Economics and Computer Science

Thinking about majoring in both with the plan to attend law school. I think this is a good option would love to hear people’s opinions having taken these two or just in general. I would also like advice thanks

It really depends upon the school. If CS is in the engineering college, it could be really difficult. Also, CS could be a restricted major at some universities due to demand. Having programming experience as an Economist is very helpful.

For law school, are these subjects you like and are good at enough to earn a high college GPA?

Do you really want a CS-major skill-set in terms of higher math, computational theory, coding, and so on? Or do you want to be skilled at applying computer-driven “big data” analysis to econ and other social sciences? If that latter, you might be better served by a “data analytics” type major vs. CS. Also, if your end-game is law school and not a PhD program in either field, there’s no burning need for a full double-major; consider blended programs that give you a knowledge base in both areas. What do you see yourself doing, as a lawyer, that would utilize this background?

Wesleyan has a course in Econometrics (Economics 385) which is basically the application of big data analytics to economic models. It’s an upper level course, so you would have plenty of time to take core courses in both fields. Not sure you would need more than that for law school purposes.

Depends what kind of law you want to get into.

Also…in general, your major for a law degree isn’t as important as your GPA and LSAT scores.

If you are interested in data and economics - this is a great dual major. If you want to work with quants on Wall St. Focus on the financial math and computer science.

I second financial math/engineering as an option that blends data science/CS with economics/finance essentials and provides a strong quant background for any profession as well as grad school. You can combine it with an economics minor or take extra courses as electives if a dual major is not available.

Econometrics are just stats for business, offered by most finance and economics programs, and not all of them teach R programming. Sometimes it’s offered as a major, but I’ve seen it more in graduate schools. Stats are a good thing to know, however, and a requirement in any analytics or data science program.

Every selective college with an econ major will offer econometrics. (And econ majors should take it whether it’s required for the major or not.) It is not uncommon to add more math/data science/CS courses, also a good idea. No need for a double major with CS.

Major does not matter for law school admission. A solid background in econ is a plus for an antitrust practice niche.

Econometrics is commonly a required course for economics majors, but the math / statistics intensity of that course (and the economics major generally) varies from one department to another (more math / statistics = better for pre-PhD students or pre-quant-finance students).

well what about econ and math

As in Mathematics of Finance, such as that offered at U Penn? Are you more interested in pure math?

Math proofs will give you practice with logic that is tested on the LSAT.

You can double major in pretty much anything so long as you don’t have to involve an engineering school to do it.

More generally, having more than one major is more difficult if either major has voluminous non overlapping requirements, or the non overlapping general education requirements are voluminous.

Chiming in here given a particular search - The only way this makes sense is if IP Law which, it still probably doesn’t make sense.

Grades > LSAT > … > everything else and CS hurts grades and study time.

If IP Law is of interest, there’s great joint 1 year grad programs you could do (which wouldn’t affect undergrad GPA)