<p>Some such students are probably students who use economics as a substitute business major at a school with no undergraduate business major, or if they were not admitted to the business major. Others may be using economics as a second major in conjunction with another not-so-math-heavy social studies major (e.g. wants to emphasize how sociology is affected by economics).</p>
<p>At Berkeley, the “less math” versions of intermediate microeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, and econometrics courses have about three times the enrollment of the “more math” versions that are for students who want to go to graduate school in economics. I would not be surprised if the majority of economics majors at many other universities (other than those where more advanced math is required) choose not to take the more advanced math needed for preparation for graduate study in economics.</p>
<p>If you are serious about economics for grad school, then strongly consider adding a math major/ minor. Economics “runs on” math, so econ majors can never take “too much” of it.</p>
<p>Warbrain, whether that’s the case or not, I don’t think it touches my main point: the classroom teachers are going to know what kinds of questions will be on the tests. Even if the course syllabus goes into what I believe is second-semester calculus, the topics and the kinds of questions that go with them are totally predictable. A good student should be able to predict them, and any instructor who can’t predict them should be sacked.</p>
<p>If your goal is to do an Econ PhD or even a Masters at a reputable grad department, you will need almost the equivalent of a second major in math according to several Econ grad students I knew at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and NYU. </p>
<p>It’s also a reason the vast majority of those grad students were not Econ majors in undergrad…but quant-heavy majors such as Engineering/CS, Math, Physics, etc.</p>
<p>In any event, don’t rush your math preparation. The worst thing you can do is to skip ahead before you’re ready and not only get a poor grade, but also fail to master critical concepts needed in more advanced courses.</p>
<p>Do I only need the math if I’m looking at grad school? I guess I really don’t want to go to it right after school but wait a couple of years and work first instead. Would it still be worth it to know so much math?</p>
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<p>I wonder what explains the comments I posted above then.</p>
<p>Hubby has a degree in Econ and didn’t take any college math-had enough in high school, granted this was a lot of years ago but point being, what you had in high school is probably enough for an econ degree, take the easy math class. You need to start shifting your thinking from high school where you have to take the hardest of everything to get into college to college thinking and protecting your GPA. Not that you don’t want to be challenged but take challenging classes inside of your major and the extra classes look at as GPA helpers.</p>
<p>Yes. It is always good to have a more expansive skillset, especially considering math is one which facilitates many interesting and/or lucrative jobs. Moreover, it’s always good to overprepare so you have more options…such as Quant-intensive MBA schools like MIT or NYU-Stern. </p>
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<p>That no longer seems to apply according to friends who are current Econ grad students in PhD or Masters programs at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and NYU. </p>
<p>According to them, if you didn’t do a B.S. in Econ and a near second major in math as an undergrad, their departments will reject you in favor of someone who has or quant-heavy undergrad majors such as Engineering/CS, math, or physics. </p>
<p>It’s a reason why every undergrad Econ major I’ve met who was even thinking of doing an Econ PhD or Masters at some point were doing double majors in Econ/Math or something very close to it.</p>
<p>cobrat-I guess it depends on if you want to get your masters or PhD. DH does not have either, doesn’t need them and if you have to go to Harvard, MIT, etc. for your advanced degree over 100’s of other programs that are equally as good that don’t require an engineering degree for an econ major.</p>
<p>The thing is…what I wrote above doesn’t just apply to those 4 schools, but across the Econ field because the grad programs expect you have mathematical preparation equivalent to a near econ/math double major or quant-heavy STEM majors and don’t want to admit someone who’d need remediation to get their quant chops up to cope with the quantitative demands of their academic programs. </p>
<p>A common remark I kept hearing was that there’s a substantial quant gap between what’s required to graduate undergrad with a BS/BS in econ alone and what Econ PhD/Masters programs expect as “basic” quant preparation to cope with their coursework/academic literature.</p>
<p>Alright, I just called my adviser as soon as the line opened, and he wasn’t there. Now I have to go to sleep. I still feel like I want to take advanced calculus. I will probably wait until class starts and see from there.</p>
<p>If you are considering skipping any courses in order to take more advanced courses, you may want to see if any old 155A and/or 155B final exams are available for you to review before deciding.</p>
<p>But based on the course catalog, 155A-155B look like just normal freshman calculus at most schools, while 150A-150B-170 are a slower paced version.</p>
<p>However, I decided I will try my hand at math after all. I think I want to go to college in order to learn things that I can’t learn by myself (math is definitely one of them), and if I don’t feel good about it, I can always change during the add/drop period.</p>