<p>I visited Amherst last week and an econ major I talked to told me that Amherst econ courses tend not to be mathematically rigorous and the lower-level electives are not very challenging. Though he said one can compensate by doing independent study courses, I basically got the impression that Amherst’s econ department is not as strong as econ at its peer institutions.</p>
<p>Now he’s an international student from a country with one of the best school systems in the world, so his conception of ‘mathematically rigorous’ might be completely different from mine. It’s also entirely possible that I misunderstood him or misrepresented what he said. That’s why I’m looking for additional opinions. Could anyone familiar with Amherst econ give me their thoughts on the department?</p>
<p>Ye, I emailed like 10 amherst profs aboout the econ department and they said that while lower courses are lame, intermediate and advnaced ones are on par with peer institutions.</p>
<p>That's encouraging. The guy I talked to was a sophomore, so he probably hasn't hit many of the higher level classes yet. If I end up at Amherst, I will hopefully place out of Econ 11 and take the more mathematically rigorous versions of intermediate micro and macro.</p>
<p>Anyone else have input?</p>
<p>Never taken an econ course myself, but the department and faculty seem to be highly regarded. It is one of the most popular majors.</p>
<p>Neat. I'm thinking about Economics (and Amherst in general). </p>
<p>For me, I probably want to see how the lower-level classes are like, and maybe ease myself into the subject. I for one am glad about the flexibility for choosing classes, though I'm not sure how much this is applied to econ specifically...</p>
<p>Prospective econ major, class of 2010. </p>
<p>Took EC 11 last semeseter, and it was really a joke for me. I went to about 20~25 percent of the classes, just read the textbook and showed up for quizzes; EC 11 involves almost no math, and it was fairly easy even for someone like me with no econ background (but there WERE some people who found this class to be difficult, so it might not be a bad idea to take EC 11 and see if you're one of them). </p>
<p>This semeseter I'm in microeconomics(intermediate), and this is pretty difficult.. after seeing almost no math in EC 11, EC 54 invovled so much math that it is actually hard getting through the problem sets by yourself. I've been graced by a presence of a friend who could help me out in these matters.. anyway, from my experience, the difference between the entry and intermediate classes are fairly staggering. I also take EC 29, which is US Econ history, and while this is not math-oriented(duh), it is proving to be challenging and interesting as well. Much better than EC 11(though I liked EC 11 since I got very interested in the subject itself..)</p>
<p>Is there a test you have to take to become an econ major? I know you have to test into medical stuff in some places...</p>
<p>Nope, though I think you just need to get a certain average in the intro classes to continue into the major (I think a B average). If you work hard, it shouldn't be that difficult to accomplish.</p>