Economics & Computer Science Major
The College of Arts & Sciences and the McKelvey School of Engineering have developed a major that allows students interested in both economics and computer science to combine these two complementary disciplines efficiently, without having to pursue them as two separate majors.
Engineering students who declare this major must fulfill the distribution and all other requirements for the BS in Applied Science degree in the McKelvey School of Engineering. Arts & Sciences students who declare this major must fulfill the distribution and all other requirements for an BA degree in addition to the specific requirements listed below.
Major Requirements
- Required Mathematics: Math 1510, Math 1520, SDS 2020 (or Math 3020 or ESE 3260), Math 2130 (or Econ 4830)
- Required Economics: Econ 1501, Econ 1502, Econ 4001, Econ 3150 or 4151
- Required Computer Science: CSE 1301, CSE 2407, CSE 3407
- Three (3-unit) Economics electives, drawn from any prerequisite course, including Econ 4002 (and/or Econ 4002)-prerequisite elective.
- Economics electives of particular relevance include (but are not limited to): Econ 4315 (Market Design); Econ 4151 (Applied Econometrics); Econ 4335 (Industrial Organization); Econ 4710 (Game Theory); Econ 4420 (Computational Macroeconomics)
- Three (3-unit) Computer Science electives, drawn from the list, below.
| Computer Science elective coursework | |
| CSE 3300 (Rapid Prototype Development & Creative Programming) | CSE 5101 (Artificial Intelligence) |
| CSE 3302 (Object-oriented Software Development Lab) | CSE 5104 (Data Mining) |
| CSE 3401 (Parallel & Sequential Algorithms) | CSE 5106 (Multi-agent Systems) |
| CSE 4106 (Analysis of Network Data) | CSE 5107 (Machine Learning) |
| CSE 4107 (Introduction to Machine Learning) | CSE 5108 (Crowdsourcing & Human Computation) |
| CSE 4205 (Programming Systems and Languages) | CSE 5507 (Information Visualization) |
| CSE 4207 (Cloud Computing) | |
Additional Information
Second Major
The major in economics and computer science is available as a second major to students in Arts & Sciences, Business, and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
Latin Honors
Students enrolled in this program and “prime” in Arts & Sciences may graduate with Latin Honors by completing 9 units (3 courses) of additional coursework, over-and-above the major requirements:
- SDS 3020 or ESE 3260
- One economics course from the list in the table below
- One computer science course from the list in the table below
Alternatives for those who bypass Econ 1501 and/or Econ 1502
Students who by-pass Econ 1501 and/or Econ 1502 will need to complete additional elective coursework in Computer Science or in Economics. (In Economics, elective coursework can be at the 3000- or 4000-level.)
- Students who have AP credit for Math 1510, Math 1520 and/or SDS 3020 do not have to complete additional mathematics coursework.
- Students with pre-matriculation credit for Math 2130 will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Study Abroad
Majors may receive abroad transfer credit for Econ 3150 and/or any economics elective; majors must complete 2 of the 3 economics electives in residence. Majors will consult with the study abroad advisor in Engineering regarding transfer credit policies for computer science.
Alternative Electives
With permission, one course from outside Economics and the CSE list above may be used for elective credit.