Economics
Advising Information
Advisor: Ruth Harrison
Office: Business 309
Phone Number 435.797.2272
Email: ruth.harrison@usu.edu
Why choose a degree in economics?
This particular major provides training in the essential areas of economics but allows a liberal selection of elective credits for those students wishing to earn a dual major. It has been very popular with finance and accounting majors as a dual major because of the added theoretical and analytical dimension that advanced studies in economics can contribute to finance and accounting majors. Economics provides excellent preparation for students interested in advanced studies in accounting or finance. In addition, because this major provides a strong grounding in economic theory, it helps open career opportunities that involve policy analysis. This major also has advantages for students in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences with an opportunity to learn about policy analysis tools. Whether the students are directly interested in policy or simply interested in the impact of policy within their chosen primary major, economics introduces a robust and empirically verified paradigm for explaining the behavior of social systems and their interaction with cultural, biological, and physical resources.
"It should be noted that economics is the most popular major at a number of America’s most prominent universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Stanford."
– Vascellaro, J. (2005, July 5). The Hot Major for Undergrads is Economics, Wall Street Journal.
What types of jobs are available to those with a degree in economics?
The important thing to understand about finding a job with an economics degree is that employers are less interested in whether you have a specific skill, like being able to find the intersection of the supply and demand curve, than they are in the package of skills that people with economics degrees have. (Secret: most of the skills which people use on the job they learn on the job.)
An undergraduate degree in economics trains you to "think critically" about a variety of complicated situations. For example, in intermediate microeconomics you learn about elasticity of demand. This theory illustrates how price setting for firms is more complicated than just "raise price to increase profits" – sometimes this strategy will lower profits. Learning about elasticity is not only useful because it is an important business concept but also because it teaches problem solving skills. Economics students also learn how to figure out what the right questions to ask are about business situations, solve problems, work with numbers, and a variety of other skills.
– Vascellaro, J. (2005, July 5). The Hot Major for Undergrads is Economics, Wall Street Journal.
What this means is that employers know that if they want someone who is a good thinker and who is going to be able to learn the specific job skills which they need, then they should hire an economics major. This is why statistics show that average starting salaries for students with economics majors are even higher than those with business majors.
Many jobs in business do not require students to have a business degree or a major in a specific field like accounting.
Employers are happy to hire students with undergraduate degrees in economics. They are often looking for good mathematics skills, good writing skills, ability to use a word processing program such as Word and a spreadsheet program such as Excel.
Job titles for economics in business include any kind of "analyst" or "consultant" title, "economist," "research assistant," and others. Economics majors can also apply for entry level positions in business as long as there isn’t a specific requirement to know marketing or some other skill which an economics major without a dual major might not learn.
A number of government agencies and government–related organizations (for example, the FTC, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Banks) like to hire students with economics degrees to do many types of work. These jobs often involve doing research on programs which either are in place to find out how well they are working or evaluating different options for a new program being considered. In many cases, people with undergraduate degrees in economics will be a part of a team of researchers, some of who have graduate degrees.
Job titles for economists in government include "economist," "research assistant," and others. Employers will be looking for skills which are similar to those needed for business.
Student Experencies
"My degree in economics from Utah State University prepared me very well for a position at a top–tier management consulting firm. The combination of the strong quantitative training and rigorous qualitative analytical thinking positioned me well for success in consulting executive teams of Fortune 500 companies and working with my Ivy League colleagues. My time in consulting has been very rewarding and professionally satisfying. With the training I have received from the Economics Department at USU and Mercer Management Consulting, I have recently been given the opportunity to work for one of the most prestigious private equity funds in the US. I will be working with a small group of investors to purchase, manage, and exit large corporations around the world. I feel very confident in my ability to succeed professionally, largely due to my training from the Economics Department at USU."
Jeffrey Reece
"My undergraduate training in the Economics Department at Utah State University provided me with a solid foundation for graduate studies in economics. The faculty at Utah State took a personal interest in my education and helped to make sure that I had the skills necessary to succeed."
Ryan Bosworth