14 Feb 2006

Economics Surges in Popularity as an Undergrad Major

Undergraduates at Columbia, Chicago, Harvard and New York University – and their peers elsewhere – are creating a groundswell of demand for studies in economics. In the 2003-2004 academic year, degrees in economics rose nearly 40 percent from five years earlier, according to John J. Siegfried, an economics professor at Vanderbilt University. Siegfried tracks 272 colleges and universities around the country for the Journal of Economic Education.

The trend marks a huge turnaround that began in the mid-1990s, according to the government's National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile, other once-popular majors, such as political science, government, history and sociology are sitting in the dust created by the stampede towards economics.

A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that the turnaround reflects students' views that "in a global economy filled with uncertainty, many students see economics as the best vehicle for a job promising good pay and security."

Not to mention, econ has always been a great undergrad degree for aspiring lawyers, MBAs and others with an eye towards professional degrees.

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