physics.
But generally, yes, if you do a double major you are still taking all of the math classes a regular math major would.
I agree with @ucbalumnus and @juillet. If you want to go to graduate school in physics, start with a physics major and make sure you take a complete set of upper division courses in physics. A lot of physics is applied mathematics and so you will already have to take a significant amount of math but you can certainly get a math minor if you have the space available in your curriculum. A number of our physics majors at Illinois Tech take math minors or even a second degree in math if they can do it without taking extra time in college.
Occasionally, we see an applicant to our physics program with a degree in something besides physics. This includes Mathematics majors but mostly it is EE or ME majors. The ME majors need to take remedial electrodynamics, statistical mechanics and quantum courses and EE majors need to take classical mechanics, statistical mechanics and quantum courses. A math major without a significant number of physics courses would hve to take all of these to catch up. Not a good way to start a graduate program.