College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Princeton University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Stanford University
• Harvard University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Columbia University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of California—Berkeley
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Washington
• University of Texas—Austin
• University of California—San Diego

Classes in the Major

Economic Techniques. This is where the rubber meets the road. You've already aced economic theory and you can distinguish heterodox econ from neoclassical econ like the two backs of your hands…or something. Anyone can sit in a room and talk about these principles, but in economic techniques courses, you'll put your big-shot terminology into practice. You'll get case studies and real-world scenarios where you'll have to figure out the best solution to someone's economic problems. Puppy circus investments, anyone?

Economic Theory. Say you have a packet of Oreos. Excellent. You gobble up four and could totally go for more, so you have another three. Nice. You wouldn't mind stopping, but hey, Oreos, man. So you have two more. Hmm. Now you've had nine, and you don't really want another, but you might as well because ten is a nice, even number. Now you feel disgusting. You're sick of Oreos. In fact, someone would have to pay you to have another one. In the span of ten minutes, you've gone from loving Oreos to gagging at the thought of them. What gives?

Well, a little something something called your marginal utility for Oreos diminished as you ate more. This is an example of what you'll learn in an economic theory course, along with other rational and behavioral economics.

Finance. Managing and analyzing the accounts for corporations, crunching numbers (BTW, it doesn't involve sit-ups), and learning about investments and assets are all part of the finance courses you'll be expected to take. As an economics major, you've got to know how to interpret and analyze the numbers before you come up with solutions. No one wants a solution before the numbers are added up, now do they? A solution like that would be what we at Shmoop like to call complete and utter baloney.

Political Science. To learn the processes and applications of economics and politics, you'll have to take a political science course. These courses are particularly helpful for grads who want to head over to the law world when they're done with college. A large chunk of econ grads end up writing and informing public policy, so learning how the system works is crucial.

Statistics. Stats are crucial to understanding and analyzing all the data. Yes, our dear Shmoopers, we said data. If you thought our country's economists were just a bunch of suits sitting around doing guesswork, you are quite mistaken. As an econ major, you'll learn all about different forms of statistical analysis and how to calculate probabilities. If you're trying to solve the world's economy problems, you'll need to do it one country at a time and statistics will help you get there. Statistics are actually an integral part of economics. (If you didn't see what we did there, you will when you inevitably take a stats course.)