<p>Hi Current Case Students,</p>
<p>Can one double major in EE and Econ at Case? Any feedback on the two programs. If dual major is not possible can one major in EE and minor in Econ? How does that work?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>If you take the higher level calculus and statistics classes they will count towards both the econ and ee degree. Micro/macroeconomics will count towards the ee degree as general education classes. Double majors are difficult because of the number of classes you have to take in four years but I am sure you can do it.</p>
<p>My son is a double major in economics and mathematics. So far he is on track to finish in under 4 years but he started school with a lot of AP credits.</p>
<p>Hi Jerseyshor -</p>
<p>That is a fairly popular combination. It is hard to complete a dual degree because of the increased number of required credit hours, but certainly posible if you plan it out early. An econ minor is five classes - not hard.</p>
<p>Thank you both. Any comments on how good the Econ program is? Case is known for STEM hence the question.</p>
<p>An econ major is 5 required classes PLUS 5 additional upper level classes not just 5 classes. I think the department at CWRU is good enough to get you into graduate school. The faculty is well published and there is a fair amount of research generated.</p>
<p>how about the history and psychology programs?</p>
<p>Case economics department is only an undergraduate program. There are no masters or PhD students in economics at Case - this points towards a weaker department. The advising and support staff in the economics department are lackluster. The ability of the department to get students into masters and PhD programs in economics is dubious. However, lots of economics majors do go on to various graduate programs (law, business, med, social work). </p>
<p>I agree with Proudpatriot that the faculty is well published. Just to dive a little deeper, the most prominent professors publish on healthcare, manufacturing and environmental economics.</p>
<p>I don’t think the lack of grad students makes a department weak for undergrads. Since the professors do a lot of research the lack of grad students means lots of opportunity for undergrads to get involved in research.</p>
<p>As far as I know the CWRU degree is pretty well regarded in academia so students should not have problems getting into grad school in general.</p>
<p>I’m a dual-degree BME/Econ major. If you plan everything out early and stick to the plan, you should be able to graduate in four years. Since Econ classes overall aren’t very challenging (esp compared to EE), it won’t be that much more difficult for you content wise. </p>
<p>The econ program is decent here. As a standalone major I’ve seen students have a difficult time getting into good grad schools and finding quality job placement. But you will have a much better shot if you do EE as well.</p>
<p>I’d recommend it. You’re paying 4 years of tuition so might as well get the most out of it, even if it means spending an extra semester to complete your coursework.</p>
<p>espascio123:</p>
<p>Can you elaborate on what you have seen regarding grad school and job placement? My son is an econ/math major and he expects to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I see economics majors from class of 2011 going to the following schools:</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University
Columbia University
Institut d’etudes politiques de Paris International
Moreau Seminary
Purdue University
University of Texas
University of Toledo</p>
<p>That seems like a pretty good list for a small department</p>
<p>Proudpatriot:
Aside from Columbia and Case(I’m biased), none of these schools are worth raving about.
My biggest qualm with the economics department here at Case is the lack of depth in the coursework. After taking their core courses, Econ students can select ~5 elective courses from a wide variety of subjects. While it is certainly nice to have such wide variety in the coursework, students can’t really focus in on a particular subject. For example: If I wanted to work more on developmental economics, I can only take one course on the subject before running out of course offerings in that field.
Another issue I have is the lack of math involved. Economics by nature can be math intensive, especially in graduate school. But Case’s program requires students to take only two semesters of intro calc and one semester of intro statistics. This is nothing compared to the amount of math/statistics other universities require their econ statistics to take.
Both of these reasons are big contributing factors to the lack of graduate school placement for econ majors. For your son though, he might have a better shot getting in given his quant background. For everyone else choosing to study economics at Case, I definitely recommend getting at least a math minor.
As far as job placement goes, unless you have done exceptionally well academically, you will have difficulty getting a good job.</p>
<p>I think it is common for the BA in Economics to require few math classes. My BIL was a Economics major at Columbia and he told my so to make sure that my son took the right math classes to get into grad schools. Apparently it is a common problem with the Economics degree. </p>
<p>A BA is a general degree. Grad school is for specialization. I really wish the Applied Math degree allowed for Economics as an area of Application. My son would be very interested in a degree that followed that track.</p>
<p>The report that the career office puts out on employment looked pretty promising for Economics majors. My son wants to go to grad school.</p>
<p>After reading this thread it made me worry a little bit about the UG Economics Dept at CWRU. However, it seems that it is ranked highly in some circles.</p>
<p>BusinessWeek ranked both the micro/macro specialities at CWRU in the top 10. However, other business areas are not ranked as highly. I am not a big fan of rankings but rankings do give you an idea of what others think of your degree.</p>
<p>[Top</a> Undergrad B-Schools by Specialty 2012 - Businessweek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>