Is the econ department really competitive? I noticed some folks alluding to that in other threads, but I wanted to start one about this topic specifically. Is it difficult to earn A’s? Is grade deflation really common? Are the classes overall tougher? Are the professors helpful? From a grad school admissions perspective, is it difficult to maintain a high GPA as an econ major?
I have no doubt that the department is excellent, but I’m just wondering what the atmosphere is like. Thanks! 
Parent of an alum here, so hopefully a current student can weigh in and give you more accurate information.
In my D’s experience, ALL classes at Wellesley were fairly rigorous. No such thing as an easy A. In addition, you should be familiar with Wellesley’s grading policy:
FAQs on Wellesley’s grading policy:
http://www.wellesley.edu/registrar/grading/gradingpolicyfaq#1
As measured by faculty scholarship, Wellesley’s economics department appears to be among the strongest in the country: “Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges,” IDEAS (available online).
I will add, my D took one econ class at Wellesley. It was not taught by a faculty member, but by a PhD candidate from Harvard. It was her lowest grade at Wellesley (C- which is passing, but just barely). She took the next econ class sequence during the summer at a public university in our hometown. She got an A in that class (and there were only 3 As awarded out of 20 in the class). She changed her intended major from International Relations to History, specifically due to the econ requirement.
Econ at Wellesley is very math based, which is not my D’s strong suit. She did attend office hours, study groups where problem sets were worked on, etc. Any extra assistance that was available she took advantage of.
Not trying to scare you - Econ was just not my D’s cup of tea. She received A’s in other classes, graduated with a very respectable GPA, and is gainfully employed. She has friends who majored in Econ who got fabulous jobs. It’s a great department. All academics at Wellesley are rigorous. The students receive a fabulous education.
I’m a FY student who is on track to become an econ major. Yes, the econ department is tough, grading is pretty tough, exams are tough, etc. That being said:
(1) Professors in the econ department are some of the most amazing people ever and they constantly inspire me to do more. I’ve taken two 200 level classes so far and both professors have been incredibly generous with their time and effort. They will push you to your limits but will also put in as much work as you are willing to meet them at. I might just have gotten lucky with professor choices so far but both of my professors have put in a phenomenal amount of time and effort to get us through the material. For my final econ essay last semester, my professor edited my essay on a line by line basis and offered really thoughtful, specific, helpful feedback. I’m not saying all professors will be like that, but I’ve honestly never had a teacher that put in so much effort to help me finish a piece of work before.
(2) Most (if not all?) intro classes (101, 102, 103, 201, 202, 203) have helproom hours where student tutors will go over your psets and questions with you. From my experience the helproom staff have been very patient and helpful. This is super nerdy but I’ve started to really enjoy going to helproom hours to find friends to chat / work with.
(3) The intro classes are some of the hardest in the major and are meant to weed people out. I haven’t taken the 100’s yet, but yes there will be a considerable amount of math involved, because those classes are meant to help you build the nuts and bolts that you will be using the rest of your econ career. That being said, I’m in 201 (intermediate micro) right now, which some consider to be the hardest / one of the hardest courses in the major, and the hardest math we’re doing right now is a very repetitive and easily learn-able form of differentiation. I never considered myself a “math person” before coming to Wellesley but imo, the math in my econ lessons hasn’t really been that bad.
(4) On grades, I’ve found my econ classes definitely challenging but doable. I’ve maintained A-range grades so far, but I know that many other really bright, intelligent, hard working students have had more trouble with grades and I don’t want to devalue their experiences. If you go to helproom hours and office hours when you need to, if you hold yourself accountable for learning the material on time (don’t let yourself fall behind!), if you are generally organized and motivated, you should be fine.
Many students take one econ course (like 101) in Wellesley and drop out of the econ track for various reasons, and I really do emphasize with that sentiment - to do econ, not just at Wellesley but at any institution, you have to slog through a lot of math, learn the nuts and bolts of the trade and then only after spending at least a year or two on the basics will you know enough to move onto the applications of econ that most social science minded students actually want to learn about. It can get frustrating to go through the process but also so, so rewarding when the hard work pays off. I think part of how I’ve maintained an interest in econ even while slogging through derivatives is just listening to podcasts and reading articles about econ in practice: personally I don’t love math for the sake of the math, and so it has helped me to keep an eye on the end goal.
If you want more information, I love talking to prospies, so send me a PM and I’ll give you my email address. Good luck!
P.S. grade deflation in Wellesley was actually put into place partly to help econ / science / math majors, who had been receiving proportionally lower grades than others. To clear up some of the misconceptions about grade deflation, here’s an article to look at: http://thewellesleynews.com/2014/11/19/what-every-wellesley-student-should-know-about-grade-deflation/
P.P.S. The quality of the faculty here continues to astound me. Off topic, but I have a polisci professor who loves namedropping the famous people he is apparently in touch with (e.g. “my good friend Paul Krugman”, “In our Facebook conversations Al Gore said…”) and it’s totally mindboggling to me how I get to spend so much time learning from such awesome people.
@13lia1 Hi, I am thinking about majoring in econ if I am accepted to Wellesley. Would you recommend using AP credit to skip directly to Intermediate Econ in freshman year? I will have completed AP Calc AB by the time I graduate from high school. I do not consider myself to be a math person either so I am definitely intimidated.
Also, are there people who double major in econ and a science? I am also interested in biology, and I am wondering whether a bio/econ double major would be feasible (or insane). Thank you so much! If I do get accepted, I would love to email you
Also, who were your professors?
@kolakoala I’m a little conflicted on the first part, because I did use my IB credit to skip ahead, and I think it might be hurting my foundational knowledge of economics a little. If you are very on top of your game in AP econ, you understand the foundational concepts within micro and macro extremely well, and you are prepared to work hard and possibly spend spare time relearning concepts you’ve forgotten, you can take some of the intermediate econ classes first. I would NOT recommend taking econ 201 (intermediate micro) as your first intro to econ class here (especially if your calculus is weak), because it is incredibly challenging material and I think if I took that course last semester I would have become very dejected at economics and would have burned out quickly. I took 213 (international trade and macro policy), which I found pretty doable and which didn’t include any calc.
I do want to stress that my personal experience with leaping into econ that quickly may not be indicative of the experience other people will have. I’ve heard from people who did econ in high school and leapt into the 200s immediately who did extremely well, and from people who burned out and had a really stressful time. I spent my first week or so of the semester shopping around for econ courses, and picking the one that “felt” right. In any case, if you’re a class of '20 er, you still have some time to go! I’ll PM you my email and if you end up coming to wellesley definitely feel free to find me
I don’t know anyone off the top of my head who is doing econ + a natural science. I know people who are doing econ + CS, and right now I’m thinking econ + ES, but those have different courseloads and course compositions than econ + natural science. Not going to lie, that sounds really tough to handle, but it also sounds like something quite a few people must have done before. Again I don’t think this is something you need to worry about right now - as long as you come into college with a vague vague idea of what you might want to do and adjust your goalposts as college life continues, you’ll be fine!