Princeton University

The Economics Major - Frequently Asked Questions

The following questions give brief answers to get you started. Many of the following questions are more fully answered in the “Requirements” section of this website.

Q. Why should I choose the economics major? 

Q. I am planning to be an economics major and spend a semester abroad in my junior year. How should I prepare for this?
Q. Can I take courses at any other institutions?

 

 

 

A. Academic advising on all classes to be taken during junior year will be done by Professor Silvia Weyerbrock.  Academic advising on all classes to be taken during the senior year will be done by  Professor Faruk Gul or any faculty member in the Department. 

 

 

A. There are intellectual reasons as well as bottom-line reasons. Intellectually, economics offers a unique combination of social concerns – study of issues such as employment and growth, inflation, globalization, health, and poverty – and scientific methods – rigorous theoretical and statistical analysis. In bottom-line terms, although Economics at Princeton is regarded and taught as part of a liberal education, not as a preparation for a specific vocation, it does provide an especially relevant background for careers in business and government and graduate study in economics, public policy, business administration, and law. Finally, the economics major is particularly easy to combine with the finance certificate – the core courses of one can be used as departmental electives in the other.

 

 

A. The Economics prerequisites are ECO 100 (Microeconomics), 101 (Macroeconomics), and ECO 202 (Statistics and Data Analysis for Economics). You can place out of these if you have 5 grades in AP exams in the respective subjects, or equivalent international qualifications (consult the web site.) At Princeton, ORF 245 (Fundamentals of Engineering Statistics) is the only generally acceptable substitute for ECO 202. MAT 103 is the minimum mathematics requirement; a grade of 4 or better on the AP calculus AB or BC exam will qualify you for exemption from this. You can fulfill these prerequisites with preapproved summer courses elsewhere; see the conditions in the separate memo. If you plan to take any of the core micro, macro, and econometrics courses at the so-called more-math-track level (see the answer to the next question), you should take MAT 200 (Linear Algebra and Multivariable Calculus for Economists) or the combination MAT 201-2 (separate Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra courses). All prerequisite courses must be taken for letter-grade credit, and you must get grades of C– or better in each, to qualify for admission to an economics major. All requirements must be met by the end of your second year. You will not be permitted to take any of these courses in your junior year as an economics major.

 

 

A. You must successfully complete [1] three “core” courses, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, [2] at least five electives from the upper-level offerings of the department, [3] junior independent work and a senior thesis, and [4] the departmental comprehensive examination given at the end of your senior year. All departmental courses must be taken for grades, not PDF. Each must be passed individually with a grade of D or better, and the average of the grades on the components [1]-[4], calculated using a weighting scheme posted on the department’s web site, must be C or better.

 

     The core courses are offered at two levels, called the less-math track (ECO 300, 301, and 302) and the more-math-track (ECO 310, 311, and 312). The latter takes you closer to the research literature in modern economics; this can be an advantage when doing your independent work and thesis. Each year, approximately half of our majors choose each track. You can take some of your core courses in one track and the rest in the other track. Some of our upperclass elective courses have one or more of the more-math-track core courses as prerequisites; others don’t.

 

    One (at most two in special circumstances) of the electives can be substituted by a preapproved “cognate” from another department. Such a course has to be more than merely of interest to you or a useful complement to your economics courses; in such circumstances you can always choose it as a part of your distributional courses. To be a cognate, a course must in addition have a sufficient content of theoretical or empirical economic analysis.

 

 

A. The normal sequence is:

First year:	Fall: ECO 100, Spring ECO 101, and MAT 103 if needed
Second year:	Fall: MAT 200 if following the more-math track, Spring: ECO 202
Third year:	Fall: ECO 300 or 310, ECO 302 or 312, one departmental elective Spring: ECO 301 or 311, ECO 313, one departmental
Fourth year:	Remaining departmental electives

    
Students with stronger backgrounds can follow various accelerated and advanced sequences.  For example, many of you have already completed one or more core courses in your sophomore year.

 

 

A. You should have planned well ahead and taken the appropriate core courses of the economics major during your sophomore year. We approve core courses taken elsewhere only in very exceptional circumstances, and only if they are of comparable standards and taken at institutions of comparable quality. We will not allow you to postpone core courses to the senior year. Please see a Department Representative as soon possible to discuss your situation.

 

A. Other than in study-abroad programs, economics courses taken at other universities may not be used to fulfill Economics Department requirements. Under exceptional circumstances, an economics course taken at another university may be pre-approved by the Departmental Representative to serve as an Economics prerequisite, or to remedy a course deficiency in meeting university requirements of re-admission for non-ECO students on leave of absence. 

 

A. For initial information on the major, you can contact the program administrator

Noelina Hall

Office: G-005 Fisher Hall

Office Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday-Friday

609-258-4011

 

 
Sophomores and Juniors

Professor Sylvia Weyerbrock

Office: 322 Bendheim Hall
Hours: Mondays, 1:00-2:00pm and Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm 

609-258-0178
sweyerbr@princeton.edu

Professor Faruk Gul

Office: 214 Fisher Hall
Hours: By Appointment609-258-4009
fgul@princeton.edu                                                                                     Back to Top