The Economics Major?

College Majors
#1

<p>Hey guys. I was wondering if any of you would recommend an economics major? What types of personalities are usually economics majors? Etc.</p>

#2

<p>
[quote]
What types of personalities are usually economics majors?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I presume that the stereotype would be too generalized and inaccurate to be of any help.</p>

#3

<p>I too presume that the stereotype would be generalized, being defined as such; however, I'm not convinced that it would be completely innacurate. For many students, I'm sure it would be, but for how many is difficult to say. I'm not looking for stereotypes so much as what people have experienced personally, out of curiosity and a desire for personal insight.</p>

#4

<p>"It depends." </p>

<p>Well... it depends. Some schools have economics programs that have an emphasis on quantitative aspects of economics, and others don't. I think that that difference can result in big differences in who the program attracts - less quantitative programs might attract more 'business'-oriented students, while more quantitative programs might attract people who are more interested in the theory. </p>

<p>As for personalities, there's a pretty wide range... at UCSB, we don't have a "business" major, but we do have "business economics" (which we're phasing out), so I think that our major attracts the kind of people who would normally do a business major (and look for practical insights from that). In general, I guess more pragmatic types gravitate toward economics.</p>

<p>I can't really answer your question too well. One interesting page I found about economics majors is at Collegeboard's "MyRoad": [url=<a href="http://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp?t=majors&i=economic-14241%5DMyRoad%5B/url"&gt;http://myroad.collegeboard.com/myroad/navigator.jsp?t=majors&i=economic-14241]MyRoad[/url&lt;/a&gt;] (requires College Board login)
(if the link doesn't work, go to myroad.com, click on "explore majors," "economics," and then "perspectives" to read testimonials of econ majors - it's pretty interesting)</p>

#5

<p>A undegrad degree in Economics, unto itself, is relatively useless for the workplace. Studying the principles of Economics has very little value for the business world.</p>

#6

<p>
[quote]
Studying the principles of Economics has very little value for the business world

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Would you care to explain this (ridiculous) statement?</p>

#7

<p>From what my mom (who was, until she quit because she hated her job, a business exec at a fortune 500 company) has told me, nothing you learn as a business major has any value in the business world. Everything you need for business you learn on the job; it's not something you can learn in school. She has seen countless business majors and countless non-business majors and their major had little bearing on their success. She was a liberal arts major (essentially she didn't have a major, and just took whatever she wanted) and she was doing very well in business. Economics is a fine major; I am currently one, though thinking of switching since I'm not in love with it. But if you like it, go for it.</p>

#8

<p>What emerlus says is exactly true. My dad was an English lit Phd and he went on to own and manage a succesful hedge fun.</p>

#9

<p>Don't even give econ a second thought unless you are a math person and enjoy calculus. A lot of people think econ is an easy major, but it is <em>extremely</em> math heavy, even if you are doing a BA and not a BS. Or at least it is at my school. That being said, I wouldn't call econ a "social" major, and it is pretty tedious if you don't like math and derivatives.</p>

#10

<p>Bear in mind economics can, sadly, be an ideologically-driven discipline, with some professors more interested in creating a rationale for their policy views than in teaching positive economics (positive in this sense means objective). I would go to GMU or University of Chicago. I would not go to an elitist east coast school for economics.</p>

<p>I’m getting to where I’m losing lots of respect for the so-called saltwater school economists, even ones I used to respect (like Larry Summers). Any economist who can say with a straight face that the financial sector, or the economy as a whole, has been unregulated or laissez-faire for the past thirty years and wants to blame our recession on this myth of a libertarian revolution during the 80s is just a hack who ignores the facts.</p>

#11