<p>What else do you have to do after you get in to be IN the Business Econ major? Is it difficult to do? What if you can't get in?</p>
<p>u gotta take a couple classes such as microeconomic theory and then they evaluate whether youre worth taking a spot. i know some people who had 4.0 gpas at cc and didnt get in even though they got accepted to pre bus econ… it can be difficult.</p>
<p>are the people force to change majors and waste a year?</p>
<p>Your description of “a couple classes such as microeconomic theory” is a gross understatement. I’ll write up a detailed explanation in a bit</p>
<p>Okay, basically Econ at UCLA is impacted as ****. Remember Econ 1 and 2 were easy. So everybody has to go through the weeder courses, classes intended to filter out the people not fit to do econ. They are:</p>
<p>Econ 41: Statistics
Econ 11: Microeconomic Theory
Econ 101: more Microeconomic Theory</p>
<p>About 250-300 students per class. All classes are graded on a curve against other students. The bottom 20% HAVE to fail (D or lower). The top 20% get As. Mean grade is curved to be a B-. Classes must be taken for letter grade. They are impacted classes so they can only be dropped within the first 1-2 weeks (so you basically haven’t taken the first test yet).</p>
<p>Source: [UCLA</a> Department of Economics](<a href=“http://www.econ.ucla.edu/undergraduate/majors/bizecon.html]UCLA”>http://www.econ.ucla.edu/undergraduate/majors/bizecon.html)</p>
<p>“Have a minimum 3.5 GPA in Econ 11 & 101 and a 3.3 cumulative UCLA GPA.”
So basically you need to get either A/A in 11/101, or A/B, or B/A. Get it? If you get a B in 11 and a B in 101, you are out of the major. Remember only the top 20% get As, so this makes the classes VERY competitive because the 300 people in your class are not dumb.</p>
<p>“Repetition of more than one pre-major course or of one pre-major course more than once will result in automatic denial of admission to the major.”
Basically don’t fail (C- is failing, you need a C. Remember UCs count minuses).</p>
<p>Most transfers I’ve talked to in my classes don’t make it into bus econ. As you can see the requirements are very strict. Community college was a joke. So if you don’t make it in (You have to send in an application after you do everything), 2 options:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>switch to the Economics major (MOST PEOPLE DO THIS)
Economics has less strict strict requirements both for pre reqs and major classes. You basically don’t need to take any more accounting classes.</p></li>
<li><p>switch majors
This is a reality. If you fail any of the 3 classes (bottom curved 20%) and do more than 1 repeat, then that’s it. You can’t switch to impacted majors (psych, bio, communications, etc) so your only viable alternatives are History and whatnot. Remember you will still have to go back and do all the pre reqs for that major and then apply. Which sucks dick.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As for me personally, I have a 3.87 at GPA (my community gpa was 3.62). I got an A in Econ 41, an A- in Econ 11, and am taking Econ 101 right now. I applied and was admitted to the Economics major. Could I have tried to go for Bus Econ? Yeah. But it wasn’t easy getting that 3.87 in the first place (studying about 5 times more now than community. econ is competitive) and I don’t really wanna go through all stress Bus Econ will give me. I hate accounting anyways. I’m very happy in my Econ major and will graduate with a higher gpa than if I had added that “Business” to my degree.</p>
<p>Switching majors when you transfer is a very possible reality. Many of my friends here have. One of my friends got admitted as a Chemistry major. Now she’s doing Anthropology because she couldn’t hang with Chem.</p>
<p>Does this mean UCLA classes are too hard? No way. North campus is easy as **** (History, Sociology, Psychology, etc…) and that’s where I pick up my easy elective As. They don’t have curves. South campus (Math, Science, Engineering) always has a curve. Remember that you are doing Econ which is known to be a hard major.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t let my post discourage you bro. I still have time to smoke weed every week, party at UCSB every other weekend, play sports (classes and intramural), and other *<strong><em>. Just up your studying game on the weekdays and you’ll be fine. Celebrate like a mother</em></strong>*er during the summer and get ready to rock those weeder classes when you come in Fall.</p>
<p>Damn that was a long ass post. Sorry I get passionate about this subject because I spent about 2 months talking to counselors and researching last quarter when I was deciding between Bus Econ, Econ, or another major. Although in my opinion you can never spend too much time researching when it comes to deciding what career path you intend to take.</p>
<p>great writeup man… good info there</p>
<p>so if you’re weeded out, you’re forced to change majors? because there is that gpa requirement even if you did get a B- in all the courses. And don’t people major anyway in economics if they don’t meet the requirements for business economics since there is no gpa requirement for economics or economics/international development studies?</p>
<p>Yes I stated that as the first option, most people switch to Econ. For Econ you only need to pass with C or better (still only 1 repeat allowed) in Econ 41 and Econ 11. It is much much easier than Bus Econ because they have a lot more room.</p>
