<p>Hi, I recently took a look at the course catalog and am pondering possible courses I would like to take at Chicago. Now, I want to major in economics (not because I desperately want to be in business or finance, but because it is a truly interesting subject). I took AP Economics junior year and received 5s on both AP tests and have continuously studied economics for three years as part of Academic Decathlon (which is below the depth of AP, but significantly more detailed than the basic high school econ course).
My first year, I figure I'm probably going to take lots of core classes so maybe my sophomore year I can take an economics course
Should I take the Intro courses prior to though I place out of them??
I have been studying economics basically all of high school and have a good grasp of it and would like to get into the more in-depth stuff. I don't want to be bored in a Intro course if that would be the case.
But at the same time, I don't want to be lost in a higher level course.
What's the verdict?
I don't mind reviewing Intro-level stuff over the summer if I have to.</p>
<p>There's really no need for someone like you to take ECON 198 or ECON 199. I took them last year, and although they were quite interesting, you probably know most (if not all) of the material that those classes cover. If you really love econ though, maybe you could just sit in on ECON 198 and ECON 199. The professor, Alan Sanderson, forbids auditors but considering there are 125+ people in the class, he would never know :)</p>
<p>Sanderson is actually very, very good with faces, Meow, so I wouldn't bet on that. </p>
<p>As Meow said, people like the classes, but if you know the material you can probably skip them and do fine. (Though I heard a rumor that 198 was going to be required for econ majors?) I have heard a few students who took AP econ say that 198/199 covered significantly more material in more depth than the AP courses. Anyway, don't worry about it now. Talk to your adviser about it during O-Week and you should get some good advice, hopefully.</p>
<p>198/199 doesn't really help you that much for the Econ core. It helped me a bit, but that was because I had never taken Econ before. If you understand the general intuition of the key tools of economics (i.e. marginal decisions, supply and demand, etc.) you will be fine. Lots of people take the Econ core without having had Econ 198/199 or any econ before. That said Econ 198/199 (along with Econometrics) were the best/most useful/most interesting economics classes I have taken at the university, by far. These three economics courses apply the subject as you will actually use it.</p>
<p>I would skip intro. A minority took it when I was at Chicago as far as majors went and it seemed to have no correlation with long term success in the program. On some level, I am almost inclined to believe it could give a false sense of competence, for if you have a hard time wrapping your head around the non-math concepts in "Elements of Economics Analysis I" (i.e. the start of the intermediate sequence) and instead have to keep referring back to what you learned in intro, then it is just best to get out before you really get in trouble. </p>
<p>Further, you should take the first intermediate micro course as soon as possible (3rd quarter freshmen year is ideal), to see if you are actually interested in the major (especially if you might want to switch to a science otherwise). Since it is taught entirely with reference to first quarter differential calculus (and what else you need from multivariate is a day's worth of study from the appendix), its best not to wait around to finish Math 195 / 196 or whatever your intended higher math sequence is before getting into it. </p>
<p>It's sad to see third years stuck in econ simply because there is no way they could cover all the requirements for their then desired major in time to graduate. Indeed, looking at the decline between declared econ majors coming in - ala the freshmen internal facebook - and the numbers that exit with diploma in hand, many find it is not for them and are lucky enough to find success in another area. This is especially so in econ, where a large number of first years get on board simply because it's UChicago or because their parents think it helps justify the cost of attendance.</p>