<p>I'm an international student admitted to MIT Class of 2012. I have a few questions about the study of economics at MIT.</p>
<p>I've heard from someone that Econ is one of the easiest majors at MIT and most of the econ majors go into business sector like investment banking after their graduation. Do these really reflect the true picture of the econ @ MIT?</p>
<p>Further, I'm planning to double-major in Math and Econ, and hopefully go to a top graduate school (for either Math/Econ). How's the prospect/ease of doing so after the undergrad study at MIT? Would this be easier at Stanford?</p>
<p>(btw, I'm fairly good at math, so the highly quantitative nature of MIT econ would probably not be a problem for me.)</p>
<p>Finally, I would appreciate if someone could compare the econ programs at MIT and Stanford. Thanks.</p>
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Further, I'm planning to double-major in Math and Econ, and hopefully go to a top graduate school (for either Math/Econ). How's the prospect/ease of doing so after the undergrad study at MIT? Would this be easier at Stanford?
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It's relatively easy in general to double-major at MIT (at least in terms of the amount of red tape required) -- about 20% of students graduate with two degrees.</p>
<p>The statistics for the number of students who go to graduate school isn't broken down by major, but I don't see any reason why either math or economics majors would not go to top graduate schools like everybody else does, nor do I see any reason why getting into a top graduate school would be easier from Stanford. It's relatively easy to get into top graduate schools coming from a top undergraduate program, and MIT's math and econ programs are both ranked in the top 3.</p>
<p>You can see the employers who gave jobs to economics graduates last year here/url</a>. A little fun with numbers: The careers office survey had 13 economics majors reply that they were going into the work force. There were 42 economics bachelor's degrees awarded last year at MIT (numbers [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/degfinal.html%5Dhere%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/stats/degfinal.html]here</a>). Assuming that the 42 econ majors responded at the overall graduating student survey response rate of 67%, you can conclude that about 46% of MIT economics graduates did something other than go into the workforce.</p>