I’m a HS senior who is very strong in humanities and relatively weaker in STEM subjects.
This year, I took AP Micro/Macroecon and basically fell in love with the subject. I currently have a A in the class (our school doesn’t do +/-). I hope to major in Econ when I get to college, but people say AP Econ is nothing and that I should probably stay away from college economics and stuff like that.
I don’t necessarily hate STEM, but I’m just not naturally talented. Last year I had a A in AP Chem and got a 5 but I really, I mean REALLY, struggled. Right now I’m like basically drowning in AP Calc AB and I have a B.
Do you think these problems could be overcome? Or should I just give up on the econ major?
I don’t think you should give up. You might plan to take intro classes in that and another area of interest during freshman year so you can have options. You don’t have to declare a major at most schools until the end of soph year, so you can give more than one area a try and see how it goes.
And… some things that are worth having require some elbow grease. If I had one thing I could go back to college and change, it would be sticking with a major where I hit some bumps GPA wise (but didn’t fail any classes) - I changed majors, and have always regretted it. A B in AP Calc AB is not “drowning”. You sound capable to me.
Econ and STEM are not so related that you cannot be good in one and not in another. Econ is a great field for a humanities person. There are many branches in econ. Depending on what your interests are, you can use humanities subjects in econ. Look at a list of courses in Econ at various schools and you will see the overlap. Also some econ majors do more math and others combine it with other things, like poly sci or government/urban planning/business or even psych. Many ways and paths. Econ is a great major! Don’t listen to people who think in narrow bands. Find people who are open minded
Mathematics are a very common tool in many of the social sciences today. Their impact and use has been growing for decades. I agree with “intparent.” A"'B" in the AB calculus course is not drowning.
I started in engineering and switched to economics after reading an international newspaper published in London while I was overseas. Like you, I became captivated by the magnitude of its broad applications. I always enjoyed math, but it became yet easier as I needed to learn linear algebra to pursue economics in graduate school. Math is a tool, not a monster. Interest in the subject can make the math tools take on a life. Your intellectual skills are not etched in stone! Interest is the beginning of quality work. You may move slower, but you may also observe more. Just don’t start at Caltech or Princeton! Pick a university where your math tools can develop.
There is absolutely no need to decide your college major when your are a senior in HS. Takes classes in different areas of interest and see where your interests and talents lie.
Economics is a very math-heavy major. My D is majoring in Econ, minoring in math, and has learned some coding as well.
A B grade in AP calc doesn’t sound terrible. Do you enjoy the class? I’d be more concerned if you said you hate math. If you’re willing to work at it, you can learn the material and get better, and being able to see the applications of math topics in the Econ major may make the math all the more interesting.
@Parentof2014grad : You wrote that “Economics is a very math-heavy major.” Wouldn’t that vary by school ?
@publisher a student may be able to complete an Econ major with less math, but theory behind the discipline is very quantitative. Economic modeling is extremely quantitative. Applications of Econ are quantitative. If you want to go to grad school in Econ, you need a lot of math.
I was an Econ major (BA) at a UC, and calculus and calc-based statistics were required and necessary, and used in Econ coursework all the time.
My D is at an LAC. Her Econ coursework covers economic modeling, linear regressions. She has a job lined up after graduation in research, and is looking at grad school. The math background is required for both, as are some programming skills. The students at her school who aren’t pursuing research are aiming for finance. The math helps there too.
Interesting. Thank you for responding. I often steer folks away from quant heavy MBA programs if they are not quant jocks.
My understanding is that many undergraduate schools do not require heavy math for econ majors, while other schools do.
Econ majors definitely vary regarding math content. Some require just one semester of calculus for their intermediate micro or macro classes. But to the OP, there definitely is room for a humanities person in econ. Many econ majors also study philosophy and history. There is an “economic way of thinking” that isn’t just math.
Agree with “Parentof2014grad”
One can study economics without a lot of math, but modeling today’s research at the graduate school level is very difficult if you can’t speak the language of linear algebra. Linear algebra was integral to the study of Economics in an LA university (Boston College), years ago when I was a student. Half of the 15 students in the program had undergraduate degrees in math or engineering. Even explaining undergraduate concepts can be hampered in courses where the language of math cannot be used.
Sometimes we forget that mathematics is a part of LA.
@retiredfarmer: But now you are switching the discussion to graduate programs in economics from undergrad programs.
OP: You can major in econ at the undergrad level without heavy math–but the math requirements will vary by school. So, to further address your question, a humanities oriented student may be fine in many, probably most, undergraduate econ majors.
This is a very relevant question as business schools admittance at the undergrad level becomes more competitive.
Folks not all programs are the same and YOUR programs or your child’s does not speak for the entire subject matter. I hold two Econ degrees one undergrad and one a Masters neither was done with a heavy math focus. Don’t let misinformation guide you. Look at your own interests and the curriculum. Also even the Ivies have people who are Econ majors and are NOT math specific.
