Undergraduate programs in economics

[thescienceboy]

A lot has been said in numerous books,articles, blogs and forums about importance of math and stats preparation for PhD programs in economics. And I got the impression (especially from "The Making of an Economist") that every economist should have a PhD (maybe at least MA). Every graduate student, every faculty and some portion of undegraduate students are aware of that. Then I have a question. Why doesn't the undergraduate program change to become more technical to satisfy the requirements of the graduate school? To graduate with honours in my school you need just to take Mathematics for economists (a year long sequense) and Intro to stats and intro econometrics which cover topics from calculus and stats in a very shallow way. As a result I remember my classmates struggling to derive simple demand curves in Intermediate Micro or not being able to understand "Introductory econometrics" by Wooldridge. Maybe, some of you have different structure of your programs, but generally I think they follow the same pattern. Ok, someone might say: "You can take math on your own as electives". Yes we can do that, but it seems really silly to me. Why can't these essential courses be included in the major. What could be wrong in obliging everyone to take calculus 1-3, linear algebra, math.stats,econometrics and some sort of introductory analysis. The reality is that these courses are not optional for those who want to become an economist. Economists proudly call themselves rational. Well.... The undergraduate program looks like the example of irrationality. Actually you have to figure out on your own what courses you need and more importantly most students are just not able to realize what they are getting into. As a result deparment of economics supplies 10 per cent to graduate schools. But the rest 90 per cent are employed in the fields not related to economic research. Therefore, undergraduate economics is one of the most inefficient undergraduate programs at all. Colander in "The Making of an Economis" mentions that BA in economics is considered by many as an alternative under the wing of the Faculty of Arts to business programs. Well... I would say it's a very bad alternative in its present state to ANY business program. You can end up in the financial industy, for example, but you would definitely be better off with business or math/stats degree.


Why do you think, guys, rational economists don't want to create more efficient program?

[econofrosh!]

this was also somewhat my qualms about my econ program.
(coming into college, i was choosing between a university with an econ dept and program of less renown but had a more mathematically rigorous curriculum and one which was more reputable but for some reason only had up to calc1: to my mind, how could the latter be better?)

i suppose the undergraduate chairs of econ programs feel that not every econ major will want to be professional / academic economists. some will go into business, equipped with their above average understanding of 'recession' and 'economic boom'; some probably see economics as a stepping stone for graduate studies in less mathematical fields such as public policy or business administration. in my university, i know people who are taking journalism electives and will probably write for the business section of newspapers and magazines.

in my view, economics is so potent a field that it leads to various paths of enlightenment. those who are lucky enough to be called to truly fully study econ do need the additional tools (i.e. math, stats etc.), but on the surface alone, it is difficult not to appreciate its beauty.

besides, that's why most departments have advisers. (too bad mine didn't have any; thank goodness for TM! haha)

[jeeves0923]

Not everyone who has an undergrad econ degree has any interest in becoming an economist. Some are just interested in the subject matter.

In the US more than the rest of the world, an undergraduate degree is more of a signal than a training. We go to college to prove that we can get some degree. We learn things that are interesting, pick and choose what else we need for our life goals. That is what a liberal arts education is all about.

Many people study econ as preparation for law school, and those tend to do better than even political science or philosophy majors on the entrance exams. Some people study econ for government work in places like BLS.

In my University, the ECON department has probably the best career placement of any department (roughly equal with Chemical Engineering). Hardly any of those placements are into PhD programs. It's just the nature of the beast.

[dyiwang]

I only attended one school for undergrad (like most people), and I have to say that my experience as an econ major at my lovely undergrad institution prepared me well both for grad school AND getting a good job out of college. Granted, my undergrad university has a top notch econ program and many kids go there because of that, and requirement for econ majors definitely incorporate enough math training. And the ones who are serious about pursuing a phd will take more math courses on their own, so why make everyone go through the grill if the serious players will self motivate anyway?

[TruDog]

I got my bachelor's degree at a small public LAC with a pretty solid reputation in the Midwest. I went there because the overall educational experience was top-notch and I wanted to study finance. (It took my six weeks to declare an economics major once I got there.) The complete anonymity of my economics department probably didn't help me out at all as I applied.

The goal of the economics department at my undergraduate institution is more to teach students how to think logically and understand the intuition behind economics. As a result, we send most of our students to law schools, including several to top-20 programs.

However, I feel that mathematical rigor was lacking at my UG, as only calculus I was required to graduate. Thankfully, I decided that I wanted to pursue a PhD after my sophomore year, so I had some time to take all the essential math classes except analysis.

My advice: Go to the school that will give you the best possible educational experience, regardless of the ranking of the economics program. You can always do a summer program somewhere that can get you access to top-notch professors, but it's not good if you decide that you don't like economics and the rest of the school is terrible.