I honestly never considered economic systems engineering as something I could do but that honestly might be a good major for me to get. Not too certain of job prospects though, I know a lot of these fancy sounding bachelors degrees tend to struggle in the job market. Granted, for grad school it definitely would make it easier to take a lot of courses with the background knowledge of that major. Thanks for the heads up!
Colby’s program is pretty quantitative and can defend be made more so.
These analyses may help you identify colleges to research further:
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Purdue offers 2 economics majors. A BS through their business school that is more math heavy (even offers a mathematical economics concentration) and a BA through their liberal arts school that is more the theoretical side. My daughter actually just switched to the BS in Econ from a different business concentration because she wanted more advanced math classes.
PhD economist here. Most universities in the U.S. offer double majors, or even special interdisciplinary majors, in math and economics. It‘s a very popular combination since students feel that it positions them well for careers in finance. So I suspect you’d find what you are looking for at most selective schools.
If your math skills are very advanced, you may want to look at larger universities with good graduate programs in economics. Much of graduate level economics requires math that most undergrads have not yet taken. But if you do have the background and can demonstrate that you are an excellent student in some foundational econ classes, then professors will often allow you to take graduate level classes.
I would also like to push back on your perception that many economics classes are heavy on the facts and memorization. That has never been my experience, even in introductory college classes. (I‘m not sure how the subject is taught in high school AP classes, if that‘s where your perception comes from.) College econ classes are more analogous to taking physics - you need to understand some basic concepts and definitions but most of your time will be spent solving word problems and analyzing data.
When I was still involved in hiring undergrads, the most quantitatively sophisticated kids tended to come out of Princeton‘s financial engineering program. But that‘s obviously a tough school to add to your list. Many large state schools have excellent economics departments (especially the UCs, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan). The University of Rochester also has a very strong program, and is a bit less of a reach.
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Also, SUNY Stony Brook used to be very strong in both math and economics - although my information may be slightly out of date.
@musicmomtimes3 I hadn’t considered Purdue yet as their price is pretty high but that did seem to be a very interesting option. I really like all of the options (especially the honors ones) for both majors and they seem to have a lot of overlap with each other and the math practicums would work very well with getting work experience which I heard is very useful for people who might want to immediately enter the workforce after university
@LACLoverParent Thank you so much for your time! I have seen these dual degrees outside of the US (in fact I’m currently deciding on whether to apply Mathematics and Economics or Mathematics with Economics at London School of Economics and Yonsei I had some plans on whether I want to do math by itself or see if it’s possible to do a double major in math and econ). Though I’ve rarely seen such a degree in the US, I think the only school I’ve seen so far is UPenn in the US. Granted I might just not be searching hard enough but I think most of my schools I’m applying to don’t have a joint math-econ degree.
Either way, from the only joint math-econ degree I’ve seen it didn’t really have a whole lot available for pure math options which is not exactly preferable for me.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Stony Brook (I think they even recently in the top 5 for the Putnam) but dear lord is that school one of the most expensive schools I’ve ever seen. I think all of the private schools I’ve looked at cost less than Stony Brook.
Stony is a public university in NY which is paid for (in part) by the taxpayers of NY.
You are out of state. And like many states, Stony’s prices are set to favor instate applicants. You will likely find a better deal if you stay in your OWN state vs. attending a public U elsewhere.
Very few credible econ programs rely on “memorization”. It is an analytical major, which requires having the skills (and basic vocabulary) to attack a problem and solve it using numbers and quantitative reasoning. So I’m confused by your original premise… and therefore, don’t agree with many of your conclusions. You do NOT need a formal “double major”; any U with an econometrics track is going to have plenty of mathematical rigor in its econ offerings.
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Thank you for this. I was going to suggest Williams to OP but I am enjoying reading the lists.
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This list had been very useful, I’m probably going to add Susquehanna University. I looked at Puget Sound for a bit and it had some… odd courses (economics of modern dating being a very strange one).
University of Minnesota was a school I was somewhat interested in for maths a while ago but I couldn’t find its net price calculator (still can’t) but seeing its acceptance rate I don’t think there’s any reason why I shouldn’t apply to it.
Other than that this list was really good and had a lot of majors with the stuff I was looking for, thanks!
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Chiming in to say that except for High Point (one of these things is not like the others …) you’re looking at a lot of good possibilities if you are a junior.
Between now & application time you will solidify some things such as getting your SATs and knowing your grades, etc. so you can have greater focus. I would not worry about a specialty course at a college but look at the standards they run regularly.
It’s been said above but finances & fit are where it’s at. Can you reasonably make the tuition payments until you graduate or it it going to be a stressor every semester? That becomes a big distraction that you don’t need.
Then there’s fit. Do you feel like you can spend 4 years in this place with these people? Are you excited to begin your journey there? Very personal decision.
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This is true and I think I have eliminated high point from my list a few weeks ago but I could be wrong.
The reason why I looked at the specialty courses is because those ones are going to most likely constitute a large portion of my electives and I want to have a wide range in courses I could take. Plus, for Puget Sound they didn’t really have many courses in both maths and econ so I’m pretty confident that taking a major at those schools would be pretty stifling
Fit is something that I’ll be honest I don’t usually consider that often, I more have cared about getting an education that works well for me and that’s about it.
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If you would like a primarily quantitative approach to your education, consider a major in data science, through which you could combine your current interests by choosing economics as your “applied domain.” This approach would preserve the option of your earning a second major in economics.
Also, if you are interested in math and economics, you might also want to consider actuarial science programs. If I had a kid so inclined, I would absolutely recommend it. It is not a fit for everyone, but actuaries can make real $$.
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My son majored in Econ with finance at Binghamton and I can assure you it was very rigorous with a lot of math. Not fun though. He loved Bing, but he struggled at times.
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This is true but I’m more concerned about potentially pigeonholing myself if I do pure math + actuarial science or even just actuarial science by itself. Plus, a very large portion of actuaries I’ve seen on the internet strongly encourage taking a computational math degree over an actuarial science degree. Ofc, I’m not taking computational math because I want to first get experience with proof-based math before going into grad school but that’s also why I’m deciding to double major.
@Lindagaf Thank you for your suggestion, sadly OOS so it costs about 35k per year to attend : (
Are you a top student? Bing is actively courting OOS students with very competitive scholarships. It’s a very popular campus with an even gender split. This application cycle, they offered free apps to all for about 2 weeks in October. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same again this October.
This page might be helpful to you: Economics program - Economics | Binghamton University
In addition, Bing has a lot of research opportunities: Research and Honors programs at Binghamton
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I’ll make sure to check that out this coming october then. It does depend on what you mean by “top student” but in comparison to the rest of my school district, I’d say that I beat like 95-99% of the kids here in all measures but GPA. So take that as you will.
I’ll make sure to check out what their scholarships are and what they require for them but if it asks for a GPA above a 3.65-3.7 I might not be able to beat it. In the past I might’ve but my school realized that me farming DE courses to boost my GPA as much as possible is something that they don’t want to happen so I’m only allowed to use 5 DE courses to increase my GPA as a result.
You should apply for sure. I don’t know if they state the monetary value of their scholarships for OOS students, but from what I have seen in past cycles, the scholarships are generous and great value.
Do you know what field you would like to pursue in graduate school? Mathematics? Or would math represent only one of a few areas of potential interest?