Is Econ underrated b/c of Haas?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Just curious... thoughts...? Seems like Econ anywhere else besides here would at least get some recognition...</p>

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<p>Yep, sadly, it’s probably true. Berkeley has one of the most eminent economics departments in the world, and the PhD program has an impressive placement record. </p>

<p>On the other hand, the economics undergrad program is seen to be the ‘safety’ major for those who couldn’t get into Haas.</p>

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<p>Would typical employers think of it as such (‘safety’, etc…). I would think outside of Berkeley, a degree in Economics would mean something… Thanks for the reply!</p>

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<p>It appears (from enrollment in 101A/101B/141 versus 100A/100B/140) that only about a fourth of those who take the intermediate micro/macro and econometrics courses are doing the “more math” versions. Graduate programs in economics strongly favor those who have more math: [Preparation</a> | Department of Economics](<a href=“http://econ.berkeley.edu/grad/admissions/preparation]Preparation”>Preparation | Department of Economics)</p>

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<p>i don’t really think so. many cal econ majors go on to great graduate schools and aren’t looked upon differently b/c they arent business majors. econ majors are often preferred by many graduate schools</p>

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<p>But a vast majority of economics majors aren’t interested in graduate school in economics anyway. Even without the 101 series and more mathematics and statistics, econ by itself is more quantitative than a vanilla Haas schedule. On top of that, for basically any graduate school or professional school, econ>business. A lot of professional schools (including MBA and Law) would rather your undergraduate degree not be in a professional major like business or accounting since they want to be the ones to teach it to you. In that regard econ is a much more flexible degree. On top of this, econ is much less requirement heavy and you can pair it with almost anything (I’ve seen econ/mcb, econ/stats, econ/compsci, econ/legal studies, etc) and complete it within a reasonable time.</p>

<p>There are certainly a good amount of econ majors that just couldn’t get into Haas, but the majority of econ majors, even those that only take 100a/b weren’t interested in business to begin with.</p>

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<p>^ you say econ majors arent interested in grad school, then you say they aren’t interested in business
what are these guys gna do, flip burgers?</p>

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<p>I said graduate school in Economics. And not being interested in business doesn’t mean they won’t end up working in business anyway.</p>

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<p>Look here for the jobs econ undergrads get:
]<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Econ.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Be sure to cross-reference it with here, since many Haas majors double with Econ, and it will appear in both sites:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/BusAd.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/BusAd.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^Right off the bat, you can see that a lot of Haas students are also Econ majors. Once you take away the Econ positions due to overlap (and not the other way around, since you can major in Bus. Admin and pick up an econ double major but not the opposite), you can see that the prospects for Econ majors alone aren’t that great, unfortunately.</p>

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<p>From what I saw, an Econ single major got into Boston Consulting, another got into Merill Lynch, two got into Citigroup, three into Bank of America, and many, many more got business jobs at assorted F500 companies, with a response rate of 37%.</p>