With some rare exceptions that test both, most college courses test either your intelligence or your diligence. A diligence course requires you to memorize material you will never care about and read books you’re not interested in. An intelligence course will give you a few models to manipulate or a new type of math to master. If you’re good with numbers and what-if scenarios (i.e. supply/demand clicked quickly for you, you enjoyed calculus), then I’d definitely recommend taking intelligence type courses. While your peers spend hours studying, you can read about other subjects you’re interested in. If you have the hardware, it’s a relatively painless way to slip through one of life’s most expensive hoops.
I’m about to graduate with a major in Econ and a minor in math. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. My econ electives were mostly spent on statistics and game theory. Look for classes like those. Stay away from anything with history in the name.
History classes, especially in college, tend to be large lectures with the instructor running a powerpoint, while students take down notes. Exams are infrequent and will occasionally include an essay that may require a bit of critical thinking, but the overwhelming majority of the work just goes into absorbing information. I happen to like history, and it’s not too difficult because I have a good memory, but it certainly isn’t really a thinking class. Actually, the best history class I’ve had was fairly small, but we spent most of the class time discussing what was going on, instead of having it just being dumped on us. Most history classes aren’t like that though.
With some rare exceptions that test both, most college courses test either your intelligence or your diligence. A diligence course requires you to memorize material you will never care about and read books you’re not interested in. An intelligence course will give you a few models to manipulate or a new type of math to master. If you’re good with numbers and what-if scenarios (i.e. supply/demand clicked quickly for you, you enjoyed calculus), then I’d definitely recommend taking intelligence type courses. While your peers spend hours studying, you can read about other subjects you’re interested in. If you have the hardware, it’s a relatively painless way to slip through one of life’s most expensive hoops.
I’m about to graduate with a major in Econ and a minor in math. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. My econ electives were mostly spent on statistics and game theory. Look for classes like those. Stay away from anything with history in the name.
The intelligence/diligence split should be obvious by looking at the class, right?
Why do you say to avoid history?
History classes, especially in college, tend to be large lectures with the instructor running a powerpoint, while students take down notes. Exams are infrequent and will occasionally include an essay that may require a bit of critical thinking, but the overwhelming majority of the work just goes into absorbing information. I happen to like history, and it’s not too difficult because I have a good memory, but it certainly isn’t really a thinking class. Actually, the best history class I’ve had was fairly small, but we spent most of the class time discussing what was going on, instead of having it just being dumped on us. Most history classes aren’t like that though.