<p>I wanted to major in Economics but the program at my school just seems so basic to me. Macro, Micro, History of American Banking, Economics of Underveloped Countries, etc. It doesn't seem very rigorous to me. Like, the historical approach is all fine and good but I'm more interested in analyzing human behavior to solve problems and our economics department doesn't really seem to provide that. Doesn't even have a course in Game Theory...come on now son...</p>
<p>What are some other options instead of economics - ones that would prepare me for grad school in economics? Like, I don't want sociology or psychology because those don't seem particularly rigorous either. Looking for something more mathematics based and was thinking computer science might possibly be a good option since its less about programming and more about using computers to model complex systems in order to predict future events.</p>
<p>I mean I like economics, but I wanted it because I thought thinking like an economist could be applied to a variety of problems. Mostly I'm hoping to translate this all into some career in politics though, again, I don't think Political Science, or Sociology, or Psychology are necessarily the best fields for a future in politics. Just looking for some suggestions here...</p>
<p>Honestly, undergrad Econ isn’t very intense. You learn things like Econemetrics, Investments, Corporate Finance, Micro, Macro, statistics. However a grad program in Econ becomes intense and alot more complex. Why don’t you do a Poli Sci/Econ double major? Most good Poli Sci programs offer internships in Washington with an agency you would like to work with. Economics and Politics go hand in hand.</p>
<p>You think Computer Science might be a good prep for Grad school Economics? I mean I really want to challenge myself here but I also want something that’s going to have some applicability for my future plans. Don’t know if I’m being very clear here…</p>
<p>Statistics/Applied Math plus a minor in CS and a minor/major in economics is the perfect way to go. Take a couple of psychology/philosophy/history/literature electives as well if you want to understand human behavior.</p>
<p>I’ve read that a minor in computer science is kind of like a minor in engineering - sort of something but nothing at the same time. Any substance to this at all?</p>
<p>Depends on the content of the CS minor. If the CS minor includes the intro courses and some key upper level courses like intro to algorithms and complexity, operating systems, computer networks, and software engineering, it can be a solid foundation for future self-education and on-the-job learning in industry computer software jobs.</p>
<p>A computer science major doesn’t have enough math to prepare you for graduate school in economics and most computer science classes aren’t particularly relevant to an aspiring economics major either. You might benefit from the basic programming classes and a few computational electives (if your schools offers any), but a good chunk of a standard CS major is devoted to systems classes that probably won’t do much for you - unless you want to go into computer science instead of econ.</p>
<p>I am a bit biased though. I went to college with the intention to double-major in math and economics. I ditched econ because it wasn’t rigorous enough. I toyed with the idea of getting a double major in math and computer science, but I soon realized that I didn’t care about the systems aspect of CS. I ended up with a major in math and a minor in “computational methods”, which is basically a CS degree without systems classes.</p>
<p>If you want to go to graduate school in economics, make sure you take these courses:
Real analysis (you don’t really need any complex)
As much linear algebra as possible
Econometrics
Intermediate Economics
A rigorous year long class in statistics. Not that intro to statistics stuff english majors take to full their math GEs.</p>
<p>Econ for undergrads is far less math-intensive compared to the graduate level. I think it’s because a lot of students major in econ as a fall back major (it being the closest thing to business). </p>
<p>See if you’re school has some kind of applied math math major. Hopefully you’ll cover stochastic/variational calculus too.</p>
<p>Economics major isn’t rigorous in terms of number of courses required. If you like studying Economics I strongly recommend you to major in it. Meanwhile double major in something like Math or add a double minor in Math and Computer Science. It would be an awesome combination.</p>
<p>That’s cool barium, I’m doing an applied math major with a minor certificate in computational science. High-peformance computing is the future of science. You know researchers just figured out how to store data within a single atom, and apparently they already knew how to store data within photons. I read that once they figure out how to efficiently transfer data between photons, complex computations with inconceivable amounts of data will take a tiny fraction of the amount of time it currently takes.</p>