<p>I've just completed my sophomore year. I'm triple majoring in economics, mathematics, and classical languages. If I'm dead set on going to graduate school in Economics, should I drop my classics major and focus on economics and mathematics (i.e. take more courses, spend more time sharpening my math skills)? I've heard stories about admissions officers rejecting students on the basis that they should have taken less irrelevant courses and more relevant courses even though they've met the requirements for admissions. I don't how true these stories are. Thing is, I adore the classics, and I believe my classical education will contribute to my economics career in some subtle way. And I don't like focusing my undergraduate education on just one path. And I hope to continue reading Greek and Latin for the rest of my life, so I can't imagine throwing away a solid training in those languages. Help?</p>
<p>should only be a problem if the irrelevant courses are taking the place of where other math classes can be taken</p>
<p>Yikes, that’s exactly what I fear. I’ll be able to take all the ‘recommended’ (i.e. above the required) math courses for economics grad, but I won’t be able to take any more to prove myself as a math genius.</p>
<p>i dont think you have to worry as much to “impress” adcoms but rather to make sure you understand the material</p>
<p>from what i read, getting in isn’t hard but actually keeping up with coursework and graduating. something like 2 or 3/10 of people admitted into econ phd programs will even graduate and its due to the frequent use of sophisticated math</p>
<p>I heard the better you are at Math the better chance isnt it… so take all those hardcore upper level math course (Real Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Number Theory… all those stuff… look at the math courses still do at PHD)… and get A in all of them… do some research… then I think you have a great chance… my friend got into PHD Econ at MIT and Harvard… because of his math skill (he went to IMO) + high undergrad GPA (he got A in all his math classes)</p>
<p>[Greg</a> Mankiw’s Blog: Why Aspiring Economists Need Math](<a href=“http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-aspiring-economists-need-math.html]Greg”>Greg Mankiw's Blog: Why Aspiring Economists Need Math)</p>
<p>“if you are thinking about a PhD program in economics, you are advised to take math courses until it hurts.”</p>
<p>[Greg</a> Mankiw’s Blog: Which math courses?](<a href=“http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/which-math-courses.html]Greg”>Greg Mankiw's Blog: Which math courses?)</p>