High School Prep for Major in Economics

Thousands of students are competing to get into their ideal colleges with economics major. Start early in your high school years with a carefully planned out steps as below and you can trump the competition to get admission in your dream college.

Freshman Year

1.    Opt for challenging courses like mathematics and statistics which will help you later to tackle an inherently mathematical subject like economics. Ensure that you are doing 4 years of mathematics at your school. You should complete your Algebra I&II, Trigonometry, Geometry and Pre Calculus. If classes on Calculus are available plan to take them. If classes at honors level are available take them.

2.    Focus on getting good grades. No part of your college application carries more weightage than the courses you take and the grades you earn. At this stage the college may seem like a long way off, but a bad grade in freshman year can seriously jeopardize your chances of getting into that desirable college.  Devote as much time for study and earn the highest grades as possible.

3.    Remain active in your economics class and draw attention of your economics teachers. Complete your economics project with utmost sincerity, ask thoughtful questions to your economics teacher in the class and outside, ask her guidance about additional readings. Your initiatives may impress her to give you a letter of recommendation or she may put you in touch with some useful person in her network.

4.    Start reading a lot to get ready for college. College level course work needs voluminous reading assignments. Vocabularies are more complex. And economics has its own jargons.  Start reading beyond your text books and homework like popular financial newspapers and magazines, college level economics books, books on life and work of past and present economists, and follow blogs of economics students or a professor. These will help you to broaden your perspective and improve your ability to think critically and express your views clearly.

5.    Take up one or two extracurricular activities that you are passionate about. Over a period of time, by junior years try to attain depth and leadership position in those activities. For example, if you love to play baseball play well to lead your school in competition or play well that local newspaper publish your interview. Colleges like to see this kind of achievements which demonstrates your “drive to achieve”, leadership quality and team work. Extracurricular activities you get involved into reveal your non-academic qualities to college admission officials.

6.    Select a foreign language to study. Competitive colleges like Yale or Harvard have 3 to 4 years study requirements of a foreign language. It always impresses college admission folks if a language is studied intensively and some decent level of proficiency is gained. So studying the chosen language all the way through senior years helps you to develop proficiency, meet the language requirements of the college or universities and improves your chances of admission.

Sophomore Year

Continue with above steps in sophomore year. As discussed above the intensity of some steps may be tuned up like participation in extracurricular activities. Never stray from your focus on getting good grades. Continue your foreign language and honors classes as opted.