Information for Prospective Students

The purpose of the Economics major is to develop a systematic and coherent understanding of the academic field of economics. The field has three core components: 

• Microeconomics: studies consumer and producer decisions and the workings of markets for specific goods and services
• Macroeconomics: studies the aggregate economy, dealing with topics like unemployment, growth, and business cycles
• Econometrics: the application of statistical analysis to economic data

The field also has numerous sub-fields that focus on specific areas of the economy (e.g. public finance that focuses on the role of the government in the economy and health economics that focuses on the provision and consumption of health care).

Economics studies human behavior in many settings:

• Household level: economics investigates allocation of income across goods, and choices regarding how much to work, spend, and save. 
• Market level: economics investigates consumer decisions (what to buy and how much to spend), decisions firms make about their production methods and levels of output, and how these decisions jointly determine market prices, structure, and performance. 

• Aggregate level: economics investigates the determinants of growth and fluctuations of national income, the determinants of inflation and unemployment, the nature of trade and financial flows between nations, and how all of these are influenced by government monetary and fiscal policy.

   

At its heart, however, economics is more than a set of questions, but rather is a mode of thought, a set of precise analytical tools that can be used to study a wide variety of social science problems. Students are introduced to these tools in the core methodology courses of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Econometrics. With these tools in hand, students are then able to study a wide variety of topics including labor-market outcomes, the role of the banking sector, the economics of developing countries, international trade, the role of the public sector and of the political process, economic history, and the study of health and education. In addition, students have the option for advanced methodological study in dynamic optimization, game theory, and econometrics.

Much more than finance, banking, business and government, a degree in economics is useful to all individuals and can lead to many interesting career choices. These four diverse individuals offer their insights on how a background in economics can be a tool for solving very human problems.

The field of Economics is often confused with the field of Business at Cornell. Students in the College of Arts & Sciences can major in Economics.  A Business major called Applied Economics and Management (AEM) is offered through the Dyson School in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the SC Johnson College of Business. College specific requirements to graduate will differ. These should be considered in finding the right program for you.

The Economics major has a broad curriculum not explicitly directed to providing skills specific to any one career, an Economics major opens door to many different careers.  The Business/AEM major tends to focus on more business-specific skills --- accounting, marketing, finance, management, human resources and organizational behavior. If you are interested in a career in business, Economics and Business/AEM are both excellent majors (a significant share of Economics majors go into business careers, especially in finance and consulting). We recommend that students choose the major that better fits their own personal intellectual interests. 

For Arts & Sciences students who are interested in both economics and business, you have the option to complete an Economics major while simultaneously completing the Business minor.  For more information, see the Business minor webpage.

Many Economics majors also complete additional majors.  There are some majors that naturally complement (and perhaps even overlap with) an Economics major (Math, Computer Science, Statistics, Psychology, and Government).  However, it is also common for students to complete a second major that is completely unrelated to Economics.

If you are considering pursuing multiple majors, please note that in some instances a single course can count toward multiple majors.   

For all Economics classes, the primary instructor will be a Cornell faculty member or a visiting faculty member. Many Economics classes also employ teaching assistants (TAs), who might conduct discussion sections and/or grade homework and exams.

Introductory Economics courses tend to have lectures that average 400-450 students, and discussion sections that average 25-30 students.

Core methodology classes (Micro, Macro, Statistics, and Econometrics) have lectures that average 90-150 students and discussion sections that average 25-40 students.

Advanced economics electives vary in size, with many having 30-60 students, some having 60-90 students, and a few running well over 100 students.

Some electives are capped at 25 students to allow our majors to experience smaller classes.

If you are a high school senior considering Cornell, or a prospective transfer from another college or university, take a look at the pages concerning our Economics major, course offerings, and opportunities for research to get an idea of what our undergraduate program can offer you.

Senior Survey

To provide a sense of what our majors do immediately after commencement, we conducted a survey in late April 2023.

Out of 167 December 2022, May 2023, and August 2023 graduates, 136 responded to the survey (81.4% of the graduating class). Of these respondents, 78% said they were employed or obtaining further schooling.  Here is the breakdown by the type of employment and type of further schooling:

• 26.4% in Finance
• 19.8% in Consulting
• 16% in Banking
• 12.3% stated “Other”
• 10.4% Attending Graduate School
• 5.7% in Another Business Field
• 5.7% Attending Law School
• 1.9% Attending Medical School
• 0.9% in Government or Military
• 0.9% in Not for Profit Companies

Of the students attending graduate school, some of the institutions they will attend include:

• Columbia University
• Cornell Tech
• Cornell University
• Duke University
• Georgia Tech
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Northwestern University
• University of Chicago Booth
• University of Virginia
• Yale University

Of the students who are employed, some of the companies and organizations they will be working for include:

Introductory Courses and Intermediate Courses

The Economics major begins with introductory courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics that aim to acquaint students with the basic concepts in each area. The major then offers intermediate courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics, as well as a two-course sequence in statistics and econometrics that is offered in two varieties: less and more mathematical. These courses aim to acquaint students with more advanced concepts in each area. 

Elective Courses

Majors are required to take six elective courses. The most common type of elective introduces students to a sub-field of economics. The learning objectives for these courses are to familiarize students with basic institutional knowledge of the specific area of study and the key economic questions in the area, and to understand how to apply tools and concepts from microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics to analyze these key questions. The other main type of elective offers advanced training in microeconomics, macroeconomics or econometrics. The aim of such electives is to expose students to more frontier developments in core economics.