How would you describe Smith's economics program?

SmithieandProud
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:59:21 +0000

I wasn’t an econ major, but like most government majors I took several econ classes (Econ Major/Gov Minor or Gov Major/Econ Minor are VERY common combos, especially in the current economy).

I didn’t do very advanced classes in econ at Smith, but I was in general impressed with what I got. The profs in the econ department are very fun, very caring people and they run the political gamut from super conservative to super marxist/leftist, a kind of diversity that you don’t always see in Smith professorial circles (or LAC professorial circles in general). Also, you can learn about econ in a lot of its different aspects, Smith has classes in sports economy, it has classes in food security and the marketplace, game theory and many other areas. It’s a strong, varied department, and very accessible to newcomers (people like me who had never taken an economics class pre-Smith).

One thing I will say though is that if you plan to be an Econ major you’ll need to be prepared to take math classes along with it if you don’t already have a calculus/stats background. For Intro Macroeconomics and Intro Microeconomics you don’t need any kind of advanced math skills (adding, subtracting, dividing, basic equations and using a calculator are all that’s required), but the further you go in the department the more quantitative skills are a necessity.