abcblan

I took it along with math stats, linear algebra, and two nontechnical courses. The work load was fine. You will find that the difficulty is not so much in the volume of work but in the difficulty of the proofs you have to write. If you can design your schedule so that you can devote comparatively more time to the course then I would suggest you do so.

It is by orders of magnitude the most difficult class I took as an undergrad. At the time I had only taken advanced calculus and did not understand even that very well. Still, I did well. Doing well (and doing the work yourself) will consume most of your time. Ultimately, of all the courses I took it was the best preparation for the first year. Don't be concerned much about not being prepared. The professor is very reasonable and is a brilliant teacher.

That adv. calculus course is good. My impression is that it is precisely the sort of course that the admissions committee is looking for. However, the semester I took it the focus was completely on the real line. It turns out that this is a bit too basic for a lot of the things you will see in your economics career. If you have the chance, try to take the topology 410 course taught by Professor Kawski. That will really boost your abilities with abstract mathematics and make the first year a whole lot easier.

I am at a top 10ish department. I should add the caveat that while the professors expect proficiency and use advanced mathematics freely in their lectures, some people manage to pass with only a tertiary understanding of these topics (for instance, using differential topology to develop results on smooth economies). Although, this tends to come with a lack of depth of understanding. My point is that the mathematics required for our micro sequence is way above Lagrangian techniques.

^^I am a first-year and this has not been my experience. In macro we do a lot of constrained optimization with Lagrangian techniques. But we also draw heavily and real analysis, measure theory, and stochastic processes. In micro, on the other hand, I have done almost no constrained optimization since the first quarter. Since then it has been a lot of general equilibrium and game theory... and the professors expect proficiency with analysis and even a bit of point-set topology. The focus has been much more an analysis than on solving explicit examples.