<p>I’m a second year doing Econ and CS, so I’ll answer your questions about academics. If you can be more specific about what industries placement you’re interested in, I could probably give some examples (looks like banking from your examples).</p>
<p>Econ at UChicago is pretty mathematical, though not as much as the harder sciences like physics. The curriculum requires you to complete a year of calculus, in addition to either 1) a quarter of multivariate calculus and a quarter of linear algebra, or 2) 2 quarters of real analysis. Usually the first sequence is for people wanting to go into industry/finance, while the second is for academia, research, and econ consulting. There’s also a quarter of statistics involved.</p>
<p>The economics classes themselves also involve math, and you should make sure that you’re comfortable doing basic partial derivatives and such before taking MATH 200 (Micro I). They do do a good job of giving the exact tools you need for each econ class in the classes themselves, but having more of a math background only helps your understanding. They also introduce programming, in MATLAB usually, in Macro (202, 203). And of course, the accelerated versions of these classes involve more math.</p>
<p>The workload for Economics and CS isn’t bad at all, they’re both about average majors to do well in here, not nearly as hardcore as Physics or the pre-med classes. CS will have plenty of projects, and a mix of programming centric classes and theory (math) centric classes. Anything specific you’re interested in?</p>
<p>Plenty of people go into banking. Network, work hard, network some more, repeat. Sorry I don’t have hard numbers, so I can’t really ‘quantify’ the job outlooks.</p>
<p>I have met alumni at Apple, and personally know several alumni at Google (Palo Alto as well as Chicago offices), which is pretty good considering the small size of the department. We actually have a pretty good relationship with Google Chicago, lot of visits and goodies and such. I know Facebook and Microsoft recruit here as well. Not sure about Oracle/HP/Yahoo, but those aren’t really all that sexy . . .</p>
<p>Right now, I’m hoping to work in finance, probably algorithmic trading or something quant and CS-y like that. Probably get an MBA at some point. I still have 3 years to figure that out, so I’m not too worried xD.</p>
<p>Between Duke and Chicago, everything comes down to the culture. The two schools are very different in that respect, and honestly I would choose based on where I felt like I fit in more and not on which had better career prospects. If you like a vigorous Greek life, D-I games, and bros, go to Duke. If you like good beer, indie music, and hipsters, come to Chicago.</p>
<p>@Ryn2, do students need to have learnt such things as integration by parts in high school? I’m doing the IB Math Standard Level, which includes some basic calculus but not that. My math grade is good and I think I would be able to manage Math Higher Level had I chosen it…I sorta regret I didn’t.</p>
<p>Ok, just an addendum on Rny2’s post… Chicago-culture isn’t completely based in good beer, indie music and hipsters. It’s pretty diverse. You can, quite honestly, find any niche you wan’t here. If you want bros, you can find bros. If you want hipsters, you can find lots and lots of them. If you want frats, you can find frats. I agree that Duke may be more leaning towards a fratty, bro-like culture, while UChicago is the more introverted, little bit hipster, quirky… but don’t let that sway your decision too, too much. Don’t think that you won’t be able to find your social group, whatever it is, at either of them.</p>
<p>Econ 200 is the first course in the major. If you want to start it in your first year, you must have either passed the Econ placement test (which you can only do if you have an AP Econ 5 or equivalent) or taken ECON 198 (really easy/ really boring intro to micro class that doesn’t count for the major). If you start it in your second year, you can take it without taking ECON 198.</p>
<p>As far as math goes, MATH 153/163 is the third quarter of calculus at Chicago (131-132-133 is the ‘lower’ version, 151-152-153 is the ‘regular’ version and 161-162-163 is the ‘honors’ version) MATH 19610 is Linear Algebra, and requires either MATH 152 or MATH 133.</p>
<p>Math placement here is kinda weird, you’ll take a test during O-week which will tell you which math class you can start in. You could be placed in MATH 151, 152, 153/161, 199 (Introduction to Analysis), and beyond. What’s true for the people placed into 130’s is the same for 150’s about, except they’ll need to take MATH 198 before taking ECON 200. Few Econ majors place below 131, and if you’re placing about 199 then you’re obviously fine with math.</p>
<p>Most people will then either take it concurrently or after 133/153/163. But that really doesn’t matter, Chicago’s pretty good about not letting you take Econ until you’ve had a thorough background in math. If you don’t come in with that math, it will make sure you have it.</p>
<p>Plenty of the stuff above is probably wrong/old, so if anyone wants to correct feel free to go ahead.</p>
<p>If you want, I can just send some of my ECON 200 homework your way if you want to see what the math is actually like.</p>
<p>-If you’re interested in non-quantitative roles (such as investment banking), then you’ll be best served by completing the Econ major and taking only the required math…unless you enjoy math, are good at it, and want to continue of course. Econ can be a reasonably easy or fairly difficult thing at Chicago depending on how far you go with math.</p>
<p>-For the econ major alone, you need Math 130s or 150s and 195/196.</p>
<p>-It sounds like you probably don’t have the math background to place out of calculus, and you’ll likely be recommended to go for 150s or 160s Calc. If you’re not interested in math, 150s is what you want; 160s is very interesting if you like math, but not really helpful with undergraduate econ work. If you happen to test into, say, 153, then you could conceivably be done with math by the end of first year (153, 195, 196).</p>
<p>-Integration by parts is something you’ll probably see on the calculus placement test, but not in the early econ courses. The core Econ sequence is all about partial differentiation and Lagrange multipliers, basically, and Envelope Theorem. These are things that you will either learn in TA sessions the first week or two, or learn if you take Math 195 before the core. Even differentiation isn’t THAT big of a deal in the core econ courses…the most you will ever do is quotient rule with a rational function. The speed at which you can do algebra, however, quickly becomes an issue in exams.</p>
<p>-Have you done any Econ before? If you understand the concepts of Micro well, then 198 is a waste of time, but if you don’t, then it’s a good idea to know the terminology/concepts before you get to Econ-200 where it’s all translated into math. The Econ placement test is only relevant if you want to start 200 your first year, and is highly conceptual (some graphs, but nothing technical.)</p>