<p>Anybody on here doing public policy at chicago? I was thinking maybe econ & public policy together might be interesting. I guess some of the classes fit together which is nice. I have a couple of questions though:
1) Is public policy very quantitative, or more like a public relations type deal?
2) In PP you have to pick a focus area, and if I were double majoring in econ & pp could my specialization be economics, or can those classes not be double counted?
3) Is the major very popular?
4) How are job prospects in business?</p>
<p>Someone else who knows should answer your questions, but my impressions from casual conversations with other parents are (1) very quanty, (2) yes, and very common -- PP being regarded as something like Econ Lite or Econ Left, (3) pretty, including as an escape hatch from Econ, and (4) ??, but decent prospects in government/nonprofit, which can often lead to the private sector.</p>
<p>It has a mildly bad rap to be honest. If you can handle the few extra math courses to get the econ brand name, it is definitely worth it both intellectually and careerwise. Consequently, it tends to have a lot of people who kind of washed out from the econ track. </p>
<p>Conversely, the required soft policy type courses are kind of lame, and most students on the qualitative side prefer the nearly complete freedom of the political science requirements instead. There is also so type of project requirement that amongst the people I knew was universally loathed. </p>
<p>Finally, you are required to take several courses with professors that are simply not that influential in their fields - they mainly just teach UG's. Bear in mind that UChicago students tend to gravitate towards the bigger name figures be it Levitt, Pape, Tarcov, what have you.</p>
<p>However, outside of the university no one will really know or care about the second or third factors.</p>
<p>so, if i double majored, it seems as if i would only need 6 more classes. the 3 core public policy, the 2 for the research project, then one senior seminar. the 3 focus area classes, the calc, and stats would all be covered by my econ requirements.</p>
<p>They may not let you use all straight-econ courses for the three focus area classes -- you probably ought to call and ask about that if it makes a difference to you. And the senior seminar is cover for the requirement that you write a BA paper, which is a good thing but not an easy thing. So "six courses" may understate the extra requirements somewhat. But it's clearly do-able. Just recognize that, out of the 45 or so classes you would expect to take, as many as 38-40 may be dictated by either Core or major requirements. That doesn't leave a lot of room for playing around with other things that interest you.</p>
<p>There really is no point in double majoring in PP and Econ if you are going to use the Econ courses to cover PP. The elective flexibility (every student eventually wants this) is much better by going solo. There are plenty of people who get the economics degree and otherwise load up on political science and history offerings. Indeed, unless you are going to graduate school for a quant subject this is the best route. Econ only paints half the social science picture. </p>
<p>Also, bear in mind that you can take three graduate level PP courses through the Harris School for credit. There are some really strong, focused offerings there that will push you as a UG, and will let you further socialize with a lot of people who have worked with reputable PP institutions before returning to university. This is one of the clear advantages of being at a comprehensive, research university after all.</p>
<p>wait- so uchicagoalum, are you advising me to do PP, or not to?</p>
<p>He's telling you that you can do better, educationally, by majoring in econ and taking electives related to public policy, than by jumping through the hoops for the second major.</p>
<p>Or political science.</p>
<p>I guess the distinction that might be missed is that PP in the college is just a major, whereas the Harris School is an entire graduate division unto itself (and in no way affiliated with the College’s program). Again, taking challenging electives through Harris can be worthwhile, but you are limited to three (as far as credit goes), and six total (you can take three more for a letter grade but not credit, just to beef up your transcript for employers or graduate school). </p>
<p>The gist is that the PP major required courses don’t receive stellar reviews, and if you are going to double in econ or political science, they will detract from you education by narrowing your range of elective opportunities.</p>