Engineering Major Switching to Economics...Report In:Need Some Questions Answered

[beats05]

I'm doubling in Econ and Statistics at UC Berkeley.

We have a senior survey where graduates report starting salaries, etc. Obv the best off are going to answer the survey, but it at least gives us a ball-parkfor if we feel like we're in the same boat as the people who would report. Cal Econ grads do about 50-55k right out BUT I should preface that by saying ALOT of Econ majors here double with Math, Stat, Industrial Engineering, CS, EECS, or something serious that is probably the reason for the bulk of thatstarting salary.

All the Econ profs here, in the serious classes at least--I say that because there is a really soft, humanities route to the degree--stay away from it;it's not as good as a liberal arts degree because you don't get the reading/writing experience, and of course it's meaningless in a technical sensebecause everything is super dumbed down--they say a good Math, Stat, and CS background is necessary but not sufficient to be a good economist.

Financial Engineering is no joke. Deriving Black Scholes with stochastic PDE's, stochastic Integrals, and Ito Calculus? ARMA-GARCH models throwing in aleverage effect? It can get hard. Real Game Theory with the super complex upper division math and proofs is no joke either. If you take the Econ degreeseriously, you'll probably actually end up getting at least a double minor in Math and Stats with some CS in between, and only taking a few worthwhileundergrad courses. Most undergrad econ courses are either bs or you need a substantial Math and Stat background just to know what the hell is going on.

So in conclusion, if you take the Econ degree seriously, you can make a lot of money and get into some good grad programs. The only thing is that you'llhave to take a lot of upper div Math, Statistics, and know how to code, which means in the end the degree could be just as hard or harder than an Engineeringdegree. Alternatively, you could still get an Econ degree, sleep through the mickey-mouse classes that are prevalent in the undergrad level, get straightA's, and work at some deadend business job making powerpoints all day. The Econ degree IMO is one of the most ambiguous degrees out there...If someone saysthey majored in Econ they could be a total air-head who walked out of college learning absolutely nothing, or they could be a math/stat/cs/econ/finance genius.The field is really broad and flexible.

 

[scarface2k1]

Beats05 makes a truly good and solid point. UCal Berk has Financial Engineering but isn't that part of Haas? I may be wrong but just wondering.

To people who may not be as savvy in math, you can still do pretty decent with an Econ degree, I suggest taking some standard business courses, I am a Bachelorof Arts candidate in Econ with a Business minor, but I am going to be allowed to take an extra accounting class and an extra finance class. Accounting skillsare very important for business and probably is one of the most employable things out there, almost wish I was an Accounting major, easy, good pay right out ofcollege if you work for a big 4, good big 4 experience, and then you move on to a smaller firm, and hopefully 10 years out, your a partner making 150k+ a year.But Econ is good, cause you still get the quant skills that alot of employers like, and sometimes it can go very hand in hand with Finance.

if you think about it, 6 out of the 8 ivy league schools don't have a finance undergrad or even business program at that.
UPenn obviously does and Cornell has like Applied Econ & Business Management
but Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale all have economics, and Harvard, Yale, and Columbia all have a great presence in finance.
It's all what you make of your degree.

 

[finessesosa]

Barack 0drama wrote:

---

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.......

it might be a wrap my dude for all that

I'm thinking of being a Biomedical or Environmental Engineer next year at Georgia Tech.

that school is the number one school for Biomedical if you make it outwith that youll be caking man..all i can say is put in work NOW ...Environmental Engineering is a good look also

 

[drewtherightthing]

dual major of bioengineering & electrical engineering at penn here. !$%$ is noooooooo joke.

i say if you can hang in there, it'll be worth it in the long run. if you can't, keep it moving. no point in wasting anymore of your time &energy.

 

[throwedindagame]

dual major of bioengineering & electrical engineering at penn here. !$%$ is noooooooo joke.
What are you thinking

.

At my school (GAtech), BME alone is 5 years. The only engineering course that really shows up in both majors in Digital Signal Processing. So i mean, yourlooking at taking ALOT of extra hours. I dont know how your course load is at penn, but $$!# must be ugly.


Im just an EE, and $$!# is already hard enough,

God Speed.

.

 

[armenexchange]

lol your like 4 of my friends- went from engineerin to econ-seems like the bailout major. thas wat im doin. i think u can make a good 6 figures as a cpa if urdown for that. sounds boring tho

 

[mr fizzy womack]

Time out... what in the blue #+#* is "financial engineering"?


Better yet, don't tell me. I really rather not know anymore.

dual major of bioengineering & electrical engineering at penn here. !$%$ is noooooooo joke.

i say if you can hang in there, it'll be worth it in the long run. if you can't, keep it moving. no point in wasting anymore of your time &energy.

That's WAAAAAAAY past OD right there...

But you're basically a genious tho, right? Didn't you graduate HS at 16 or something like that?

 

[haiti5]

And i thought double majoring in psychology and biology was hard

...

Man my girl was a econ major at villanova and now she is doing wealth securities?...i think thats what its called. for a bank. she is making a good 45k whichis decent straight out. I always see jobs for economist on usajobs too. but you might wanna get your masters or mba too

If i could honestly start all over again. I woulda been a communications or accounting major. straight up truth. All my peeps got cool jobs on thecommunciations side of things with tv stations and espn..and all my dudes in accnt. gettin job offers straight out of college

 

[finessesosa]

And i thought double majoring in psychology and biology was hard

...

that still is hard..but these dudes with Biomedicalengineering degree's and all that is on another level...i couldnt do it but props to yall...imma problably just do Earth Sciences with a minor inEngineering and call it a day... good look to yall NT dude's for giving ya input and what career choices yall are making

Anybody know about Earth Sciences by the way?

 

[impalaballa187]

For real for real, for the economics degree to hold a sufficient amount of weight, you're going to have to double up with something else. Most likely,mathematics or finance (if your school offers it) will be the best route. Someone already said it, Economics is like the jack of all trades degree, but toeffectively master it you'll need a lot of math, a bit of philosophy, and if you plan on getting into gov., history. If you look at the economics majorswho're making the major bucks straight out the get, I bet the vast majority of them doubled in math. The two feed off of eachother. And to whoever saidthey're doubling in biomed and electrical Engineering

I feel bad for your college experience man.


Double major in Economics/Mathematical statistics, minor in philosophy FTW!