davan

Okay let me preface this with the fact that I have never taken calc before. Weird situation because I would have taken AP calc, possibly bc, my senior year, but I went on foreign exchange junior year for the 2nd semester. My school said I either had to take normal pre-calc (not even regular calc, because of a technicality that you MUST finish a particular pre-calc class before attempting anything above--no waivers allowed) since I technically never finished or take a different math (I ended up taking AP stats).

Now, I know you basically have to do a rather high level of calc for most of the econ courses as a prereq and I know that I will basically have to force myself into a course I am not quite ready for and study 10x more and get a tutor (totally willing to go through), but which one would be the most painless to deal with and not put me in a whole the next few years? I will talk to my counselor about it, but any opinions *CAUGH* IDAD *CAUGH* would be appreciated.

felipecocco

i think the 150s sequence shouldnt be too bad... it basically covers the BC calc curriculum from the beginning.

robertsont06

when in doubt, think "Idad"...lol

idad

davan: This is from the College Catalog,

"Students majoring in economics must also take three mathematics courses beyond the general education requirement. These consist of the third quarter of calculus (MATH 13300, 15300, or 16300), followed by a two-quarter sequence (MATH 19510-19610, 20300-20400 or 20700-20800) to be taken concurrently with ECON 20000-20300. Students taking MATH 13300 are strongly encouraged to finish MATH 19510 before enrolling in ECON 20000. Students should take calculus at the highest level for which they qualify... Students with A- or higher in MATH 15100 and 15200 may take ECON 20000 concurrently with MATH 15300."

Which calc course is right for you will be determined by the placement test. From what I understand, the 130000 series combines precalc with calc is quite doable. In terms of an Econ major, the only difference one should experience in taking the 130000 series vs. the 150000 series is the recommendation that it may be best to finish 19510 before taking Econ 20000. It appears you will do just fine, and further, you will also find that your Stat course will be of great value.

DannonWater

there's always idad when you you need an answer *salutes you*

uchicagoalum

Do not for the life of you try to take the 15000's if you have never had calculus. Most people who have like a 3-4 on Calc AB find it pretty challenging. As it is, a random 13000's section is going to have about say 50% of the class with AP calculus or a honors equivalent before, either not having taken the exam knowing they would have to retake the course anyways in college, or having gotten say a 4 but not having felt the need to take the 15000's sequence.

Presuming you start with 13000, you need to learn the first quarter of differential calculus cold, since you will use it all the time in you economics courses. Integral calculus in the second quarter has far less applied value since you will only pretty much see it in journal articles, and rarely have to compute an integral yourself save in your pure multivariate course where you will be required to learn higher order ones (which are like suck squared). The third quarter is totally irrelevant, and to be frank I cannot even remember what was covered. The two quarters of higher math covering multivariate calculus and linear algebra are nothing more than mental gymnastics, since you will likewise see the material limited to your readings and will not be expected to replicate it. Any of it you need to know for econometrics is thoroughly reviewed, and statistics limits itself to univariate calculus.

Further, I would not recommend waiting around to finish the first Math Methods for Social Scientists course before starting ECON 20000. Instead, merely pick up any graduate economics textbook and read the 20 page or so math primer that will be in the appendix. It will be a fine review of what you need to know from calculus (for instance, natural logarithms and their differentiation properties show up repeatedly in macro theory), and will teach you in a single weekend the three advanced calculus concepts you will use over and over throughout the major: partial differentiation, the rules regarding solving partially differentiated equations by substitution, and the process of constrained optimization via Lagrangian multipliers.

Caveat: None of this applies if you are going for a doctorate in economics, in which case you effectively need to minor in math.