Is doing a double major for Engineering and Economics in college a good choice?
My name is Prithvi and I am a Junior in High School. For a while, I have been interested in majoring in Finance or Economics and college, but I have a lot of experience in Engineering, specifically Computer Science, so I am motivated to take a double major. Should knowledge of Computer Science be something I can put on my resume or is it a good choice to take a double major in college? #college #computer-science #engineering #college-major #finance #economics
4 answers
Luke’s Answer
Hi Prithvi!
If you can handle the work load and are interested in both majors then by all means go for it!
Personally I only have a background in computer science and software engineering, so I can talk at it from that perspective.
Economics and Computer Science are really good compliments, from an industry perspective. Most of the data scientists I know at LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook are econ phds. The skills you learn in econ are very transferable and you use many of the same tools when you do original econ research and "big data" data science. I've often seen software engineers who wish they knew more about stats and data science to build out an idea, and many data scientists who wish they had a strong computer science background for the same reason.
Both degrees can also be used to do very different unrelated things. So it really depends on what you're interested in.
My two cents would be: if you're really interested in both fields, even if they are in no way related, do it! You'll just have a larger background to pull from in the future.
Thank you for the advice. I will definitely keep your advice in mind when I am applying for colleges later this year, especially what you said about the two majors complementing each other.
Prithvi
Greg’s Answer
Absolutely go for it if you can handle the workload! A double major indicates a higher level of dedication/scholarliness (I too had more than one) and tends to make you more marketable. And as the first respondent indicated, econ and comp sci complement each other; indeed, comp sci complements a lot of things these days, since numerical methods, simulation, distributed computation, and data analysis are critical to any number of fields.
Thank you for the advice. I definitely think figuring out how much work I can handle in college will help me decide whether or not I will go with a double major.
Prithvi
Note that you'll also be assigned a faculty advisor once you get there, and he or she should be able to give you specific, practical advice about the workload, recommended classes, etc.
Greg Roelofs
Shoua’s Answer
Ronita’s Answer
I am an Econ major both under grad and grad, and I often tell people that economics is like a life skill that you will always be able to use no matter what career you choose. The laws of supply and demand, the way markets move, competitive scenarios, monetary and fiscal policies, those are what you hear everyday in the news, so having a good understanding of them makes you better equipped to handle both personal and professional life in my opinion!
I also think there are really great parallels with Engineering and Economics, both involve studying how things work, how things are created and function, econ has a lot of math and stats which is common to Engineering. So if you have the appetite for it and can handle the workload, go for both!