Math and economics at Yale

Z.Exodus2008
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:13:15 +0000

I agree with JHS. I just graduated with a Statistics major, and it is true that there are very few students at Yale who pursue math-related majors. The departments are correspondingly small, and towards the end, I probably knew almost all of the undergrads in my department and a fair few grad students too. People are very friendly and collaborative, and you typically work on psets in a group. Professors are also very accessible through their office hours.

Math and econ is a difficult major, but it is looked upon very favorably by employers. I think that the internship/employment prospects are better than if you major in econ; I’m not sure, but they’re probably on par with majoring in math or applied math. A lot of math and econ majors end up in finance (and especially trading, I think, although sometimes people go into investment banking), but I’ve also met people who choose math and econ because they are interested in econometrics. The class that tends to be a stumbling block for a lot of prospective math and econ majors is ECON 135, the first of two required econometrics courses in the major. People also find analysis challenging.

It’s easier to do any of the math-related majors if you come in with a strong math background (i.e. having completed multivariable calculus and ready to take Math 230; I would especially encourage you to get some exposure to writing proofs), but it’s definitely possible to come into Yale without this type of background and still pull off a math-heavy program.

Finally, if you’re interested in the math and econ major, then you should maybe also consider the Economics track within the Applied Math major. The pure math major might be too theoretical for your tastes, but you can also look into it.