<p>Does anyone know if the Math and or Econ departments are good? Do students matriculate to good business schools? Which departments are known to be very strong?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What do you mean by “good?” If you double major in Econ and Math, and distinguish yourself in those majors, you can count on gainful employment in the financial sector.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
<li><p>Asian Languages and Civilizations (Japanese), Classics, English, French, Jurisprudence, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Russian.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I was an econ major, and while I didn’t end up going the b-school route, many of my friends did, and they almost universally go to or went to top-10 business schools, with several going to Harvard or Stanford. </p>
<p>If you come out of Amherst with a good GPA (not hard to do with the grade inflation), get a good job (also not hard to do out of Amherst) and do well on the GMAT (sort of up to you), you will have no trouble getting into a top b-school. </p>
<p>(The same is true for law school, btw, except for that law schools care less about prior work experience.)</p>
<p>Amherst2008, what’s a “good” GPA in your opinion? Where did your friends work after Amherst? Thanks :)</p>
<p>Borges, by “good” I meant what you need to get into a top business school. So, if you look at the median GPAs on US News & World report, you really only need a 3.6-3.7 to get into top schools (provided you do well on the GMAT). B-schools don’t really care what school you come from or what the median GPA is at your school. The median GPA at amherst is around 3.6. I know when I was in the econ department they curved all of their classes to a B+ median, which is a 3.33. Most econ majors took some enjoyable fluff classes to help raise their GPA. I don’t think you have to kill yourself to get a 3.6, usually as long as you’re somewhat conscientious about doing your homework and studying, that should be pretty easy. </p>
<p>After graduating, many of my friends who were interested in business ended up working for consulting or trading firms. (I worked for a consulting firm.) Some did more hard-econ type work, such as working for the Fed. Many typically go into i-banking, but I graduated right after the Lehman and Bear Stearns stuff, so there weren’t many of those jobs going around. I think that has bounced back. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thank you “amherst2008”. That helps a great deal 
I sent you a PM btw…</p>
<p>@amherst2008: The ECON department at Amherst curves all their classes? Do other departments practice this policy?</p>
<p>Black studies is also a challenging and well-reputed department, I don’t know how anyone can leave that out.</p>