Economics phD options

<p>First year undergrad majoring in economics, possible double major in philosophy. I want to double major with philosophy because I like it and find it interesting. Is this a bad idea? i feel that it will differentiate myself from the crowd when applying for a phD or masters. But I know i will have to take a lot of math in undergrad to be prepared and competitive for grad school. I want to graduate on time in 4 years, so would it be too much work to handle? Especially if I want to do some good research on top of that. So does the opportunity cost outweigh the benefits? </p>

<p>Advice or anything would help.</p>

<p>I’m trying to do the same thing but I’m only allowing myself electives in Math and Business (specifically heavy in finance courses) while tailoring my general education credits towards what I want to study. For example I’m taking a Humanities/Writing course on the development and modernization of Turkey under Atatürk because I want to study development economics.</p>

<p>I would not take the philosophy classes sufficient to take a major, but instead I would say that you should just take the classes which will sufficiently satisfy your interest in the subject.</p>

<p>Just a small point: if you want an economics PhD, business and finance courses will not help you at all in terms of preparation. In fact, you’ll get more training in rigorous thought in a philosophy class than in business or finance. Now if you want to get an MBA and work in finance, that is a different story…</p>

<p>Economics PhD programs are all about math and economics training, and economics reach potential. The adcoms don’t care about your extracurriculars or what other majors you have. Take lots of math (ideally, the calculus sequence, linear algebra, differential equations, prob/stat, real analysis) get a solid foundation in economics (graduate courses never hurt) and try to do research. Also, field courses aren’t usually that important so unless you’re taking a graduate course in asset pricing or something like that, they won’t really matter.</p>

<p>@porkypig: miss me with that. Finance is a form of applied microeconomics.</p>

<p>[Greg</a> Mankiw’s Blog](<a href=“http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com%5DGreg”>http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com) is a good resource for what will prepare you for study in Economics and the Anonymous Professor has a blog in which he explains the connection between finance and economics. [Financial</a> Rounds](<a href=“http://financialrounds.blogspot.com%5DFinancial”>http://financialrounds.blogspot.com)</p>

<p>Finance is a combination of a lot things, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and stochastic calculus.</p>

<p>It seems like the general census is that I shouldn’t take it if it interferes with doing anything math or economics related. And that Grad Schools won’t think very highly of it. I feel like logic courses could help, but I wouldn’t know since I have never taken one. I am most likely changing my major from econ to a joint major in math/econ, so I don’t know how much spare time I will have anyway. I have another question about math but I will probably do another post for that.</p>