Economics Department

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Berkeley and UCLA's economics are the two primary programs I'd like to get into.
I'd just like to know how the typical econ classes are for the upper-division. How crowded are the classes and the quality of profs, difficulty, courseload, etc.</p>

<p>And how does the Econ department compares to Haas Business? Especially in terms of getting recruited, is it true that the recruiting firms prefer Haas students over all other majors? And I've even heard people calling Econ majors the "Haas rejects". I really don't want to believe this since I'm not even applying for Haas at all, but what makes people think like this? Is Berkeley's Econ department really "shadowed" by Haas?</p>

<p>Also, how well-credited is Berkeley's Econ program compared to other econ programs in the nation? </p>

<p>I know these are lots of questions to be answered, but please help this curious soul... thnx~</p>

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<p>The Economics department at Berkeley is one of the best in the nation, ranked 7th by the NRC. The classes are typically pretty small, with a few large ones. You can look up the classes offered this spring semester here: <a href="http://schedule.berkeley.edu/srchsprg.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://schedule.berkeley.edu/srchsprg.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>From the online schedule it looks like many are 30-50 students, some ~100 classes, and one or two larger lectures.</p>

<p>In terms of recruiting...I don't know too much about this. What I can tell you is that most Haas and Economics graduates get jobs out of college and do very well. You can look up the stats for both here: <a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The median salary for Economics majors in 2005 (I believe this is their starting salary...?) is reported to be $50,000 and the median salary for Haas majors in 2005 is reported to be $52,000. So as you can see there isn't a large difference there.</p>

<p>The Economics major has been called the "Haas rejects" major because many people who apply to Haas and are rejected end up majoring in Economics, and many students who intend to apply to Haas use the major Economics as a "backup" major. I really don't see anything wrong with this strategy. You may fear that there are many students in the major who don't enjoy the major but were rejected by Haas. From what I can see the two majors share many similarities and students tend to be interested in both fields (which overlap). But since the number of students wanting to major in BA is greater than Haas can allow, some students decide to major in Economics instead, that's all. I don't really see this as Haas "shadowing" Economics. Sure, Haas is one of the top business schools in the country, and a great place to get a degree, but that doesn't take anything away from the Economics department.</p>

<p>Now to be fair I should tell you that Economics is a capped major at Berkeley. It looks like you know that in order for students to major in Business Administration (i.e. Haas) they have to apply, and some don't get in. The same applies to Economics. There are more students wanting to major in Economics than spaces available, so students must apply to major in Economics, and some don't get in, although it's not nearly as bad as the Haas situation. I believe most students end up getting it but I don't have data for this. Many students who are rejected tend to major in PEIS (Political Economy of Industrialized Societies), the "Economics rejects" major. :p</p>

<p>Hope this helped.</p>

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<p>thnx so much for the answers!
It really helped me :)</p>