Switching from "undecided" to an econ major/comm minor? -freshman

<p>I've just recently been accepted into ucsd's 6th college with an "undecided in the social sciences" status</p>

<p>However, after looking at the major/minor options i know know that i want to pursue an economics major with a comm. minor...</p>

<p>Here are my questions!</p>

<p>a) When can i declare this?</p>

<p>b) How easy is this process?</p>

<p>c) To what extent will my major affect my college GE program? 6th college requires me to take 2 social sciences and the econ majr requires me to take 2 econ classes freshman year, does this mean that the only social sciences i can take are econ related???</p>

<p>d) How's their econ program? caring profs? workload? </p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>It’s really easy to declare a major/minor. Go to tritonlink, then click Advising and Grades, then Majors and minors. It will say add a major and find Econ and the add it. For your minor, right below it says add a minor. You need to input the classes that you must take for your comm minor. Go on the comm website and look up the required classes for the comm minor. Then type these classes and hit add. Then bam your an Econ major with a Comm minor. As far as your GE’s. Your lower div econ classes should count for your social science GE’s, but you can take any social science classes you want. I’m not an econ major so I can’t really speak for the workload
Hope this helped</p>

<p>I’m a freshman econ major at Warren and so far, the workload is pretty light. The lower div econ courses are pretty easy and you’ll do well as long as you put in the time to study for at least a few days before exams and do practice problems. I’m taking my first upper div econ course right now, so we’ll see how it goes. The course grade for my current upper div econ is 40% midterm, and 60% final, which kind of scares me D:</p>

<p>Not sure if you can overlap sixth college GE’s with your major. You’ll have to look into their GE’s more to find out. (Or you can use Virtual Advising On tritonlink). Definitely help me a lot before I entered UCSD.</p>

<p>As for the Econ program, I find it relatively easy. I was originally an Electrical Engineer and most of the professors were not very good at teaching. Many have accents, disorganized etc, but I found this to be true for many of the professors in the sciences. The professors in the social sciences and humanities are typically better in my opinion. The work load is relatively easy too.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies guys!</p>

<p>Could you give insight on some other questions?</p>

<p>a) what’s this “curve” ive been hearing about at ucsd? what’s the grade curve for econ? i heard that it’s not that lenient?</p>

<p>b) is econ very math intensive or is the math very basic (much like aco****ing math where you learn certain forms and functions that could be repeated over and over again)</p>

<p>i’m just really nervous because i know NOTHING about econ (except for some theories i came across in AP US History and History in general, plus some macro in business and management classes)</p>

<p>thanks,</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I’m not sure what you mean by that. My econ classes so far have been generously curved, with an average being a B, but these are introductory courses. </p></li>
<li><p>I don’t think it’s very math intensive. The highest required math course was only basic calculus (the 10 series, which is pretty easy). There will be other types of math introduced in later courses though, I’m sure. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I barely had any background in economics either before college (probably less than you), but I’m still doing very well in my economics courses so far.</p>

<p>a) I’m a sophomore right now and the class curves have been pretty generous. Average is a B but i find that if you at least put in some effort (such as reading the books, doing the hw, doing the practice exams) you should be able to get an A. The work load is a lot less than the sciences (engineering, physics, etc) in my opinion. (At least it is for me)</p>

<p>The math is not intensive at all. The economics major only requires the 10 series for math while the Management science and joint econ/math program requires the 20 series. (Much harder) I find the math difficultly level to increase depending on whether you want to do Econ, Management Science, or the Joint degree.</p>

<p>I came in with AP credit for Microeconomics so I can’t really judge too much on how intensive it is since i never took Econ 1 here, but Econ 3 is pretty basic and doesnt require any outside knowledge. If you are struggling, the professors and TA’s are glad to help.</p>

<p>thanks again guys!!!</p>

<p>with the “curve”, is an 80% like an A or something? i guess what i meant to say, is there weighting? and do any of you know if it’s possible for an undergrad to take “extension” classes while they’re at ucsd? I’m planning to take a certificate extension course in business just so i can have a more “hand-on” class…</p>

<p>cheers,</p>

<p>The curves are set by the Professor based on class performance, so it is variable. If the class performs well, an A may very well be a classical A. But, if the class does not perform at this level, on average, an A may be as low as 50%. I’ve never seen a curve that generous though. </p>

<p>As for extension courses, yes, you can take them during any quarter they are offered. There are a limited amount of vouchers for UCSD students, so you can take one course per quarter for free.</p>

<p>btw, do any of you know</p>

<p>a) When freshman could start enrolling into classes as well as declare majors (i have not been able to do so yet)</p>

<p>b) If the 4 year plans that tell you what courses you should take in freshman-senior yar if you are considering a particular major must be adhered to?</p>

<p>c) If as an econ major i can enroll into math3c (precalculus) before movoing into the required MATH 10 series?</p>

<p>thx</p>

<p>thanks for all the info, I too am planning on majoring in Econ, I’m told to go on the Math 20 route just in case. My question to you all is: will I be able to graduate at ucsd in four years, without taking classes in the summer? People keep telling me to go private because there is no way I can graduate in four years, and everyone takes summer classes. Is this true?</p>

<p>I double majored and double minored and graduated in four (though I took summer classes for two different years).</p>

<p>Thanks Oyama, how many classes did you take in the summer for both years? I’m just trying to decide if I should go to UCSD and major in Econ, add in the cost for summer classes and lodging or go to a private school that’s about 5K more per year but I will graduate in 4 years and no summer classes. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>The two summers I took classes, I was taking full loads (3 classes per session; 6 classes per summer).</p>

<p>You’ll graduate in four years. Sixth isnt known to have a lot of GE’s and Econ doesnt have many requirements. Good idea taking the 20 series as well.</p>

<p>whew, thanks guys, my parents are pushing me to go to a private, but I just feel right at ucsd. I got Muir where I hear the GE’s are pretty easy.
Can I take 4 classes a year? or is that too many?</p>

<p>You mean quarter, right?</p>

<p>And it depends on what you can handle. I started off with 3/quarter as a CompEng major freshman year, but was taking 6-8 classes/quarter during Junior and Senior years.</p>

<p>Econ isn’t impacted so switching into it won’t be a hassle. The upper division classes don’t require much math at all. Every professor has their own curve.</p>