<p>So feel safe and assured that you can always fall back on the Econ major. However, you need to take into account that a lot of people are VERY INTENT and dedicated to doing Business Economics (or else they would have just applied as Econ).</p>
<p>And also keep in mind that a small group of people will be out of the econ department altogether. Even though this group is very small, it is a possibility because you need to pass Econ 41 and Econ 11 with a C (for the straight Econ major), and the bottom 20% of the class HAS TO FAIL.</p>
<p>I know right now this sounds easy to not be in the bottom 20% to you, but the competition here is no joke. You are on a class ranking system against 250-300 other people who are just as smart if not smarter than you are. 40-50 of you will not leave the room as Econ majors (my professor stated to us that was his purpose. prof brown for reference). Your class is made of students who came in freshmen year with a 4.3 gpas, and transfers who came in with 3.5+ gpas. There will be overachievers among overachievers, these are the guys who will be bus econ.</p>
<p>However, this is just the weeding process. After you’re admitted into your major, the upper division professors are so nice haha. People aren’t as competitive anymore and the requirements are a lot more relaxed. It’s just unfortunate that this weeding process takes place right after you transfer and are getting used to both the quarter system and level of competition.</p>
<p>I have talked to the History counselor, and she told me that she has a lot of former Econ majors SPECIFICALLY coming in to switch majors.</p>
<p>I have talked to the college academic counselor. I was having some problems in Econ 11 and her first statement to me was “maybe you should consider another major”. They are not here to help you into the major, they want to filter people out first and foremost. After you’re in though they’re really nice haha.</p>
<p>can i say, i hate you. if i end up as discouraged as you then so be it, but i bet i won’t. screew you, I won’t let one person bring me down. to small a sample. you are just one person.</p>
<p>i’d rather be naive than discouraged.</p>
<p>amazing , you are amazing.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wish that they would raise the min GPA for the regular Econ degree to a 2.5 or even a 3.0 so it doesnt seem like all the accounting failures are doing regular econ. The accounting path is not what I’m interested in and to see that it only requires a 2.0 for Econ compared to over a 3.3 for Business Economics is ridiculous.</p>
<p>if you get a w, does that count as a repeat and mean you can’t take the course again and are out of the major, what if its two w or three w’s in the same course? and are econ majors relatively better job wise even with a so-so gpa?</p>
<p>“can i say, i hate you. if i end up as discouraged as you then so be it, but i bet i won’t. screew you, I won’t let one person bring me down. to small a sample. you are just one person.”</p>
<p>How am I discouraged? I am doing great here. My UCLA gpa is higher than my community gpa. Did I mention that I’m having a ****ING blast here? I loooove UCLA. I looove Econ. The school spirit here is ridiculous, everybody is a proud bruin. Everyday I wake up in my dorm room, I am still amazed that someone like me who barely graduated high school (I grew up ghetto) is at a world class institution like this. </p>
<p>I’ve only been giving you FACTS which are taken directly from the department website, direct quotes from my professors, and direct quotes from counselors. The weeder courses are INTENDED TO DISCOURAGE YOU. Don’t put the blame on me. I’m a realist. </p>
<p>There’s a stereotype that transfer students can’t hang with those admitted freshman year because it’s easier for us to get in. By giving you more knowledge and experience, I am ENCOURAGING you to do better by being better prepared. I want all transfer students to come in and rock the **** out of the curve. The freshmen come into these classes with all of this knowledge already.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and don’t read this thread then. For anyone else as passionate about Econ and UCLA as I am, feel free to PM me any questions you have.</p>
<p>amazing, what exactly is in econ 11. i’m a math/econ applicant so i’ll be taking it over summer if i get in.</p>
<p>i’ve taken micro and macro. and upper division econometrics. and policy&market imperfections. and upper div stats and probability. so i wasn’t really worried about it.</p>
<p>but can you provide specific info about content?</p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>Wow, a real good info there. Otherwise, I would’ve found myself dumb when I transfer, cuz no one had told me about it. </p>
<p>Amazing, I just have one question. My friend is sophomore and biz-econ major at UCLA, does that mean she’s only in lower division of biz-econ or can sophomore be in upper division if they’re done with those pre-req?</p>
<p>Amazing- thank you for all the input. I’m kind of ****ting rocks now about it, and I’m not sure what I should do, but at least now I know all the facts and if/when I go for it I know what to expect.</p>
<p>Hell, worst comes to worst I can just switch to an econ major which is still pretty legit.
