Econ department restructures major

By Seth Brown     4/8/10 7:00pm

Economics dictates that as market forces change, players must constantly readapt. Taking this lesson to heart, the Economics Department has reevaluated its course offerings and major requirements. A sixth required elective has been added to the economics major, the numbering of several courses has been changed to clarify difficulty level, research methods have changed the minimum required grade point average has risen for honors candidates. Economics Department Chair Mahmoud El-Gamal said the changes were deemed necessary after a departmental review.

"Every department has to do periodic curriculum reform - every few years we have to see if the portfolio of courses makes a coherent curriculum for students," El-Gamal said. "We decided we had reached the point where reform was necessary."

With the addition of a sixth required elective to the economics major, both economics and mathematical economic analysis majors now must have six elective courses from a pre-approved list, three of which must be 400-level courses. The addition was made in consideration of the relatively low number - 11 before, now 12 - of courses required at Rice for an economics major. El-Gamal said Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, among others, have higher total course requirements for their economics majors - MIT requires 14 - as do a number of other majors within Rice. Physics majors have to take upward of 20 courses, and political science majors have to take at least 12, for example.

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Course numbering changes are intended both to clarify the intended position of courses in the line of study and to ensure that course numbers accurately reflected each course's difficulty level. To that end, ECON 211 and 370, Microeconomics I and II, have been changed to ECON 201 and 301, respectively, in order to reflect that these courses are prerequisites for later coursework. The exception to this is Introduction to Game Theory, which has been changed from ECON 340 to ECON 205. Introduction to Game Theory is one of several courses whose level has been reduced from 300 or 400 to 200 or 300. Students who have already taken one of these courses will retain the old level for elective requirement purposes, but they will no longer be available in the future at the old level. One course, ECON 448: Corporate Finance, is being split into two courses, ECON 243: Corporate Finance, and ECON 443: Financial Economics.

The way undergraduate research is conducted has also been changed - while mathematical economic analysis majors no longer have to take one semester of senior research, a research paper has become a requirement for honors candidates, and the independent research course is no longer limited to seniors. The course will also change from ECON 403/404 to ECON 399, which may only be taken once; however, 403 and 404 will remain available for those who have already matriculated.

Mathematical economic analysis major Bryant Chan said the changes made sense given that not all students take the research seriously.

"I thought the research was good for bringing the whole major together, but I agree with taking [the research requirement] away because a lot of times, people don't really care about the research," Chan, a Jones College senior, said.

Along with requiring a research paper, which may be developed in ECON 399: Independent Research or another course, the required grade point average for honors candidates has risen to 3.67 for courses presented for their major, though these changes, like the others, will only apply to those graduating under the new plan.

Economics major Taylor Britt said although the reorganization was annoying, it is important that changes be made to the department.

"You can't really fault them for trying to make their major better - it's shocking how many fewer hours are required for [the economics major] than for science majors," Britt, a Baker College sophomore, said.

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