Redesigning the Economics major(s) at Stanford

 At many universities, the undergraduate major in Economics serves several distinct groups of students.  There are students who might want to go on to graduate work in economics, students seeking jobs in business or government or NGOs that require analytical skills, students who would have chosen a Business major if one were available, and students who want to be capable of understanding articles in the WSJ and being thoughtful about public policy.  In general, departments have adopted the view that an education in econ is good for all these groups, from future economists to future educated citizens.

But not all of those groups are equally well served by the same set of required courses.  So Stanford is now offering two different undergrad degrees in Economics.

 Stanford Report has the story

"Economics major expanded to better suit different career paths.
In addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree, the Department of Economics now offers a Bachelor of Science and certificates in several subfields."

 "The Department of Economics in the School of Humanities and Sciences has begun offering students the option of pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree, and the Bachelor of Arts program has been modified. Also, majors can now fine-tune their interests by pursuing certificates in business economics, environmental economics, data science, and finance.  

"One of the most popular majors at Stanford, economics serves a range of students, from those seeking social science insights into decision-making to those seeking specialized quantitative – or “quant” – skills for numbers-heavy careers in finance.

...

“We don’t need them to get through MATH 51 unless they are going in the direction of the more ‘quant’ jobs – in which case we actually want them to have more math,” said Bernheim, who is also director of undergraduate studies in the department. “We decided we could serve both groups better by changing the prerequisite for the BA degree.” 

"Consequently, the new BS pathway’s core requirements, which are more quantitative than the BA’s, include MATH 115: Functions of a Real Variable; STATS 117: Theory of Probability; CS 106B: Programming Abstractions; and math-intensive economics courses on topics such as econometrics and game theory.

...

"Students on either degree path also can now obtain certificates in four areas: business economics, data science, environmental economics, and finance. The certificates allow students to narrow their focus within the major and signal to prospective employers that they’ve learned specific skill sets."