The Economics major provides a pluralist approach to understanding how the economy works. The major helps students understand how humans organize to sustain life and enhance its quality, especially how social and economic institutions provision and allocate resources. Our program provides an analytically rigorous and critical understanding of markets, market failures, and non-market institutions that affect the everyday lives of individuals, families, firms, and societies. Student’s also study behavioral choices a
nd agency in diverse settings and alternative systems of provisioning and allocation. A Wooster Economics major is comfortable studying a wide variety of questions from different perspectives.
The core curriculum consists of five and half required courses, a scaffolded three semester mentored thesis experience and five electives. Together these expose students to the systematic study of economic phenomena and problems using mathematical, statistical, and economic modeling tools. They include instruction and application of statistics, econometrics, optimization theory, cost/benefit analysis, price theory, and economic modeling. The electives deepen critical thinking expose students to pluralist ideas, diverse forms of economic analysis, the philosophical origins of the discipline, and extends the quantitative and econometric training further to include novel empirical practices.
STEM ELIGIBLE MAJOR
Starting in 2021-22, the Economics major from the College of Wooster qualifies as a STEM degree. Our forward-thinking curriculum combines Econometrics & Quantitative Economics training with exposure to pluralist ideas. International students can apply for a 24-month extension to their optional practical training (OPT) period. This means you may be eligible for up to three years of work in the United States. Visit the U.S. government’s website for more information on STEM extensions.
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