BabyRudy

Like the title says, this is what I am thinking of majoring in when it comes time to go to college. I love History and I like Economics and since I hear a History major doesn't have as good of job prospects after graduation compared to other colleges, I decided to pair it with Econ.

What are your thoughts on this? Is this good or bad? Will classes be difficult, easy, etc. If it relates to these majors or a major like, chime in, I'm curious about what you have to say!

Right now I have no idea what I'm going to do after my Undergrad years so any advice on that would be welcome too! Thanks everyone.

aforautumn

there wont be much overlap in terms of content and skills used. economics is a way of thinking with math, while history is mostly reading and memorization.

theres not really a benefit to double majoring. do what you want to do, and then just take classes in the other one for fun.

oneguy21

If you want to do something related to economics, history will be largely useless. Do a cost-benefit analysis. The marginal costs of adding a history major to an econ major exceed your marginal benefits. Therefore, you should just major in economics : )

Rousseauian

I highly disagree with these statements. There is nothing more important to Economic analysis than an in-depth understanding of historical models. The problem with Economics today is the lack of context and perspective, which a history major would accomplish.

jingle

Agree with Rousseauian. Economics and history inform one another.

Either or both would be a great preparation for law school.

xelink

I vote double majoring in Math/Econ and Statistics.

Homer28

"U.S. universities also minted 37,000 history degrees in 2006, including 852 Ph.D.s. That for a field with fewer than 500 job openings and average pay of $48,500. Plumbers, by contrast, enjoyed 16,000 new jobs that year and earned only $6,000 less than historians, census figures show."

Forbes.com - Magazine Article

JanofLeiden

I doubt even 3% of history majors plan to become professional historians.

The real mistake is beginning doctoral studies in history if you don't get into a top school in your specific field. ****ty universities should not be granting doctorates.

zapfino

Yes, i agree with the previous poster that Economics and History inform each other. They're a good combination. Economic history is a subfield of both Economics and History.
Here's an example of economic history by a historian:Amazon.com: The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (9781594201929): Niall Ferguson: Books
Here's an example by an economist: Amazon.com: The Great Crash 1929 (9780547248165): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books

Of course, if you simply like history in all its aspects, there's nothing that says your two majors need to be closely related. You get to do college once, so why not follow up on your history interest, especially as you're considering a combination with another field.

The Economics major improves your immediate job prospects somewhat, but if you decide to do graduate work, both of them prepare you for a number of fields: Law, Business, Public Policy, History, Economics (though you need considerable math for grad work in Econ), etc. Also, if you decide to do secondary teaching, you also will have two subjects you can teach.

oneguy21

I seriously doubt economics and history will go well together in undergrad. Economics is a social science that attempts to model human behavior mathematically. In undergrad, you're not going to have an advanced economic intuition or the proper statistical training to view history through the lens of economic theory. If you're serious about economic history, you should use your undergrad years to learn all the basic economic fundamentals and mathematical methods so you can later do some serious research on the topic.

So my advice is if you love history, major in it, but don't think adding an economics major will give you a new perspective on history.

zapfino

Well, of course, I have no idea whether the OP is even interested in economic history. For all I know, the OP's history interest might be the Spanish Inquisition. I just tossed that combo out there as a suggestion of how history and economics might go together.

No undergrad degree gives you all the analytical tools to do high level research in one's own discipline, let alone across disciplines, but knowing something about two fields does broaden one's perspective---nothing wrong with that.

YouTube - Morning Coffee: Why Study Economic History?