My two sons both Major/Majored in Econ. One graduated, the other is a Junior now. At their school you can take more math related classes for the Econ degree or take classes less Quant based. At their LAC, the Econ major is the major chosen if you want a career in the business/finance world as they do not have any business or finance majors.
What are you thinking about doing as a career with an Econ degree? You could major in Finance and just take interesting Econ classes if you are looking for a basic business type degree.
Best of luck
I wouldn’t be even a bit concerned about having a B in calc AB. You can and should take more calc in college and you will be free to start with calc 1 if you want. (It might also be the case that your high school calc teacher isn’t super awesome and you might have better luck with teaching quality when you get to college.)
Whatever your longer-term plans, if you should major in econ, my suggestion would be to put forth the effort in calc in college so that you can at least take one semester of econometrics, whether or not your college requires it and whether or not you have any interest in pursuing a quantitative angle, if only for the background understanding it would provide.
If an undergraduate majors in a subject, it is often assumed that they are prepared for graduate school in the subject if they should decide to continue in that field of study. My comments reflect that assumption.
A Wikipedia entry on Humanities spreads some light on the evolving nature of Humanities @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanities
“Since the early twentieth century, philosophy in English-speaking universities has moved away from the humanities and closer to the formal sciences, becoming much more analytic. Analytic philosophy is marked by emphasis on the use of logic and formal methods of reasoning, conceptual analysis, and the use of symbolic and/or mathematical logic, as contrasted with the Continental style of philosophy.[25] This method of inquiry is largely indebted to the work of philosophers such as Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.”
This should not be construed as an attack on the humanities, but a recognition of the integration of our constantly evolving education. Our knowledge base is a whole and not a collection of independent parts. On what tablet is it etched that they must be kept apart? Educators often create the disciplinary barriers. Beauty can be found in many disciplines.
Few of us are naturally talented at anything. Most of us have to develop our talent. There is nothing academic that you can’t learn.
I don’t think that your AP Econ was totally devoid of math.
If you like economics, and it’s a terrific field of study, then recognize that you will have to learn a lot of math, and stop psyching yourself out thinking that you can’t do it. If anything, AP microeconomics can give you some insight into calculus. When they talked about marginal anything, they are talking about the slope of a curve at a given operating point. They are talking about the derivative. Optimization is key in economics. Maximization of continuous functions like utility curves involves derivatives.
Yes an economics program that prepares you for serious graduate school is going to involve math, but if you love economics, your study of math will be a labor of love.
@ClassicRockerDad It’s obvious there aren’t enough voices on this thread who have actually studied economics. Having studied econ at one of the best universities in the nation and having taken very little math, I think you are wholly mistaken. Either because you studied econ with a bent toward math because that was the type of program you followed or because you are speaking as a third person who hasn’t tried to take econ in a different direction. Likewise, there are many fields of econ where a masters is undertaken ( even a Phd) and little math is involved. Thinking econ and math are the same is like saying you need to be good in English to study French ( since they are both languages).
I will refrain here from quoting Wikipedia which is not based on anything other than the opinion of contributors. Still laughing at the lack of depth in folks who fail to think in broad terms about what the study of econ entails. The framework does not have to be mathematical.
Please potential econ students don’t forgo a great major due to misinformation. Look carefully at various programs and paths.
You are making assumptions.
I majored in economics at a STEM university, where it is true, we used a lot of math. My undergraduate economics faculty had degrees from MIT, Brown, Harvard Notre Dame, Clark, Holy Cross and some University in Sweden. My graduate school faculty was at a second, highly respected university in Boston and my faculty had degrees from MIT, Harvard, Yale and U of Michigan. Almost half of the 15 graduate students in the PhD program had degrees in math or in fields from STEM Universities. Math was heavily emphasized so we were all told that we had to score high enough on their program’s version of a math placement test to be excused from a special mathematics course in their department. Only one of the fifteen graduate students were exempted from the math course and he was a math major from Princeton,
My first Economics Graduate exam was in Microeconomics. Using linear algebra, I filled two of those little blue books proving that the assumptions made in the exam question were internally consistent and could hold simultaneously. That Professor had his PhD in economics and an MS in mathematics.
I imagine you can teach anything without mathematics, BUT it does not mean that a discipline buried in data and theory cannot or should not be explored with the language of mathematics. It has a power and a beauty of its own. Why handicap the student by removing this powerful tool. Paul Samuelson was at MIT at the time and Milton Friedman was at Chicago. Both of these Economists actually did their undergraduate studies in Physics!
My brother graduated from a highly respected business school and believed math and science were great unknowns. He took some sort of economics courses there, so I known it can be done.
One can also communicate without learning how to write. Mathematics facilitates communication.