EconbutMath

Hi there! I am a student (sophomore) at the University of Rochester. Firstly, I would like to give a brief summary of myself and then ask my question. Freshman GPA = 3.70/4.00 Math Classes Taken / Taking: Honors Calculus 1&2 (A), Number Theory (A-), Probability Theory (A-), Mathematical Statistics (A-), Linear Algebra Honors (A expected), Real Analysis Honors (A expected) Economics Classes Taken / Taking: Principles of Economics (B), Game Theory (B+), Econometrics (A- expected) Research Experience: I've done pure math research over the summer of my freshman year and will publish 2 papers at the end of this month probably (by 2016). Conferences: At the moment I presented in three (one regional and 2 national) math conferences. One of them is the top undergrad math conference in the nation. The other two is pretty standard ones. Also, I am serving as an editor for an undergrad journal. As you might notice I am actually more interested in Math but also really interested in Game Theory or in general Economic Theory. However, my econ grades at the moment is not too "well". I believe that I took a lot of difficult classes as a freshman (such as Game Theory) which might have been an instrumental factor on behalf of my grades. However, I would also like to note that University of Rochester is one of the top econ schools and undergrad schools in the nation, the professors here are leaders in their field and are great! So I am pretty positive that I will get a decent recommendation letter. My question is, how logical would it be if I majored just in math and took a lot of grad level math classes and then applied to Econ phd? Basically, I feel as if undergrad econ courses will lower my GPA. One might say "if undergrad econ courses is hard to you, then grad courses will be impossible". However, I disagree because I tend to do better in mathematical classes (grad-level econ classes tend to be more mathematical) that are more difficult then undergrad econ classes. The problem is, do you think the phd program I apply to will say: "Although this guy is really good in math, he took like 2-3 econ classes, and did pretty bad (B+ range)". In conclusion, how smart would it be if I focused solely in math (perhaps take like one more game theory class) and then applied to econ phd? Thank you very much!

Hi there! I am a student (sophomore) at the University of Rochester. Firstly, I would like to give a brief summary of myself and then ask my question. Freshman GPA = 3.70/4.00 Math Classes Taken / Taking: Honors Calculus 1&2 (A), Number Theory (A-), Probability Theory (A-), Mathematical Statistics (A-), Linear Algebra Honors (A expected), Real Analysis Honors (A expected) Economics Classes Taken / Taking: Principles of Economics (B), Game Theory (B+), Econometrics (A- expected) Research Experience: I've done pure math research over the summer of my freshman year and will publish 2 papers at the end of this month probably (by 2016). As you might notice I am actually more interested in Math but also really interested in Game Theory or in general Economic Theory. However, my econ grades at the moment is not too "well". I believe that I took a lot of difficult classes as a freshman (such as Game Theory) which might have been an instrumental factor on behalf of my grades. However, I would also like to note that University of Rochester is one of the top econ schools and undergrad schools in the nation, the professors here are leaders in their field and are great! So I am pretty positive that I will get a decent recommendation letter. My question is, how logical would it be if I majored just in math and took a lot of grad level math classes and then applied to Econ phd? Basically, I feel as if undergrad econ courses will lower my GPA. One might say "if undergrad econ courses is hard to you, then grad courses will be impossible". However, I disagree because I tend to do better in mathematical classes (grad-level econ classes tend to be more mathematical) that are more difficult then undergrad econ classes. The problem is, do you think the phd program I apply to will say: "Although this guy is really good in math, he took like 2-3 econ classes, and did pretty bad (B+ range)". In conclusion, how smart would it be if I focused solely in math (perhaps take like one more game theory class) and then applied to econ phd? Thank you very much!