BA in Economics?
I am currently enrolled for a BA in Economics and minor in Business at UIUC. A friend of mine told me that I might as well enroll in Mathematics since the economics degree does not teach much and I could just pick up the stuff with my Mathematics major. He went on to tell me that recruiting is awful for Econ majors at UIUC and employers would much rather see Mathematics than Economics at this point of time. It is impossible to transfer over to the College of Business since you can only do it during your freshman year, which is what he recommended if I don't want to do the mathematics path.He went on to tell me that I would learn something useful in Mathematics whereas in Economics, all the material I learn, could just as well be learned from reading a couple textbooks. Is his logic correct here and should I reconsider my major ? His advice kind of got me paranoid.
You could also major in both, or major in one and minor in the other.
I'm a pure math and economics double major, but take it from me that even the math major can be pretty useless and even detrimental, depending on what you want to do when you graduate.
Your friend's general advice is correct, that an economics degree is not as substantive as a math degree. But, I think it's going a little far to say that a math major can easily pick up the intuition behind economic theory and understand various real-life cases just by picking up a textbook. Much of undergraduate economics education is devoted to teaching this way of thinking.
I agree with econ though that you should at least have a minor in one or the other.
Double major if you can.
Its not the econ degree itself, but the econ degree at a school with a well known business program. Being an econ major invites the question why not business; math is different enough that you should be ok.
If you have to pick one, and think you can get a similar GPA, math wins for recruiting.
Can't one just answer this with something along the lines of "Economics was more interesting to me, as an academic discipline" or "I enjoyed the quantitative nature of economics'?
I've heard people sometimes say that others will wonder if you weren't able to get into the business school, which is why you chose econ. But if you have a 3.5+ GPA, isn't it obvious to employers that you chose to do econ for other reasons?
You can, but it is better not to instill doubt. True or not, then that question begs the response, "why are you applying to a job in business, as opposed to economics".
If you do econ-math, you can sell it better. That course load would look nothing like a business major. But plain econ does create some concern.
I would actually recommend pure math over pure econ from a recruiting standpoint (you will also probably be happier with your undergrad education). This assumes that it won't sink your GPA.
Business undergrad is a joke at 90% of schools. The large majority of target schools only offer Economics undergrad. Double major with a hard science. It shows you can handle heavy math and opens doors into VC that Math does not if you decide to go that route.
Take econ and also take math and stats courses that are challenging and relevant, along with their pre-reqs (time series, partial differential equations, mathematical statistics, stochastic calculus, linear algebra 3 etc). At some schools this would translate to a minor or perhaps a major, while at other it won't if you avoid mind numbing courses like real analysis. In any event, your coursework will be exceedingly similar to that of a math major but you would have skipped all the fluff.
With regards to your remark, you can learn any subject with just textbooks, past exams and perhaps notes. True story.
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