Some colleges ease up on pushing undergrads into picking majors right away
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/liberal-arts-college-major-decision/2021/07/22/68619bd2-ea36-11eb-ba5d-55d3b5ffcaf1_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/liberal-arts-college-major-decision/2021/07/22/68619bd2-ea36-11eb-ba5d-55d3b5ffcaf1_story.html
Highest Paying Jobs with a Bachelor’s Degree
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/majors-that-pay-you-back/bachelors
The Most Predictive Factors of Post-Graduation Wages
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/the-most-predictive-factor-of-post-graduation-wages/514286/
Six Myths About Choosing a College Major
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/choosing-a-college-major.html
The Economic Value of College Majors
https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/valueofcollegemajors/
To make money, study Math or Economics at a top university
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/11/26/to-make-money-study-maths-or-economics-at-a-top-university
Related:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/26/the-cost-of-studying-the-arts-at-oxbridge
In the US, many elite universities (e.g., Harvard) do not offer undergraduate business degrees, and, consequently, economics is a popular choice for a major:
The 3 most popular majors at every Ivy League school
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ivy-league-major-2017-4
Profile of Cornell’s Dyson School:
https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/school-profile/cornell-universitys-dyson-school/
“The Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania are the only two undergrad business programs of all seven Ivy League schools. And they are the most selective schools in the United States, with only 7.1% of applicants gaining admission to Wharton and an astoundingly low 2.93% getting the nod from the gatekeepers at Cornell…What does that curriculum entail? “We are heavily quantitative applied economics- and science-driven because of our heritage,” Wooten says. “So throughout the four-year experience, much of the curriculum is similar to what you would see in other business schools, but our distinction is smaller classes, the high-touch, and our students have to take a lot of science classes and math classes to go with the general business classes.””
An aside:
Since there are so many undergraduate economics majors coming out of top universities, admission to elite economics grad school programs is highly competitive. Additionally, many prestigious positions available to economics majors (e.g., Research Associate Programs at the Federal Reserve) often receive applications from a large number of undergrads from elite universities.
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EMPIRICAL STUDIES:
Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major
http://zacharybleemer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Return_to_Economics.pdf
A Cross-Cohort Analysis of Human Capital Specialization and the College Gender Wage Gap
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_2019121_Revised.pdf
Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States
Kim, C., Tamborini, C. R., & Sakamoto, A. (2015). Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States. Sociology of Education, 88(4), 320–339. http://doi.org/10.1177/0038040715602132
PDF Link:
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/23238/AFD_Kim_SociolEduc_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/majors-that-pay-you-back/bachelors
The Most Predictive Factors of Post-Graduation Wages
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/the-most-predictive-factor-of-post-graduation-wages/514286/
Six Myths About Choosing a College Major
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/choosing-a-college-major.html
The Economic Value of College Majors
https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/valueofcollegemajors/
To make money, study Math or Economics at a top university
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/11/26/to-make-money-study-maths-or-economics-at-a-top-university
Related:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/26/the-cost-of-studying-the-arts-at-oxbridge
In the US, many elite universities (e.g., Harvard) do not offer undergraduate business degrees, and, consequently, economics is a popular choice for a major:
The 3 most popular majors at every Ivy League school
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ivy-league-major-2017-4
Profile of Cornell’s Dyson School:
https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/school-profile/cornell-universitys-dyson-school/
“The Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania are the only two undergrad business programs of all seven Ivy League schools. And they are the most selective schools in the United States, with only 7.1% of applicants gaining admission to Wharton and an astoundingly low 2.93% getting the nod from the gatekeepers at Cornell…What does that curriculum entail? “We are heavily quantitative applied economics- and science-driven because of our heritage,” Wooten says. “So throughout the four-year experience, much of the curriculum is similar to what you would see in other business schools, but our distinction is smaller classes, the high-touch, and our students have to take a lot of science classes and math classes to go with the general business classes.””
An aside:
Since there are so many undergraduate economics majors coming out of top universities, admission to elite economics grad school programs is highly competitive. Additionally, many prestigious positions available to economics majors (e.g., Research Associate Programs at the Federal Reserve) often receive applications from a large number of undergrads from elite universities.
---
EMPIRICAL STUDIES:
Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major
http://zacharybleemer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Return_to_Economics.pdf
A Cross-Cohort Analysis of Human Capital Specialization and the College Gender Wage Gap
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_2019121_Revised.pdf
Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States
Kim, C., Tamborini, C. R., & Sakamoto, A. (2015). Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States. Sociology of Education, 88(4), 320–339. http://doi.org/10.1177/0038040715602132
PDF Link:
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/23238/AFD_Kim_SociolEduc_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y