I will be a senior next year in high school and ive recently decided to follow my passions and pursue a career in a front office of one of the major 6 sports in the country. I love sports with an undying passion and I want to combine math/analytics to make a career out of it. After doing a lot of research I learned the popular major paths are business administration, statistics, and economics. I was unaware economics would help so much in this field. I am currently signed up for ap stats, ap research, ap calc, and ap computer science. I am taking an engineering models class as well so I would be taking 2 computer programming classes. I could independently study ap econ macro and micro instead of taking ap computer science. Would this be the best route for me? any input advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
If you want to focus on analytics, and approach a front office/sports management career from that angle, which is a good idea these days, a major in stats or computer science would be helpful. For analytics, I don’t think a business major is ideal for developing the necessary quantitative skills.
Economics? There is certainly stats/econometrics/programming involved in an economics major, but I don’t see econ as the ideal major for sports analytics. Too much abstract theory. You could minor in economics, but again, perhaps a business minor would be more practical (where intro econ is usually covered). There are econ majors in front offices, but are these the hard core analytics guys or the management types? Probably the latter.
It depends what skills you want to develop to approach the career. Many majors could work. There are plenty of law degrees in front offices, too, and those people are typically not quantitative types. Your path will partly depend on your college choices, too, as schools tend to be stronger in certain fields and it’s often wise to tailor an academic program based on school strengths.
Anyway, to answer your question about AP CS vs AP Macro/Micro, I’d stick with the CS if you are intent on developing quantitative skills for your career goals. Econ is not a “wrong” path, though, so maybe exposing yourself to it in high school would give you a better idea of whether you want to develop quantitative skills, primarily, or business skills, or a hybrid such as economics/stats. If you’re doing programming with your engineering class, you might feel that AP CS is overkill. Then again, if you are thinking of majoring in CS in university, an AP course might be useful.
Think about it some more. You’re on the right path!
FYI, Syracuse has a new Sport Analytics major… my son is starting in this program in the fall. It’s the only undergrad sport analytics degree in the country (for now). Good luck pursuing your passion!
My son also got into the analytics program. He has not decided yet. He is a little nervous about it being the frst class and if he wants to change majors to business not sure he would want that to be at Syracuse. Is your son a very high preforming student? Are you from the east coast?
2021Momma - Congrats to your son! My son is a sophomore in hs and is interested in the program.
i am going to play soccer in college, syracuse is a top 5 d1 program and realistically i am not good enough.