So all I need are two more classes to be considered a junior. I know it's kind of late, but I was thinking of changing my major from Accounting to a B.S. in Economics with possibly a Finance minor. Is that combination okay? Also, since I need 10 Economics courses to earn my degree, should I get started on Intermediate Macro and Micro in the same semester just so I can catch up? Lastly, for the Finance minor I require a Business Statistics course while my Economics department offers an Intro to Statistics course as a requirement for the Economics degree. Should I take one before the other since I don't mind taking both? The Business Statistics course requires calculus for sure. I need to know since I will obviously be taking Econometrics later on. Thanks.
Considering changing major to economics and in need of advice...?
What are your career objectives? Why are you changing from accounting? I cant really offer an opinion without this information.
It is common to take intermediate micro/macro during the same semester and this shouldnt cause any problems or overload. Intermediate micro is probably the more important class in terms of getting into your upper level electives.
There is probably no reason to take bus stat and the econ stat, since theyre likely to cover some of the same material. Econometrics is important and usually covers introductoryn regression stuff.
Okay. Well as to the math, it shouldnt be too bad. Most schools won't do much beyond college algebra in undergrad econ classes (and that will be mainly in your intermediate classes). It certainly is a wonderful field and I am glad that you enjoyed your intro classes. I might suggest an internship before graduation, but econ with a finance minor should set you up well. I'll pass on some info that I gave someone else asking about economics on this board (some of which should be relevent):
Economics at the college level will teach you a couple of principles that you can apply to various social questions:
Why is the optimal level of murders not 0?
Why is coca cola in the U.S. made with corn syrup, while coca cola is made with sugar in Mexico?
Who does protectionism help? Who does it hurt?
Are gas prices too high or low given external costs?
When should a person marry and when should a person stop searching?
Why do the poor in the US tend to live in the center of cities?
Is a gift really free?
Why do medicines receive patent protection?
Why are most McDonalds the same size?
This is just a breif list of some of the questions that may be addressed in undergraduate economics courses (particularly micro courses). Basically, economics is a social science, so we look at a bunch of things that other social sciences (e.g. sociology, political science) examine. The differences are more in methodology, than subject. In short, economists apply the scientific method to human behavior, which has valid advantages and criticisms. At the undergrad level, most of this is done through the use of graphs.
To dispel some common critiques:
Economics is not the study of money. Macro people (as opposed to micro people) may care more about money, but in general you can use economics to examine a wide array of social issues (just look at the variety of classes offered at most colleges: e.g econ of the environment, urban economics, international trade, economics of law, economics of state and local govts, economics of crime.....)
Economists don't necessarily conform to a particular outlook. There are liberal economists and conservative economists.
Economics is first and foremost about model building. We strive to model human behavior. We tend to place more belief in generalities and statistics than other social scientists, so how much you buy into the methodology will depend on how you feel about this fact.
Economists usually don't focus on equity, they focus on efficiency and leave equity considerations to political scientists and others.
In general, economics is very useful in developing logic skills and explaining a bunch of world realities. But you shouldnt expect to have much of a grasp of the macroeconomy (i.e. the national or world economy) after a couple of classes in macro. The world economy is very complex and some of the world's best macroeconomists dont have a great grasp of the macroeconomy.
To respond further about the job process (though I chose the academic path, so I may not be best suited to answer):
There are a handful of majors as an undergraduate that will specifically train you for a job. Accounting, teacher education, and engineering all come to mind. The job search for these people is usually relatively simple (for example, either a job wants an accountant or it doesnt and if it does the person will generally need an accounting degree). Since these jobs (engineering, accounting, and teaching) are in high demand, those with degrees in the field rarely have hard times finding employment. There is also alot of money out there to make in accounting, if you are able to secure employment with one of the big firms. The downside is that you miss on the opportunity to study about how the world works and you study something that you may or may not find tedious. In my masters of econ program, I shared an office with MA in accounting students and we got into a discussion about this one day: two of them said that they wish they could go back and study something like econ where they would enjoy learning the material (they were listening to us have a policy debate), one enjoyed learning accounting, and I think the other person would not have changed anything as he was most concerned with early retirement and felt like he had a good chance at a big 4 firm. Now economics is a valued degree and complements a finance minor well, but as the poster mentioned below, you will likely not see any jobs specifically looking for econ degrees (as you would accounting), therefore youll be looking at the same job pool as most majors. I would say that for those jobs, economics will be seen as one of the better degrees, and will put you ahead of the pool in that regard. If you were concerned about employment, an internship might be a nice option.
Good luck with your decision.
Considering changing major to economics and in need of advice...?
You're not too late, I returned to school having never taken a business or econ class, but transferring and clepping 2 year's worth of credits, and completed a BS in economics in a year and a half.
To add to what the PhD student above says - agree no problem taking macro and micro at same time. Verify that you actually would need to take both of those stats classes, seems likely you wouldn't. But if so you could surely do both at same time.
I will say that although Econ is far more interesting a study than those other things IMHO, as far as employability goes both accounting and finance are more marketable (and having a minor does not mean anything.) In my experience over the past decade, there are tons of jobs calling for BS in accounting or finance, and almost none specifically calling for a Bachelor's in Econ. And even though you could do many of them no problem (certainly the finance jobs), your resume gets thrown away by the HR people because you have the wrong major.
My revenge is that now I'm in a field where we'd happily look at an Econ major but certainly not an accounting major.
A finance minor will not do you any good in terms of getting a job, but it's a good accompaniment to the Econ major, and no doubt would be helpful if you go on to get an MBA or work in finance. (BTW if you could hang in there long enough, a double-major in Econ %26amp; Finance would be perfect.)
