<p>My cousin's kid is graduating sr at Swarthmore and majored in econ and she had two job offers before she even started her sr yr - and good offers that pay in the 60-70k range. Hmm, four sylablle college that starts in 'E' and makes a starting salary of about 60-70k!</p>
<p>Can an econ graduate at UIUC get the kind of offer that I just described? The Swattie anecdote also did get internships along the way in the summer. </p>
<p>This is sort of like the program strength of the UIUC engineering that I have heard about - rich opportunities for internships and post grad opps. I wondered if someone opted out of UIUC engineering, would there be similarly good options for that student at UIUC, say, in econ? What other options, anyone?</p>
<p>If your cousin’s kid had gone to UIUC she probably would have been in the college of business, since I’m assuming that business was her interest and that Swarthmore doesn’t have a college of business. Grads from UIUC’s business school tend to get great jobs if they put in the work to have good GPA and activities, especially on the accounting side.</p>
<p>Econ majors (in the LAS school) from UIUC probably have similar opportunities as their business counterparts, especially in fields like consulting. The econ major, however; is probably a lot harder than most business majors because of how math-oriented it is, calculus specifically.</p>
<p>I don’t have stats on hand about median salaries or percent post-graduate employment, but job opportunities are definitely abundant for both econ and business majors, I would say.</p>
<p>Agreed that UIUC’s business college, acctg pgm in particular , is stellar, with great internships and post - grad opps. But the question is about the econ program; cousin’s kid is more the math type and this is what she naturally fit into. </p>
<p>My son, for whom I am asking this stuff, might be a bit more suited to the acctg pgm in the college of business (if engineering did not work out), but I have learned that it seems almost impossible to get into this pgm if you are a UIUC student in another college - apparently you get one and only one shot at getting in (end of freshman yr), it is very competitive, you have to found charities in your free time all while taking the full load of the big ol’ weed-out engineering classes freshamn yr, and you have to have a tippy top 3 or even 4 gpa to boot. if you had the latter, I am guessing you’d not be thinking of leaving engineering.</p>
<p>thus I am asking about the econ option in a contigency event - or even if my son wanted to consider dbl majoring in econ, a subject that does interest him also.</p>
<p>Cousin’s kid went to Swat as an engineering student , then changed to econ and did as well as an engineering student at UIUC. I am applying this path to UIUC and seeing how it might fare.</p>
<p>In other words, could an econ student at UIUC fare as well (in the job world) as a UIUC engineering student might?</p>
<p>i know lots of people that have transferred into business. yes, you do have one shot, and it is more difficult than transferring into most other schools, but not as impossible as you are imagining. You don’t have to have outrageous extracurriculars or anything. If your son is in engineering he is likely a good student, and GPA will probably be the most important factor in transferring, so that’s good for him. I’d say he should shoot for 3.7+ and do as much extracurricular as a normal freshman with interest in “being involved” should do. it might also look good to display interest in business by maybe joining a business-related organization or business fraternity.</p>
<p>and i dont think having a great gpa freshman year would stop someone from transferring out of engineering. people transfer for all sorts of reasons, mainly to better suit a change in interests, not just to find something less rigorous.</p>
<p>anyways, as far as econ being a viable backup major, i think he will find as much success as he puts into it. econ majors have access to most of the same resources as business majors, and can market themselves equally well to lots of companies at business career fairs. whether he finds a job will probably not depend on the quality of the econ dept, but rather how he markets himself as a potential employee. i dont know all that much about the econ major, but as far as employability it would still probably be easier to find a job if your degree comes from the college of business.</p>
<p>as far as double majoring with econ, that would be difficult but not impossible. most people that double major are doing majors that fall within the same school, but crossing over schools usually creates lots of additional requirements for people. im not sure about the process for doing that, but it exists, even if not a popular option. and there is no minor for econ, sadly.</p>
<p>i wish i could be more help, but i assure you that the answers to your questions exist on the respective college’s web sites. in the mean time, your son should really consider what he is interested before considering transfer because engineering students and business students take completely different kinds of classes. different kinds of people will find success on either path.</p>
<p>dep, you are in what position? - I know deposition - seriously, different scenarios have been laid out in this thread.</p>
<p>I know that at NU engineering and econ is a regular tandem. But I think NU does not require as much of their engineering students; plus their colleges seem more porous than UIUC.</p>
<p>yes, double majoring in unrelated fields at uiuc is not as common as it might be at other schools, if that’s what you mean by “porous.” and even if engr and econ are a popular tandem elsewhere, the two fields are totally unrelated. there are very few jobs that use both plains of knowledge on a regular basis, to my knowledge. so again, if you are worried about employability, i would suggest that your son narrows down his interests at some point during his freshman year. also, majoring in engr doesn’t mean he can’t take some econ classes on the side for fun, however.</p>
<p>This position. I changed my intended major from econ to engineering at the last minute (literally) before I submitted my app. I still think I’m gonna switch to econ.</p>
<p>Both involve a very heavy use of quantitative tools and skills. Also, there are different kinds of engineering careers. As I undestand it - and have heard from various threads and presentations - engineering degrees from some engineering colleges - the Ivys, WashU, SWarthmore, maybe NU , for example, tend to be more at a higher level, say, in consulting, vs boots on the ground grindout a solution with their slide rules, if you will. So THIS kind of career in engineering might have some kinship with econ, especially jobs that use econometrics and other mathematical/quant tools.</p>
<p>On these CC boards, I have even seen engineering students doing internships at banks and finance companies. I, too, wondered about this, and I was told that this happens alot. This q and a was on teh Michigian board - but I cannt find the link right now.</p>
- seriously, different scenarios have been laid out in this thread.</p>
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