<p>I'm going into medicine and I was wondering if it is advisable to do an Econ major. </p>
<p>For medical school, it's important my GPA is very high and doing a Bio major would certainly be the normal thing to do. But how hard is an Econ major while taking LSA classes?</p>
<p>A bio major seems kind of boring to me and I like economics. Does anyone have any input on this?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I only took one econ class (the first “core” econ class for econ majors), but it’s supposed to be one of the harder ones, and I’m told that if you get an A in it then you’ll be fine in any econ class. The class was pretty competitive, but I think bio classes and other majors that are mostly premeds might be more competitive. The material isn’t hard, and it doesn’t take too much time to master it, but you have to perform well on the tests which isn’t always easy for everyone. </p>
<p>I will tell you as well, your math and problem solving abilities are the primary intellectual factor here. At least in Econ 401, there’s no writing and no proofs. I don’t think any of the undergraduate level econ classes have proofs, though some may involve writing.</p>
<p>Ultimately, you should be able to maintain a high GPA if you put a lot of effort in. I don’t think doing an econ major instead of a bio major should require much more effort (if it indeed requires more effort), but might utilize a different set of skills. If you have good quantitative skills, econ should be easier to do. </p>
<p>In this forum, I know Alexandre was an econ undergraduate here, though some time ago. I don’t know if there are any others, but some should be able to give more insight to what other econ classes require.</p>
<p>Yeah I heard an Econ major is very hard to do in conjunction with pre-med courses.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response,</p>
<p>has anyone done both pre-med and an econ major?</p>
<p>If you are interested in pre-med, you can major in pretty much anything you want. I would suggest majoring in something that you are interested in rather than it what you perceive as the best path of getting into medical school. My understanding is that the introductory economics classes are the most competitive. If you do well in the introductory courses, majoring in economics and fulfilling the prereqs for medical school should not be difficult. The pre-med classes will take care of your science distribution requirements. The econ classes you take will fulfill social studies distribution requirements if you decide not to pursue the major.</p>
<p>Are the introductory classes the ones like Macro 101 and Micro 101? If so, I’m taking those AP tests this year. Will I be able to get out of them?</p>
<p>I believe econ majors do not have to take econ 101 or 102, just 401 and 402 (neither of which require 101 or 102). So regardless of whether or not AP will place you out, those classes will not be required should you pursue an economics degree.</p>
<p>The intro to econ classes which serve as the gateway to the upper level classes for econ majors are 401 and 402. Many econ majors do take 101 and 102, but they are not necessary.</p>
<p>^Really? Alexandre can you confirm this?</p>
<p>REQUIREMENTS FOR AN ECONOMICS CONCENTRATION</p>
<p>An economics concentration plan must include:</p>
<ol>
<li>ECON 401 (Intermediate Microeconomics) and ECON 402 (Intermediate Macroeconomics), each completed with a grade of at least C—;</li>
<li>Statistics. One of the following: ECON 404 (Statistics for Economists), ECON 405 (Introduction to Statistics), or STATS 426 (Introduction to Mathematical Statistics); and</li>
<li>Electives: 15 additional credits in upper-level (300 and 400 level) ECON courses, including at least nine credits taken from courses with ECON 401 or ECON 402 as a prerequisite. ECON 406 also counts toward these nine credits.</li>
</ol>
<p>STATS 250 does not satisfy the statistics requirement for the concentration. The statistics requirement is waived for students who have completed STATS 350 with a grade of at least C. In this case, the third concentration requirement above would be increased to 18 rather than 15 additional credits in upper-level ECON.</p>
<p>[Department</a> of Economics, University of Michigan](<a href=“http://www.lsa.umich.edu/econ/ug/concentration]Department”>http://www.lsa.umich.edu/econ/ug/concentration)</p>
<p>If you choose your courses wisely, Econ at Michigan is pretty much underwater basketweaving. There are some harder econ courses but in general if you want to you can absolutely avoid classes that might be challenging.</p>
<p>It isn’t that hard at all. Believe me, when you’re taking a memorization-intensive class like biochem, it’s a relief to have some kind of class involving critical thinking to keep your mind functioning (I also go to chem, math, and physics for those). It’s also nice to be able to switch gears if you get sick of premed classes.</p>
<p>The only thing to watch out for is that you’ll just have to self-study a little more biology when you prepare for the MCAT.</p>
<p>I know that this is no place to be asking this question, but in my defense, it is at least relating to the University of Michigan. I was wondering when decisions for the University of Michigan come out because on the Common App, it says the school is rolling, but others say they come out in mid-April. Does anyone know for sure?</p>
<p>Nobody knows, there are about a thousand other people who have also asked this question and have gotten the same answer.</p>