Undergrad degree in Economics

[Shirtmaven]

My son is going to be a Senior at Hunter college High school in New York City.
We are just starting his college search.
He would like to get a degree in Economics.
His SAT scores were decent
He scored well on the AP Econ exams as well.

Would be interested in thoughts and experiences.

Mostly looking at east coast schools. We will be heading to Chicago.
Are rumours about the social life at the University of Chicago True?

Thanks

Carl

 

[Joffrey]

Don't be so vague! What rumours??

 

[Shirtmaven]

Originally Posted by Jodum5

Don't be so vague! What rumours??

University of Chicago. "where fun goes to die!"

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Shirtmaven

Mostly looking at east coast schools. We will be heading to Chicago.
Are rumours about the social life at the University of Chicago True?

Thanks

Carl

Which rumors are you talking about?

Jon.

 

[Beckwith]

If you are heading to Chicago, drive two hours east and check out Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. They have a well regarded Economics department and it is a good place socially.

 

[rdawson808]

You may also want to look at the (seemingly) 100 or other threads about getting a degree in economics.

b

 

[Shirtmaven]

I did this for my son, who does not peruse this forum.
I normally do not read this section that often either.
I will tell him to use the search feature.
He still spends most of his free time on the comic book forums.

carl

 

[Joffrey]

Originally Posted by Shirtmaven

University of Chicago. "where fun goes to die!"

Yikes!

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by Shirtmaven

I did this for my son, who does not peruse this forum.
I normally do not read this section that often either.
I will tell him to use the search feature.
He still spends most of his free time on the comic book forums.

carl


Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or anything. It's just that there is another thread about this not five lines from this one.

Here's my quick story about picking a college (I used to be a college prof of economics):

All small liberal arts colleges are essentially the same until you get to the upper-reaches of good schools. Every one will teach you the same economics. The higher ranked ones will have more math, higher standards for graduation, and maybe (maybe!) more extracurricular econ-related opportunities (investment clubs, etc.).

Same goes for large universities.

Small colleges and large unis are not alike because large unis have more resources and can therefore offer a broader range of courses and potentially degrees (econ ba, econ bs, math-econ bs, international econ ba, political economics ba, etc.). Though many large unis won't bother differentiated between degrees anyway.

Your son should choose a school at which he will feel comfortable. Small vs large; rural vs urban; party vs. study; etc. He should NOT choose it based on his current desire to major in economics. Most students change their majors at least once.

b

 

[DNW]

If you haven't arealdy checked out this thread, you should. http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=40307

 

[untilted]

Check out UVa if you want best of the both worlds.

 

[leftover_salmon]

Take a look at Penn -- excellent econ department (top 10 in the country...and if your son changes his mind, there's a shitload of other good departments too), good balance of social life and academics, and also in a city.

 

[Shirtmaven]

Originally Posted by leftover_salmon

Take a look at Penn -- excellent econ department (top 10 in the country...and if your son changes his mind, there's a shitload of other good departments too), good balance of social life and academics, and also in a city.

We have seen Penn. is he better off getting the Econ degree from Wharton or school of liberal arts

 

[leftover_salmon]

Originally Posted by Shirtmaven

We have seen Penn. is he better off getting the Econ degree from Wharton or school of liberal arts

The BSE at Wharton is really only an economics degree in name. If your son wants to pursue graduate work in economics or study economic theory, he should apply to the College of Arts & Sciences and major in econ there.

Wharton's BSE program is a business-oriented degree with very little actual economics being learned. I believe the core at Wharton only includes one economics class, a micro-macro intro mix. However, a Wharton degree is better when it comes to being recruited by investment banks, F500 companies, and consulting firms.

 

[Pennglock]

Originally Posted by leftover_salmon

The BSE at Wharton is really only an economics degree in name. If your son wants to pursue graduate work in economics or study economic theory, he should apply to the College of Arts & Sciences and major in econ there.

Wharton's BSE program is a business-oriented degree with very little actual economics being learned. I believe the core at Wharton only includes one economics class, a micro-macro intro mix. However, a Wharton degree is better when it comes to being recruited by investment banks, F500 companies, and consulting firms.

A pretty accurate assessment. With the exception of kids in the scholar's program, Wharton and College kids take the same into Micro and Macro Econ classes their first year, taught by the College Econ department. After that, Wharton is more focused on Finance than traditional Economics. One notable exception is Wharton's Monetary Economics class taught by Siegel and others- one of the best classes at Penn.

One thing to keep in mind is that it's easy for a Wharton kid to branch out and take Econ classes like Game Theory, Econometrics, and Forecasting. A kid in the College has a tough time registering for Wharton classes like Corporate Valuation, Fixed Income, and Financial Derivatives, though.

If your kid really wants to leave the door open for graduate Economics work, he's better off taking Math classes than anything else. The PhD programs prefer a candidate with a real strong grip on math to one who majored in Economics.


On the whole at Penn, I would probably recommend people apply to the College.
-Changing majors after matriculating into the Wharton program is kind of tough. Because freshman year Wharton kids are mostly taking general requirements university-wide, you dont know what the program is all about until after your second full year (where you take all the core Wharton classes.) At that point, if you decide Wharton is not for you, it would be tough to graduate in four years. One a less tangible level, too, the whole program is set up in a way that just kind of keeps you there. Hard to explain. The main point is you don't want to be locked into any 1 program 3 months out of high school, especially at a university with so many great departments to explore.

-I dont see much of a recruiting difference between Wharton kids and College Econ majors, or any other major in the College for that matter. If you kid wants that Wall St or Consulting job, all he needs to do is keep a high GPA and develop a bit of interviewing skill. Mostly it's the GPA, though, and it's probably harder to achieve a very high GPA in Wharton than it is in the College.

-The college Econ degree is really only something like 12 classes. Wharton has more like 20 required classes. In undergrad I think it's nice to have the option to take a wider variety. It's also quite a bit easier to double-major with Econ in the college.

-There is also the fact that it's substantially easier to get accepted into the College at Penn than it is to get accepted into Wharton. The actual acceptance rate into Wharton is bananas- it's on level with Princeton and Harvard.

This is all the perspective of a guy who graduated from Wharton's undergrad program in recent years. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have done some things differently...like go to Yale. Have your kid PM me if he wants any insider information about Penn or really any other big school. I work with people from pretty much all the schools your son might be interested in. There's a surprising number of grads from top schools on this forum too. Good luck to ya.