<p>Hey everyone, I'm going to be a high school senior this fall and I'm trying to figure out what I want to major in. I've been considering english, history, political science and economics. I was wondering because so many people are majoring in economics these days is it a bad subject to major in because of the possible difficulty in finding jobs. In addition, I was wondering how closely economics and history are related to each other because I often see people double major in both and I am really interested in history. In addition, I am also asking because my parents feel as though majors like economics are inferior to fields like engineering and medicine because of the difficulty in finding well paying jobs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Well, for one thing, there isn't really an undergraduate major of "medecine"...one could certainly go on the medical school with an Economics degree. I think Economics and history definitely complement each other. I mean, any historian would have to have a basic grasp of economics, I would think, in order to understand how economic theories shaped government attitudes and actions, and how economic occurances affectd history.
I'm going to let someone else address your issues with the practicality of liberal arts majors.</p>
<p>econ has a great prospect. It opens a lot of different doors in business, politics, etc.<br>
If you go to a top econ program the prospect even gets better. In some cases, like Chicago econ, ive heard that people actually search for you.</p>
<p>Basically the previous posters summed it up. You can go a long way with an econ degree. It is broader than a business degree, yet employers hire econ majors. With an econ degree from the top liberal arts colleges in the country, University of Chicago, the Ivies, or MIT, Stanford, etc., you can get a job with a top business company. You don't necessarily have to go to THE best colleges. For example, LACs ranked in the 20s and 30s produce many econ grads that get hired by Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, JP Morgan, Bear Sterns(these are some of the best organizations in the world). The only problem--I wouldn't really call it a problem--is that it is harder to market an econ degree compared to a business degree. My parents are the same way. They feel econ majors don't find well-paying jobs. Your parents and my parents are way off. Econ grads from the schools I mentioned above, including the LACs, get approximately $50,000+ starting salaries. I don't know about you, but I think that's a good salary for a first job. Good luck!</p>
<p>Yeah I think in Econ, your school should be a top 20 or something, and you should take lots of Math, and maintain a competitive GPA.</p>
<p>commenting on hawkpheonix, An econ degree is less marketable in the business world unless you are from chicago or MIT Sloan or something. But that being said, most the time econ degrees are much more marketable for other jobs compared to business, and econ degrees are often one of the best degrees you can get if you want to go graduate school.</p>
<p>Most of the time, business grad programs, area study grad programs, history ones, IR, poli sci, and law programs would much rather have an econ guy than a business guy. Not only that, econ really is one of the best degrees if you want to go into anything. It gives a solid foundation in almost everything before going into grad programs.</p>
<p>The econometrics area of econ (more quantitative analysis) is very marketable in many other areas. Kind of like Ops Research or stats.</p>
<p>I think having the quantitative background is very useful as is a strong background in English. My father headed the packaging (and later marketing)
department of an international institution. He hired math majors and English majors. His theory was if you could do quantitative analysis or communicate well the rest could be learned on the job. He himself had been a statistics major in college, but he was one of the best writers I have met. Since I am an English prof. and writer I like to think I inherited some of his talent. (Not so much statistics.)</p>