Economics, Mathematics and Physics at LAS

<p>Hi.
I got accepted into the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences through Early Action for the class of 2015. I had applied through Economics.
I was just wondering how the Economics, Mathematics and Physics department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as a whole are at UIUC?
Also, can I take up a double major or switch from Economics to major in something else and take up Economics as a minor?
Would love some feedback.
Thank you.</p>

<p>Tose are good programs; note that physics and the physics department are actually in and controlled by the college of engineering although the physics BS degree is awarded by LAS. </p>

<p>As a student in LAS, the ability to double major depends: (a) you cannot double major in business because that college accepts no double majors; (b) it is not easy to double major in another college particularly engineering (in fact for that college your real chances are in requesting a transfer to its majors rather than trying to request a double); (c) depending on major within LAS it can be easy (probably for most majors) or difficult to get into. You generally don’t become a double major until junior year and you have to be accepted by the other department or the other college and getting that will depend highly on grades and completing necessary first and second year courses needed for the second major.</p>

<p>As to changing majors it again depends on major and college: (a) transfers to the business college cannot be done until after first year and its acceptance rate for transfers is less than 50%, it does a full file review and having high grades though necessary is no guarantee of being allowed to transfer; (b) transfers to engineering college also cannot occur until after first year and depend heavily on getting high grades (minimum is 3.0 and higher depoending on major) including in required courses in science and math that need to be completed to be allowed to transfer; for it getting the necessary grades is hard (some of those freshman math and science courses have been accused of being weed-out courses) but if you have them it is not hard; (c) changing to another LAS major again depends on what it is but most are easy to transfer to although some would be hard. As with change of major, you need approval of the college and department for the change. Being allowed minors is fairly easy but approval of the particular college and department is required.</p>

<p>Thank you.
Another question.
How is the Economics department ranked in comparison with the other top universities in the world?</p>

<p>I had a similar question and here is the thread.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-illinois-urbana-champaign/1065841-how-strong-uiucs-economics-program.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-illinois-urbana-champaign/1065841-how-strong-uiucs-economics-program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I have since done some more looking and found that sometimes , for universities at least, one can evaluate an UG pgm based on the regard of the grad pgm. If this is true, I saw that physics is in the top 10 in the country (nmbr 9 [Rankings</a> - Physics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-physics-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-physics-schools/rankings) ) . </p>

<p>econ was nmbr 31. ( [Rankings</a> - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings/page+2]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings/page+2) ) </p>

<p>math nmbr 20
[Rankings</a> - Math - Graduate Schools - Education - US News](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-mathematics-programs/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-mathematics-programs/rankings)</p>

<p>the notion might be that an UG can avail his or herself of the strong graduate pgm for research opps and , in general, state of the art knowledge picking.</p>

<p>also, to apprise econ and math (not sure whether physics would be in this core group, but it might be), I read numerous times by people who seemed to know what was going on that economics and math are ‘bread and butter’ , core , curricula at any college (university or LAC), and as such, therefore, the econ and math pgms would be reflected in the rankings of the school overall, I read. In this case, and take this with a bunch of salt, UIUC is ranking something like high 40s among US nat’l universities. Note, under the ‘overall ranking’ criterion, the difference between the sub rankings and the overall ranking of UIUC.</p>

<p>found these links, too.</p>

<p><a href=“http://illinois.edu/about/overview/facts/rankings/us_news_undergrad.html[/url]”>http://illinois.edu/about/overview/facts/rankings/us_news_undergrad.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://illinois.edu/about/overview/facts/rankings/us_news_grad.html[/url]”>http://illinois.edu/about/overview/facts/rankings/us_news_grad.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>there is a section on world ranking in this wiki article
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana–Champaign[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana–Champaign&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;