Hi [r/econometrics](r/econometrics)
I have to decide in a few days if I’ll be studying either BSc Mathematics or BSc Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam (so Econometrics in the Netherlands in undergraduate)
In Econometrics I will hopefully take these courses:
- Macroeconomics, Calculus, Microeconomics, Probability Theory and Statistics I, II and III, Linear Algebra, Advanced Linear Algebra, Multivariate Analysis Econometrics I and II, Life Insurance Mathematics, Statistical Learning, Mathematical Economics I and II, Time Series Analysis and Microeconometrics.
- Minor in Sets and Proofs, Topology, ODE, Markov Chains, Functional Analysis and Measure Theory.
- Maybe a honours (i hope it) that includes either Optimization or Algorithms and Data Structures in Python
It seems like a lot of mathematics but BSc Econometrics still doesn’t grant me immediate access to some interesting master’s that the BSc Maths does.
I also think it’s unfortunate that they don’t have Operations Research like VU and EUR. Although it’s possible as a elective to take Optimization it seems quite interesting.
Also Econometrics itself seems quite hard as a subject and it still has a lot of core maths courses. I hope I don’t regret not having taken more maths because of less Master’s degree possibilities even though it has a lot of maths courses. From year 2 it’s mostly maths I think.
Maths seems very fun because it is more broad it has discrete maths, probability and statistics. If I mainly care about the maths I think a BSc Maths is more robust and it already has the courses like ODE/PDE without the minor. So it would be possible to just take a minor in CS or something else like from the Social Sciences such as “Western Esotericism” which seems very cool.
But quite scared that Maths will be harder. Econometrics seems to build maths a little slower with 2 courses at most each period and Maths can have 3/4 courses (Calculus -> PTS I -> Linear Algebra -> Probability and Statistics II and III -> Multivariate Analysis -> Advanced Linear Algebra)
I hope I’ll end up in something applied anyway such as a master’s Applied Mathematics at TU Delft (which has a bridging programme for BSc Econometrics) or Econometrics at EUR (which has a direct admission for BSc Maths if you take a minor in Econometrics and stats/mathematical finance electives) or Computer Science/AI.