<p>First of all, would it be possible to major in both of these at AU?</p>
<p>I’m curious about the strength of these majors at American, particularly economics. Looking through a few past threads it seems to be mainly one poster who says the professors are very left-leaning and the program may not provide the best foundation. Is he correct? I’d just like a wider range of views on the topic.</p>
<p>Also, why is there no English major? How different is Literature from a conventional English degree elsewhere?</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the literature deparment at AU. And, while I can’t offer comparisons with other schools, I can tell you about my experience with the AU economics department. My experience was in the early and mid 1990s, so I hope more recent students will also provide some information.</p>
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<li><p>Yes, some of the professors are left-wing, but you should expect that of college professors. I generally found that the older professors were more liberal and the younger professors were more free-market oriented. I am of the latter persuasion, however, it was because of a general education macro economics class (which was superbly taught by a more or less socialist professor) that I became interested in economics. I never found any professor’s “ideology” to materially affect his teaching (or grading).</p></li>
<li><p>The economics program at AU tends to be very broad-based, with an emphasis on economic policy and the interaction of the markets and government. This makes sense given AU’s location and the orientation of the entire university. I imagine that some other economics programs are more quantitative than AU’s. However, there are quantitative course offerings–the econometrics class I took was the most difficult class I had in my 18 years of schooling.</p></li>
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