Math grades not good enough for colleges with good/popular econ programs?

baduzaa
Tue, 31 Dec 2019 07:32:47 +0000

I’m looking at Unis such as Notre Dame, JHU, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Amherst, CMC with strong econ programs and thus lots of econ applicants (maybe thats a good/bad thing)

Throughout HS I’ve challenged myself with taking honors classes and Maths HL, but I’ve consistently first scored all B-s in Soph and then all Bs in Junior (Freshmen and Senior Year Was A-s though so that’s good). Compared to someone who didn’t challenge himself and took SL and regular math classes with A/A-s I don’t know if I’m better or worse off…
I did get a 790 in my SAT Math section, so maybe that gives a bit of relief if I’m on the edge?
I’ve got A/A-s in my social-sciences such as Econ HL and Physics HL with B+/A-s in English SL (I don’t do history, but I do have another IB social science course with As)

I want to take Economics at university, but I want to first a foremost get accepted. Period.

So I was considering writing on my common app Sociology as 1st choice major as a pathway to get into a good uni and try to then go do an internal transfer to a major in BA Econ instead (I do have my own interest and can vouch for a major in Sociology through my common-app, but I just don’t want it to be my career choice so I’d change to doing Sociology for fun as a minor maybe!).

Question1 : Is that particularly hard to do in first-year undergrad especially since they’re both Social Sciences and in the same school/dept? I know Econ is a popular major so I’m not sure if internal transfers work (I can keep the good grades in college though to make the change)

Question 2: Or do you recommend just going first choice for Econ? (Some colleges dont give me second-choice major option and I feel like if they do they don’t really consider them and will deny me for Econ if my math is too low such straight off the bat such ad maybe JHU)?

Question 3: Do you believe my math is too low for a uni with strong econ programs and thus lots of applicants and I should just play it safer to prevent denial (I know I can get denied for other reasons too)?

NOTE: planning to do BA in econ