Hi everybody,
I’m going to be starting a Dual Bachelors degree program Columbia has with a French university. The program is essentially focused on the social sciences. My main interests are Political Science and Economics. The issue is that my knowledge of maths is somewhat rusty. I have a working knowledge of Trigonometry and Pre-calculus but I’m nowhere near understanding Calc I. I have a few months before I start college, where I could work on it.
Must my knowledge of Trigonometry be very solid, for me to complete Pre Calc? Also must a person be extremely good at maths to major in Economics? Anybody here that majored in Economics at Columbia that can maybe tell me a bit about their experience? Anybody double majored Poli Sci and Econ at Columbia?
Is this the normal process for understanding this branch of maths: Trigonometry, then Pre calc, then Calc I ?
Hope you guys can help
You need to work closely with the program advisors at Sciences Po and GS to squeeze in a double major. You need 9 classes for each department at Columbia for econ and poli sci plus the Core. So having as many of your Sciences Po classes transfer for credit to GS is key to making it work. Lots of Columbia students double major in econ and poli sci. Almost all the influential social science research is coming out of econ departments these days(unfortunately).
Math is essential to economics. Columbia’s econ department requires Calculus I and III plus a calculus based statistics course in addition to the econ classes. The upper level econ electives will require extensive math fluency, so you need to complete those classes at Sciences Po. Most Columbia College students complete intro calculus from high school and take Calc III and stats freshman year.
In the US, trig and pre-calc are typically taught in a combined 10th or 11th grade class. If you’re not able to take an in-person class, take the online Khan Academy precalculus class and maybe a non-calculus statistics class to get a basic grasp of the terminology.