<p>To what extent must you have a grounding in calculus to complete an economics major? I love applied math (statistics and the like) but I absolutely HATE calculus itself. </p>
<p>I ask this because I'm contemplating what to do about Calc BC for second semester senior year. If I take AB next semester it will be better because the entire semester will be a review of what I already "learned", additionally if I get a 5 on the AB exam, I'll get the exact same amount of credit and placement as a 4 or 5 on the BC exam. </p>
<p>If I took AB, would I have a strong enough basis to do well in an economics major? And do you use Calc in econ and business beyond just simple derivatives and growth models?</p>
<p>The other option (my preferred choice really) is to drop calculus all together, and replace it with a more writing-intensive english class.</p>
<p>The economics major at Stanford requires a thorough grasp of multivariable calculus. Some schools allow you to complete an econ major with knowledge of only single variable calculus, but at Stanford, every econ major must take Math 51 (Linear Algebra and Differential Calculus of Several Variables). The class isn't part of the major, but it's a pre-requisite for Econ 50, one of the econ core classes.</p>
<p>So if you want to be an econ major here you'll have to use lots of multivariable calculus, especially in the Econ 50 series (part of the core). It's possible to avoid more mathy classes after the core, but the 50 series uses multivariable calculus extensively. You'll see a lot of partial derivatives, optimization, chain rule, Lagrangian multipliers, etc. If you're even considering doing an econ major, do NOT drop calculus during your second semester. If you're in BC right now and doing fine, I would suggest sticking with it. Some people only take Calc AB in high school and then take Math 51 when they get to Stanford, which is fine if you've scored a 5 on the AP exam, but please be aware that Math 51 is an extremely difficult course for many people who have not seen the material before. The class moves at a ridiculously fast pace, so any prior knowledge will help. Since BC covers more material than AB, I believe that it will be beneficial to have taken BC if you plan on taking Math 51. If you only take AB you can still do well in Math 51, but there might be some concepts (like Taylor series) that will be confusing if you've never seen them before.</p>
<p>Anyway, my point is, if you're seriously considering econ you should get all the background in calculus that you can. It won't hurt.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for the response! So Helpful!</p>