Great post man-</p>
<p>Thanks again!
Glenn R </p>
<p>PS- Do you know if the Business Administration Major at USC is the same way? That you have to Ace a bunch of impossible classes to actually get into the major? Or are you in when you get into the school?</p>
<p>"what exactly is in econ 11. i’m a math/econ applicant so i’ll be taking it over summer if i get in.</p>
<p>i’ve taken micro and macro. and upper division econometrics. and policy&market imperfections. and upper div stats and probability. so i wasn’t really worried about it."</p>
<p>Damn you’ve already done econometrics? haha. I guess that scares me because I’m not a math major. It’s hard to sum up what Econ 11 is, because it’s such a general class and you go through a lot of topics. If I had to sum it up, I’d say remember Econ 1? Everything you learned in that class, you’re basically just taking it 1 step up and putting down actual mathematical models for things you’ve done before.</p>
<p>I’ll make up a basic example off the top of my head:</p>
<p>A consumer has a utility function U=(x^.5)(y^.7). This is just a mathematical function of how much “happiness” he gets from goods x and y. He has a budget of 20.</p>
<p>A producer produces goods x and y. Price of x = 2, price of y = 3. Obviously there are many combinations of ways in which he could buy X and Y. How much X and Y should he buy (within his budget) so that he gets the MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF UTILITY?</p>
<p>And then you draw a graph that looks like this:
<a href=“http://cruel.org/econthought/essays/paretian/image/pareto1.gif[/url]”>http://cruel.org/econthought/essays/paretian/image/pareto1.gif</a></p>
![http://cruel.org/econthought/essays/paretian/image/pareto1.gif[/url]](http://cruel.org/econthought/essays/paretian/image/pareto1.gif%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Then you use basic calculus to find point E on the graph, where he is getting the most utility (the curved line) while hitting his budget constraint (the straight line).</p>
<p>That’s the basics of it. More detail later like, what is the new optimal point when price of x drops to 1? Stuff like that. You’ll spend like 1-2 weeks doing that. So as a math person you’ll love doing that because Econ 1 had no math at all. The higher into the upper divs you go the more math gets thrown into the concepts.</p>
<p>Sorry that’s just me getting really specific. I’ve been doing econ math problems all day for Econ 171 so I’m probably just tripping on caffeine haha. Ignore me.</p>
<p>“PS- Do you know if the Business Administration Major at USC is the same way? That you have to Ace a bunch of impossible classes to actually get into the major? Or are you in when you get into the school?”</p>
<p>Nobody here knows anything about USC bro haha. We only know that UCLA > USC. There’s such a big rivalry here I don’t think anyone will tell you anything good about it haha. I’m pretty sure it’s the same way there.</p>
<p>“Amazing, I just have one question. My friend is sophomore and biz-econ major at UCLA, does that mean she’s only in lower division of biz-econ or can sophomore be in upper division if they’re done with those pre-req?”</p>
<p>Anyone can take upper division classes. There are plenty of sophmores doing upper divs. You just need the pre req class. That just probably means she’s still working on the GEs through junior year.</p>
<p>The only requirement about year standing is:</p>
<p>“Your application will be accepted if you have completed between 72 and 137 units. (AP units will not be included if they bring your total over 137.)”</p>