<p>hey can anyone help me out with this</p>
<p>i want to know the difference between Economic major (offered at CAS) and Applied Economics(offered at CALS)?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>applied economics...is taking economics and looking at how it affects private institutions...</p>
<p>basically just a fancy way of saying BUSINESS</p>
<p>Applied economics and management = traditional business program</p>
<p>Economics = traditional economics program</p>
<p>Economics is much more theoretical, while AEM is more practical as you may expect. Both majors have similar job opportunities. If you desire, you can make econ more mathematical than AEM, but it'll never be too mathematical. Both majors are similar in terms of difficulty, and are not too difficult.</p>
<p>Economics in CAS is ideal for double majoring, because it requires a very small number of courses (8-10? not sure). Basically if you have interests broader than just business than apply as an economics major. If you want to study business, apply to AEM.</p>
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<p>This is an old post, but still offers a good comparison of both programs.<br>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060834458-post3.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1060834458-post3.html</a></p>
<p>The best explanation is from this quote in the above link:</p>
<p>"Basically, students that want an undergraduate business degree would be interested in AEM, and students interested in business on a macro (broad) level might be more inclined to choose Economics."</p>
<p>This is from Cornell's Econ FAQ:
[quote]
What's the difference between Economics and AEM (Applied Economics and Management)?
The Department of Applied Economics and Management, in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, offers an undergraduate business program that focuses on skills in such areas as accounting, marketing, finance, management, and human resources and organizational behavior. Economics, in contrast, does not provide specific business-related skills -- and, in fact, business courses are not applicable toward the Econ major. Instead, Economics tries to (1) provide a rigorous grounding in analytical and statistical techniques and (2) instill a proven method of framing problems and pursuing solutions -- a method that is applicable in personal, business, and governmental decision-making, and across a broad range of academic disciplines. In other words, a business degree prepares you for a particular career, whereas an Economics degree opens doors to many different careers, without providing (within the major itself) the skills specific to any one. Of course, you can always supplement your Econ major with business courses in other departments, to get the best of both worlds.
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<p>I would add that AEM and Wharton are the only AACSB accredited business programs in the Ivy League. Not to say that AEM is better than Econ. If you are familiar with Penn for instance, you can get a business degree at Wharton, but you can also major in Econ in SAS. At any institution it's a matter of personal choice and interest.</p>
<p>thanks guys that was really helpful.</p>
<p>though different threads i came to know that AEM is more selective than CAS Economics. is this true????</p>
<p>Yes, it is more competitive to gain admittance. But only relatively, as CAS is not "easy" to get in to.</p>
<p>Is AEM a lot more selective? Would you have to have a background in business related stuff (like interning and other ECs) to be competitive?</p>
<p>Does anyone know the acceptance rate to CAS vs. AEM?</p>
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<p>AEM acceptance rate in '06 = 16%, acceptance rate in '07 = 14.6%
CAS acceptance rate for class of 2012 = 18.35%</p>
<p>'08 aem is like <12%</p>
<p>what do you think is 08 CAS econ rate? <15%?</p>
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<p>CAS econ classes are considered harder than AEM classes, despite the more "prestigious" ranking of CALS AEM. Sure, the econ major as a program is easy (only 8-10 classes), but the classes are harder. Then again, there aren't really any definitive econ program rankings like there are business program rankings. Econ was rated the #2 major for career earnings by Forbes. Generally econ majors seem to do better than business majors in their job searching because econ is considered harder. I'm not sure if that applies to Cornell specifically, but keep that in mind.</p>
<p>But that's not really what the issue should be for you. What are you interested in? Econ and AEM are very different. I would look at the course catalog to see what classes you might be taking depending on the program and read their descriptions. Look at the more general requirements as well for CALS vs. CAS, not just the specific program requirements. CALS and CAS have drastically different requirements. It's not like you take 8 econ classes then get your degree. With CAS you will have to take a wider variety of classes, and the opportunity to double major is there as well. In the courses of study book, look at the distribution requirement and other requirements in CAS and see if that interests you.</p>
<p>I'm an econ/govt double major in CAS so if you have any other questions, just ask. Now is the time to start figuring out your academic goals and what you want to get from college.</p>
<p>i don't understand why people say that econ classes are considered so much "harder" than AEM classes. econ majors have to take 8-10 classes. four of these classes can be descrbied as just plain micro and macro. econ majors must take econ 111, 112, 313 and 314. of these four, AEM majors must take up to 313, so they're taking 3 out of 4 of the same classes as econ majors so far. then, this is where it sort of starts to differ.</p>
