<p>Hello, I've been a long time lurker to this site and I have a couple of questions:</p>
<p>I've recently been accepted but I want to switch my major from business to economics....can someone tell me the process?</p>
<p>Also how strong is the economics program at Stony Brook? I've heard mixed reviews about the business major but nothing about economics. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>mvg - Welcome aboard.</p>
<p>Shoot us an e-mail -- either me directly, or the general "enroll" e-mail address -- with all your pertinent information and what you want to switch and we'll make the change for you.</p>
<p>Economics is pretty underrated at Stony Brook, I think... there's a decent number of majors, probably about the same as business, but they've had a lot of success, especially in things like game theory.</p>
<p>Welcome to Stony Brook, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>Thanks Chris.</p>
<p>You should look on a course basis. Usually, business majors get more funding and have better resources. I was excited about taking one class (intermediate macroeconomics), which is a fundamental course in the sequence after basic economics, and ended up having to drop because the instructor was an asian grad student who could not articulate herself properly in english, so after the first day, I had to leave otherwise I knew I would be miserable for the entire semester. It is very important for professors to be qualified, and having a grad teach this intro course might tell you something about the calliber of the department, but I am definitely not sure. You would have to investigate it further-- that was only my single experience with one class.</p>
<p>Hmm....thanks for your input. About how long ago was this?...I'm just asking because of your location.</p>
<p>I have been reading about business schools and some universities such as Vanderbilt and Tulane recommend that students should major in more of a liberal arts major than an exact business major because business schools(MBA) like to teach what you would learn in a business major.</p>
<p>Also is it difficult to double major such as political science and economics? Also how strong is the political science program? </p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>One way to find out is by looking at a couple of rankings for those programs. If you see that the department is ranked within the top 50, that would be pretty good for a SUNY for a common major like economics. I have found that when it comes to SUNYs, "strong" is really a term mostly used within the own school. For instance, when you look at rankings from different sources, it is unlikely you will find stony brook within the top 40 for something like computer science, chemistry, or what have you. But when you talk to the staff here, they will quickly tell you that the "computer science [or sciences] department here is very strong." When you run that through a filter, it means relatively strong when compared to other departments like english or philosophy, which one may say are actually weak.</p>
<p>Therefore, it depends on the student. If you are comparing it to bigger out of state schools, then "strong" really doesn't hold much water. But if you are set for stony brook or are just looking at sunys, then I guess you can use it to compare the departments within the system. I just wanted to make it clear that even if you find the department to be strong, it doesn't mean it is among, or even close, to the top nationally.</p>
<p>I would think political science and economics go hand in hand, but like I said I don't know much about their standings or quality. The economics class I was going to take was this semester.</p>
<p>Yeah i get what you're saying frasi. Thanks. the reason I asked was because I'm most likely going to Stony Brook so i just wanted to make sure.</p>
<p>Well according to the NRC rankings, Stony Brook is within the top 50 in:
Comp. Lit
English
Linguistics
Music
Philosophy
Spanish
Biochem/Molecular
Cell Bio
Ecol, Evol, & Behavior
Molec & Gen Genetics
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Physiology
Materials Science
Astrophysics
Chemistry
Computer Science
Geoscience
Math
Oceanography
Physics
Anthropology
Economics
History
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology</p>
<p>As well as a few more in top 100...
NRC</a> Rankings in Each of 41 Areas</p>
<p>f2-</p>
<p>Of course we're going to say the department's strong... were you expecting us to say it's terrible? Sometimes I don't understand what students expect from us.</p>
<p>Stony Brook is building a national presence. Are we there yet? Not where we'd like to be, no. We've only been around for fifty years, a lot less than some of these other major state universities. But we're getting there. Already, a Stony Brook degree means a lot more now than it did just a few years ago.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>According to that site SBU is ahead of Georgetown in Political Science.....wow.</p>
<p>Right Chris, I agree, that is why I was saying that it depends on how you look at it--strong within the school or strong nationally when compared to other schools? </p>
<p>Apparently those rankings are "results of a survey performed in 1993" and reported in 1995 for "Research-Doctorate Programs." Being that this was done 15 years ago and doesn't pertain to the question, it is obsolete and useless.</p>
<p>Oops. 10 char.</p>
<p>I'm not a fan of rankings at all, but if it is from 1993, then yeah, that's outdated. Heck, I graduated high school in '93. That's OLD.</p>
<p>My thing is, what is "strong"? It's really a relative term. I would never have said that the Communications department that I graduated from was "strong" -- not by a long shot -- but there were a handful of awesome faculty, and some phenomenal extracurricular activities, which offset the fact that most of the department had their heads in the sand.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>Yeah when I asked the question, I wasn't asking you to answer Chris. I was hoping others would who were in those majors. </p>
<p>Anyway how many credits would you take a semester if you double majored?</p>