<p>I'm about to start attending college and am curious. Which is a smarter way to go, Economics or Finance? I hope to be an economic analysis for the government and from what I've seen a masters in either field will get me the job. Also on a side if I am to pursue a foreign country of interest to specialize in what should I go for. Im planning on Russia Because in 6 years they will probably have a nice economy again by the way things are looking, or would china be a safer bet with the way they are booming? Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I had a similary question...but I've always been told that it is much harder to get an mba with a bba instead of a bs.</p>
<p>lookingforwhat, the information you received is BS.</p>
<p>Agreed, thats not true at all. However if you want to do economic analysis, it would probably be best to go with Economics. But this also depends on what school you go to and which is stronger.</p>
<p>Math. If you already know you need a masters in either economics or finance, an undergraduate degree in math is going to make your life a lot simpler. It might be easy to double with economics or finance, but it doesn't even matter because most graduate programs will introduce you to micro, macro and econometrics as well as any other basic principles of the field. iirc the Chicago program has an entire session before their terminal masters starts to introduce incoming students who need it to economic theory.</p>
<p>Now, if you're going for a terminal masters (although the fact that you haven't entered college yet makes it really hard to say you'll absolutely end up wanting to do this) you can almost major in anything and be good at it and still get into a top program. Even the most elite of terminal masters are more lenient in admissions than a good doctoral econ program, maybe with the exception of the MSF at Princeton. That's not to say you should major in anything, if you want to go into analysis you should major in something that requires you to perform some kind of rigorous analysis, but a terminal masters isn't that difficult to get. Just be good at math.</p>
<p>I'd also recommend the China route over learning Russian and going to Russia, and it has everything to do with the possibility that Russia is going to end up becoming even more a hotbed of tension and nothing to do with the fact that China is booming. Hell, I'd try and become remotely competent with one form of Hindi and visit India, or German and Germany, or try to become solid with more than one romance language than deal with Russia anytime in the next 10-15 years. Russia has a nice economy now, and they're doing a lot of work with oil money, but that political situation is only going to get worse before it gets better.</p>