<p>econ majors must take applied econometrics OR statistics + econometrics - if you're specializing in applied economics in AEM, you need to take some of these classes too. if you're an econ major who likes to emphasize math, then i cannot deny that your curriculum will ultimately end up harder than AEM kids' curriculum (well, this will be true for people who are not fans of math - and i'm definitely NOT a fan of math). IF, however, you're an econ major who decides to emphasize business management, a lot of your classes will start to overlap with AEM classes. take, for example, econ 361/362, int'l trade and finance. it's taught as AEM 230 also, under professor david lee, an AEM professor. econ majors and AEM majors are taking the same exact class, only under different headings/class names. here's another example: econ 440/441 is the same as AEM 6410, econ 351 = AEM 432, yadda yadda yadda. if you're an econ major with law school in your mind, you'll end up taking many of the same classes as ILR kids, ie: econ 443 = ILR 443.</p>
<p>econ and AEM are different, yes, but i wouldn't say that one is any HARDER than one if you're an econ major with a business emphasis. in fact, if that is your intent (the business emphasis), i would strongly encourage you to apply to AEM, as you will get the theoretical part of an econ major AND the more applied, hands on part of economics.</p>
<p>Depends if you want to spend $50,000 a year getting vocational training or whether you want an actual education that teaches you how to think. There's a reason most Ivy League colleges have majors like bio and econ instead of business and nursing and exercise science.</p>
<p>i wouldn't say AEM is simply vocational training. depending on what your specialization is, you will also get the whole ~theoretical~ part of an econ major. ie: applied economics, a lot of int'l trade & development is theoretical/analytical, etc. plus, if you're an in-state student, why not go the contract college path? it's $32,000/yr. you'll be able to 55 credits in the endowed colleges and if the theoretical part of an econ major is THAT important to you, you can still take whatever econ classes you want through those 55 credits. plus, employers will look at your transcript too.</p>
<p>i always thought econ was for people who wanted to do more of a theoretical career path - ie: get a Ph.D, write papers, go be an economist in any of the Bretton-Woods institutions, etc. i just don't understand why people would do econ with the intent of going into business (<em>cough</em> i mean finance because most people who go into business want - or at least wanted - to go to wall street, gross generalization, i know - with an emphasis on GROSS) if you're not even going to learn a lot of the hands on things in the more ~<em>theoretical</em>~ econ classes. ie: will you learn about financial accounting if you only take the classes required to become an econ major - no. but if you go into AEM, you will. this is not to say that you wouldn't be able to learn about this if you're an econ major, because you'd definitely still be able to take this class (and you should!) but it's not actually a PART of the curriculum, as it is in AEM.</p>
<p>^that's not true, a ton of econ undergrads go into business, and i've heard on average, they make more than business undergrads do (not talking specifically about cornell here, in general) but a business major is strictly pre-professional, whereas econ is academic, it's liberal arts, more theoretical...I'm an econ major, and personally I wouldn't want a business major, although I might end up working in business (but more likely i'll go to law school which is why econ might be a better option)</p>
<p>Having taken intermediate level courses in both the AEM and economics departments here, I can say that at best economics is marginally more difficult than AEM. The two majors are definitely comparable in difficulty, so don't let that determine your decision.</p>
<p>Both have very similar job placements too, all this talk about econ having better job opportunities than AEM is bull crap:</p>
<p>Applied</a> Economics and Management/Cornell</p>
<p>Cornell</a> University Website Template - Two Column</p>
<p>If you want to go into business but want better job opportunities and a higher salary, look into operations research at the engineering school:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Depends if you want to spend $50,000 a year getting vocational training or whether you want an actual education that teaches you how to think. There's a reason most Ivy League colleges have majors like bio and econ instead of business and nursing and exercise science.
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I just don't get this. What's wrong with pre-professional and vocational majors like Engineering, Business and Nursing? Not everyone plans to get a Ph.d and become a professor. And if you're a NYS resident interested in Econ, AEM might just be a better way to go than CAS, because it costs less, and you can still get the same education (taking classes in CALS and CAS). It's pretty rude of you to say that people in those majors don't learn how to think, merely learn a trade.</p>
<p>there are many who say that cornell is just a professional factory...</p>
<p>there just arent too many kids interested in academia...</p>
<p>Just to put my two cents in: there is an AEM Ph.D. program. Being in academia does not mean you only deal with the theoretical.</p>
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there just arent too many kids interested in academia...
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<p>Right. That's why Cornell has one of the highest percentage of students going on for PhDs in the country, and higher than Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Some of the pre-professionalism antagonism is warranted. Some courses, like HR266 or a couple of the AEM courses in the Ag school have little analytical or aesthetic merit. It's just memorization and regurgitation -- nothing that you should be willing to pay money for. But most of Cornell's preprofessional courses -- say engineering or nutrition or collective bargaining or animal science -- are very much worthwhile academic pursuits.</p>