I hate math, will I hate econ?

College Majors
1

<p>I just typed a whole detailed post and then was logged out. So I'll try to get to the point. I'm majoring in Political science, merely because I'm very interested in it. My intention is to go to law school very soon after college. I've just been thinking lately that should I choose not to go to law school, or should I be financially unable to, I might be a little screwed. I'm not really interested in the entry level positions that are available for specifically Polisci majors. Yeah, working on a campaign would be fun but its not permanent.</p>

<p>I was thinking on double majoring. Business was my first thought, but when I looked at the requirements it seems like I'd be unable to complete the requirements for both Majors without dying. Then I thought about economics. It seems really interesting to me, and that would allow me to get into finance, something I'm also interested in, should I choose to. I'm taking Intro to Microeconomics first semester, so I'll have a better idea if I'm really interested in it. My only concern is my hate for math. I went up to Trig in high school, and I really didn't mind it too much. Granted, I had a great teacher and my friend in the class helped me out a lot. Here are the requirements for the econ major.</p>

<p>Micro
Macro
Calc I for the Social Sciences
Calc II for the Social Sciences
Stats for the Social Sciences (In the Resource Econ Department)
Intermediate Micro
Intermediate Macro
Four additional 300 level or higher econ classes</p>

<p>Obviously, Calc is math at its purest. What about Stats? I don't really know what to expect from it. Its basically about data gathering applied to social sciences, right? Is it all math or is there actually some substance to it, like "real world" parts? Here's the syllabus for the class: ResEcon</a> 212: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst</p>

<p>If it turns out that I hate my Micro class, I definitely wouldn't pursue my study of economics further. I'm thinking about the major only because it seems interesting and practical.</p>

2

<p>Why do you hate math? All the subject is really is a precise study of many things which may have had physical interpretation.</p>

<p>Here’s a sort of simple rundown - I think in economics, the goal is to study various graphs and things like that, and analyze trends, causes, effects, etc, and graphs inherently mean studying <em>functions</em>. Calculus studies functions close to single points and tries to predict overall global behavior, and philosophically this is useful because when you study a practical subject, you probably are looking to study these things about functions modeling whatever you’re interested in.</p>

<p>Statistics is more of tool in some ways - systematically analyzing large amounts of data, grouping it correctly, etc, are all important things when studying economic trends.</p>

<p>My advice is that if the things economics studies look interesting to you, you should bite the bullet and do the math. It is good for you, and having basic quantitative skills (plus programming) helps career prospects a lot.</p>

3

<p>Intermediate Micro will be heavily math induced i.e. lagrangian multiplier/derivatives.
Intermediate Macro will be more equations plus theory.
Econometrics is pure stats and can be very difficult if you are not good at stats. </p>

<p>I took a course called Mathematical Economics which gave me a better foundation in the math needed for economics and grad work especially. We went into linear algebra and matrix algebra then coupled the latter with multivariate calculus. </p>

<p>Econometrics combines economic theory with statistics to analyze and test economic relationships. It is mainly regressions which is the main tool for economists.</p>

<p>On a personal note I prefer microeconomics over macroeconomics.</p>

4

<p>I have a question…I’m not taking Econ until next year (still in HS) but it sounds interesting.</p>

<p>Is Econ generally interesting?</p>

<p>@OP: you should double major…or you should just major in econ w/ a minor in poli science :)</p>

5

<p>Well Its nice to see that the Calc will actually have a practical application in the study of economics. Kinda like the old “when will I ever use this?” question. I guess this just confirmed my worst fears, but it seems pretty manageable for me, especially considering my roommate took the Calc BC Exam.</p>

6

<p>Economics is great because you can apply it to any situation. I have seen some of my econ professor use economic thought to explain a lot of weird decisions, incidents, policies, and motives that have occurred in our little blue world.</p>

<p>There are many fields/subfields within the degree: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Econometrics, Behavioral, Cultural, Evolutionary , Growth, Development, History, International, Economic systems, Monetary and Financial economics, Public and Welfare economics, Health, Education, Welfare, Population, Labour, Managerial, Business, Information, Game theory, Industrial organization, Law, Agricultural, Natural resource, Environmental, Ecological, Urban, Rural, Regional, Geography, and etc.</p>

<p>One type of economics I fell in love with was Sport Economics. I wrote a paper on NHL Team valuation. It was probably the best class I took in my undergrad. We never talked about which team was going to win or why the Cubs can never win a world series. We discussed the motives, decisions, and economics behind aspects of the sports. For example we talked about salary caps and its effect on the market of large market vs small market teams. We looked at Winning Percentage against profit determining and explaining why baseball teams are most profitable at .500.</p>

<p>Economics if very interesting and can be applied to almost anything and any situation.</p>