<p>So how good is uva's economic department? I heard that it is one of the most popular major ( huge class size?) of UVA. I would like to hear comments from current UVA econ major students about the department and program. Thanks</p>
<p>Also , I heard that comm school’s job recruitment % is very high and top Wall street firms annually recruit from there. I would like to know the situation for econ majors? ( probably not same?)</p>
<p>I’m not sure about econ majors in specific, but I do know that McIntire’s placement rate is 97% (or somewhere close to that).</p>
<p>I believe many people who don’t make it into Comm School decide to become econ majors.</p>
<p>Tons and tons of people take the introductory macro/micro sequence, whether or not they plan to be econ or McIntire majors. That’s true here and at most universities. The reputation of the lecturers at UVA (Elzinga and somebody else) are very good. I always encourage my advisees to take one or two economics courses as I believe they are very helpful for understanding current events, public policy, financial news, etc. even apart from any career-related value they might have. As you get higher up in the economics major, the classes will become more specialized, less appealing to the masses, and dramatically smaller.</p>
<p>UVA has fantastic recruiting. I believe the only firm that recruits from McIntire alone is Goldman Sachs. But that is old info, it may have changed.</p>
<p>UVa’s econ dept is very good. For undergrad program strength, I would say that it is at about the level of UVa in general, maybe a little bit better. Almost all of the Professors are excellent teachers. Class size generally remains large throughout the program, 30-50ish for most 400 level classes. There are some smaller ones as well as some larger lectures. I don’t think economics really benefits from being taught in smaller classes though. I had no problem communicating in class when I wanted to. I’d rather have UVa spend its resources on smaller classes in English and foreign languages.</p>
<p>I liked that there is a wide variety of classes, few of which are required, so that students can tailor the major to their tastes. </p>
<p>Econ is the default major for comm school rejects, but I wouldn’t say that matters too much. There are also a ton of students who never had any interest in business. </p>
<p>Recruitment is good, but largely depends on what your goals are and how actively you pursue them. As long as you get good internships, you will have most of the same opportunities as a McIntire student. There are a number of companies that only recruit at McIntire(maybe 10-20?), but it’s nothing to worry about, and should not sway your decision if you are truly interested in econ.</p>