<p>How hard is it to gain admission to a college if you want to major in economics?</p>
<p>Economics, being a social science would put you into the LSA or general applicant pool. Basically it would have zero affect on your being admitted/rejected.</p>
<p>Your proposed major would not make a difference in admission in most cases, because the applicant pool will have diverse enough academic interests for the school not to worry about that. But occasionally, the major may have some impact because a school would want to have enough students to fill certain less popular or niche classes. Econ is one of the more popular majors in most colleges.</p>
<p>In some schools, continuing sophomores may have to apply to declare the economics major, with a higher GPA than ordinarily needed (i.e. higher than needed to avoid academic probation), because too many students want to declare that major compared to the department’s capacity. So, while freshman admission may not be any different from those intending other majors, there is a second admissions gate to pass through to declare the major.</p>
<p>In some schools, the economics major is only offered in math-intensive form, which can effectively screen out those who do not like or are not good at math (typically about 3/4 of economics majors choose less-math where both a math-intensive and less-math version is offered). Doing economics in a math-intensive fashion is recommended for those who want to go to graduate school in economics.</p>
<p>What could I do to increase my chances of gaining admission to a top economic program such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, etc… My grades are decent I have a 4.0 unweighted. I am also taking college econ classes, research assistant at Suny Binghamton Department of Economics (Fall 2011), Intern at Merrill Lynch (Spring 2012), Research Assistant at Cornell University Department of Economics ( Spring 2012), and I am applying for an internship at either the IRS or Federal Reserve in Washington D.C (Summer 2012)…is that good enough or is there anything else I could do?</p>