<p>Hi, I was just accepted and was purely shocked. :)
Can anyone tell me about the Economics department for undergraduates there?
I've heard a lot about engineering, but not much about others.
Thank you!</p>
<p>Hey there</p>
<p>I got into berkeley too congrats 
also engineering/applied math</p>
<p>Their biz school’s good so their econ program is probably decent. Well, it’s Berkeley!</p>
<p>I think Berkeley is rated pretty high overall, and it actually stands at number 2 in social studies across the world. Check out: [University</a> of california berkeley | Top Universities](<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/university/84/university-of-california--berkeley]University”>http://www.topuniversities.com/university/84/university-of-california--berkeley)</p>
<p>we just got another nobel prize in economics last year if that means anything to you.</p>
<p>I saw the rankings today, but as we all know, rankings are not the only thing that matter.
Anybody else, maybe an Econ major?</p>
<p>I do know that it’s definitely not bad, but I want to know how good it is and it’s difficult to find out being an international.</p>
<p>Well I just declared econ as a double major… the undergrad classes are big but I’ve liked most of them so far. You have to take Intro to Econ, Stats, Math (unless you have AP scores), then a Macroecon class, microecon class, and econometrics. Then you can choose the rest of your classes from a long very diverse list that includes like International Trade/Econ and Psychology/Game Theory/Labor Economics etc.</p>
<p>How much you like the classes will mostly depend on who your professor is, but it’s pretty easy to find out which ones to take and which ones to avoid and plan your schedule according to that. There’s some really amazing professors here (like Olney) that can alone make your experience with Berkeley Econ great :).</p>
<p>Thank you so much :)</p>
<p>Is Berkeley known from Econ? Say I graduate from a “lower” place which has a great Econ department, would it make sense to lose out on Cal?</p>
<p>disclosure: I’m a 2nd year econ student.
everything futterfly said is correct, BUT I disagree about his/her evaluation of Olney (she’s a prof who teaches econ 1 in the spring), I didn’t particularly like or dislike Olney, although I’ve had other friends who loved her class, which all goes to show that everyone (including those in the same major/classes) will have a different experience at Cal.</p>
<p>Here’s a few things I think you should know:
- Berkeley’s Econ department is the top-tier. I don’t think Berkeley is world’s best, but it is definitely at a comparable level. Other notable school for economics could be Princeton, MIT, Harvard, U of Chicago, LSE, and etc.
- Like many other people have said in this forum, the department quality affects the undergraduate education for most people a lot less than you think. And this is because:
- great econ department usually means econ professors who do groundbreaking research. Good researcher doesn’t not always mean good teacher. And second, those mindblowing professors are probably not going to be teaching your big econ classes.</p>
<p>If you’re serious about doing econ for graduate school (I’m not sure if you are, but many people do consider it), I think Berkeley is a fantastic place as long as you:
- do well in your classes (applies to everywhere)
- take the most quantitative econ classes (you’ll know once u get here, which ones these are)
- take LOTS of math classes (many people would advise you to do a math major)
- do research with professor (there’s a research apprenticeship program)
- do a Senior Honors thesis (you won’t have to worry about this for a long time)</p>
<p>I threw a lot out there, but if you have any more questions I can try to help.</p>
<p>flutterfly ---- do you know anything about professor Delong? He’s teaching Econ 1 next semester… which is weird… since its usually either Train or Olney…</p>
<p>that is weird, i had train for econ 1 fall '08… one of my friends had delong for 113 (economic history). she thought the class was really boring but she ended up getting an A.</p>
<p>Are you a sophomore econ major? if not, it’s probably better to wait till spring for Olney…</p>
<p>yeah, I will be which is the only reason why I’d have to take it with him.</p>
<p>well it won’t be terrible… there will be 600 people with you! lol</p>
<p>Flutterfly, just wondering, what are you double majoring Econ with? :)</p>
<p>@dragonelf: Thank you so much for that detailed answer. What if I chose a LAC over Cal? There the professors teach you themselves. Do you think that affects the quality of education?
I’m from Asia, and it’s very hard to justify to others why you’d leave a big name like Cal for a relatively unknown LAC. That being said, of course it is not my criteria for selection. I’m just trying to understand the difference between the the two.</p>
<p>I’m an Economics major too, and i’m from Asia like you. I’m assuming you’d want to go to Econ graduate school?</p>
<p>If that’s the case you’d have to take a lot of math classes, and math in Berkeley is just - uggggggghhh… </p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that the average GPA in the math department is somewhere around 2.3 :S</p>
<p>They do however have the best math department in the nation as far as I know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So will this reasoning apply to the other schools you mentioned that also have excellent economics departments? Like at most other places such as Princeton, MIT, Harvard, etc. that also have excellent econ departments, do you mean that our education will not necessarily be substantially better because of the strong econ. department?</p>
<p>Also, what are the job prospects like for Berkeley undergraduates with an Economics degree?</p>
<p>dancer1502: “What if I chose a LAC over Cal? There the professors teach you themselves. Do you think that affects the quality of education?”
To be honest, I am not extremely familiar with LAC although I have heard from a couple friends/family/on the web that the education tends to be better. I think the big question is, are you willing to seek out help/research opp from the professors? At a LAC, you will still prolly have to make the initiative to talk to them but it will be much easier because the class sizes are smaller and the professors will probably, on average, be more helpful, whereas in a major research university like Berkeley the professors are mostly concerned with their research and perhaps graduate student, and somewhere lower on the list are undergraduates. I think the issue of whether Berkeley is the right fit is something that every person must answer. If you tend to be a go-getter and have no trouble asking for help, you can definitely do well in Berkeley (and pretty much anywhere else). If you want more guidance and assistance, LAC might be a better fit. </p>
<p>i’m obviously somewhat biased being in Berkeley (btw, I don’t plan on doing grad school for econ), but I think a top student from Berkeley will probably have just as much or even more opportunities than a top student from a LAC. But if you’re a top student anywhere, you will have great opportunities for grad school, so where do you think you’re most likely to thrive?</p>
<p>CCNewbie: 2.3 sounds quite low even for a department like Math. I know engineering tends to curve towards 3.0. nonetheless, I’ve only heard how hard the courses are in that dept.</p>
<p>refrigerator: “So will this reasoning apply to the other schools you mentioned that also have excellent economics departments? Like at most other places such as Princeton, MIT, Harvard, etc. that also have excellent econ departments, do you mean that our education will not necessarily be substantially better because of the strong econ. department?”
I’m not really familiar with the undergraduate experience in other Econ departments at those universities. In general, 1) there are large econ classes (and also small ones) at each of those universities and 2) private universities tend to be more supportive of individual students, but I would say that you still need to be proactive in order to thrive in those institutions.</p>
<p>If you were a graduate student, the differences between the different departments would be much more pronounced, but at the undergrad level, it’s less about the department and more about the university as a whole.</p>
<p>Look at our career page for Econ majors: (I’d say it’s relatively strong compared to other majors in Letters & Science)
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm</a></p>
<p>Thank you so much. 
So basically, the Econ department is good at Cal. I’d love to go to a LAC, but then if the studies are better at Cal, I might end up going there. I do understand that I’ll have to be a go-getter at either place.
:)</p>
<p>HelloAll–DeLong has a fairly significant Internet presence. His blog is over here: [Grasping</a> Reality with Our Minions, Our Machines, and Our Mental Powers](<a href=“http://delong.typepad.com/]Grasping”>http://delong.typepad.com/) I actually started reading his blog before realizing he was an Econ prof at Berkeley…imagine my surprise when I walked past him at North Gate!</p>