<p>Just read the open letter Why CalTech is different...</p>
<p>I haven't decided yet, but mostly I'd like to purse an applied quantitative analysis field, something like Economics, or Applied Stat/Math, etc. And CalTech is dear to my heart for a variety of reasons. But yesterday a friend who lived at CalTech told me Econ students are looked down there, and now this open letter didn't mention Econ at all... So it's really a wrong school for me if Econ is what I want to do?</p>
<p>I wrote the open letter. I didn’t mention econ specifically because econ is (IMO) basically math. I don’t think anyone here looks down on it (or applied math). I don’t know much about the strength of the program specifically, but I hear it’s pretty good.</p>
<p>Come visit!</p>
<p>Hey, I’m in applied computational math, and I’m really interested in Econ. The econ department is slightly lacking in the econ courses offered, because Econ isn’t a very popular option, and undergrad econ has a lot of background math courses required. The econ professors really know their stuff, and it’s always interesting to talk to them (I think even tenured professors like to brag now and then). </p>
<p>Econ isn’t particularly looked down upon. I think you’re thinking of BEM, which is Business Economic Management, which is sort of looked down upon.</p>
<p>I hear BEM is a really common double though because you can pretty much pick up the option using your humanities requirements… is this accurate?</p>
<p>Yup. It’s a really popular second option.</p>
<p>If you’d like to pursue economics as a graduate student, a solid foundation in mathematics is essential. From that point of view, Caltech is ideal. </p>
<p>The economics department here isn’t huge, but the undergraduate courses (including the introductory economics course) are much closer to what you’d see as an econ grad student than the undergrad courses at other top tier universities.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, as an undergrad here, our Economics department is primarily graduate focused. The Ec option is, like all the options in the HSS department, designed to be taken alongside a math, science or engineering option.</p>
<p>There is a lot of research done here into microeconomic systems and decision making, especially neuroeconomics. Research from caltech’s econ department was used to create the FCC auction rules, for example.</p>
<p>I don’t personally know anyone persuing only Ec, but it seems like it is a valid option, especially if paired with ACM, which seems to parallel your interests.</p>
<p>Unlike MIT, which has noble prize winning economists on the faculty and also has a top rated business school, Caltech is more focused more on the quantitative and computational areas. Yes, there is a lot of math in economics (especially recently), but there is also a behavioral aspect to economics and some of the recent noble prize winners in economics have not been “quant” types. </p>
<p>Can you get a great background in economics in Caltech, especially in the graduate studies? Yes, but you may have limitations in access to the number of professors and range of thoughts that you would have at say MIT or Chicago etc. If you are interested in landing up in Wall Street in one of the top firms, you may have better luck with some of the east coast schools, as they may not consider Caltech as economics powerhouse. Also, remember if you go to Caltech, you have to go through 2 quarters of Biology and 2-3 of chemistry in addition to a lot of physics and mathematics. </p>
<p>I was told that hardly any one in Caltech graduated at the undergraduate level with a humanities option, though many had humanities as a minor. Obviously you can always get a bachelors degree in a science subject and switch to economics at the graduate level.</p>
<p>So yes, you can go to Caltech and get a degree in economics. Yes you will get a great foundation in mathematical and quantitative skills. On the other hand, you may get better opportunities and exposure to other aspects of economics at a different institution. If economics or humanities is your major area of interest, you can definitely apply to Caltech, but I would suggest you should also have other schools in your mind that are both known for the economics strengths and quantitative core.</p>
<p>Just for clarification, Econ is not considered a humanities subject at Caltech, it’s a social science. They are both lumped under HSS. Also, plenty of people graduate with majors in HSS–what’s rare is ONLY graduating with a major in HSS (i.e. they are usually double majors). For instance, many students graduating with an Econ degree also graduate with a math degree.</p>
<p>Thanks to all. Sorry, asked the question too soon… Didn’t make it but waitlisted. But thanks for all the inputs and still helpful for deciding other schools… Goodbye, CalTech</p>