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SAM AND IRENE BLACK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Advice for Majors in Business Economics (BECON)

Interim Program Chair: Dr. Kenneth Louie
814-898-6265; obr@psu.edu

To help you with your current and future scheduling, TENTATIVE ECON course offerings through the Spring of 2010 are provided below.  If you have any questions, feel free to call, e-mail, or stop by my office. I will be happy to answer your questions. 

NOTE: Courses marked with asterisks (**) are currently scheduled to be offered every other year. If you need one of these courses to satisfy your program requirements, make sure you take it when it is offered.

Additional upper-level course offerings may be available, on an ad-hoc basis. We will do our best to ensure that the above courses are available as scheduled. However, administrative re-assignments, sabbatical leaves, extended illnesses, etc., may occasionally force deviations from the above schedule. Arrangements will be made (independent study, course substitutions, etc.) to ensure that appropriate course work will be available to allow you to complete your program of study.

Additional Advising Notes

Non-Business Supporting Courses

The Non-Business Supporting Course requirement for the BECON major has been revised. Students are still required to take a total of 15 credits of non-business supporting courses. Although students are encouraged to concentrate their supporting coursework within one or two supporting course areas, ANY COMBINATION of courses from the departmentally approved list of non-business supporting courses may be chosen. The approved list encompasses coursework in international studies, foreign languages, education abroad, psychology, quantitative methods, and written and oral communication. See the BECON checksheet for a list of these courses.

Econ 304 (Intermediate Macroeconomics) is required for all ECNS majors. This course is only offered every other year, so you MUST be sure to schedule it when it is offered. You will probably have only one shot at it!

Dr. Kurre has a file of one-page course descriptions for upper-level ECON courses that give info on what each course is really all about, how it is graded, whether there's a paper/project, etc. Stop by his office (284 REDC) to get your copy, or email him at k12@psu.edu .

I recommend that you consider joining our campus Econ club: the Society of Undergrad Economists (SUE) . You can find more info about SUE at: http://www.clubs.psu.edu/bd/sue/ Meetings are usually every other Tuesday, and include free pizza. Contact Secretary Jon Curtis (juc181@psu.edu) to get on the mailing list for info about club activities. We do a spring road trip that's always educational and fun. Get on board! (Looks like it may be New York City this year.)

You should be creating a portfolio of your work that you can use in your job search. This should include copies of major papers you do in your Econ classes. If you can demonstrate that you know how to find, download, and clean up data, use Excel, do statistical analysis (e.g., correlation, regression, hypothesis testing), write clearly and correctly, and create graphs, you greatly improve your chances of getting hired. Our grads have often told us that showing a prospective employer a research paper has helped get them interviews and jobs. Make a point of doing this!

You may also want to consider doing a summer undergraduate research project and applying for a grant from the college to do it. You can find info here: http://pserie.psu.edu/research/undergradresearch.htm . ECON 485 (Econometrics) is especially good preparation for this.

So what do you do with an Econ degree after graduation?

I strongly recommend that you contact the Career Development Center to discuss what you should be doing NOW to help ensure a job or admission to grad school after graduation.

We have nearly 200 grads from our ECNS and BECON programs over the years, and I keep in touch with many of them. If you would like to connect with some of them to find out about job or internship prospects or just to get some advice, please come see me. They live in Erie and in many other cities throughout the country, and work for a broad variety of employers in both the government and private sector.

Want to spend some time living and learning in D.C.?

We have lots of alumni working in the DC area who would be willing to talk with you and give advice. Come see me if you'd like some names.

Summer: Check out the Joint Program in Survey Methodology : http://www.jpsm.umd.edu/jpsm/index.htm One of our students did it a couple of years ago and loved it.

A semester at American University in DC: http://www.american.edu/washingtonsemester/ This is a great program that exposes you to lots of government agencies.

Here are some useful resources to check out:

     -Careers in Economics:
      http://www.mhhe.com/economics/sharp/student/careers.mhtml
     -National Association for Business Economics:
      http://www.nabe.com/careers.htm
      Check out their “Careers in Business Economics” book:       http://www.nabe.com/careers.htm#book
     -the Bureau of Labor Statistics's page about Econ as a profession, with
      forecasts and salaries: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos055.htm

Info about jobs for economists:

     -Jobs with the Bureau of Economic Analysis:       http://www.bea.gov/bea/beajobs.htm
          We have a 1989 grad who has been with BEA's Regional Econ unit since
          graduating, and they love him. They are well aware of Behrend's Econ
          program and like our “applied, data analysis” focus.
     -Jobs with the Bureau of Labor Statistics:        http://www.bls.gov/bls/jobshome.htm
          We have placed several of our grads with the BLS over the years.
          They typically pay for grad school.
     -Jobs with the Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/hrd/www/index.html
     -Jobs with the U.S. Department of Commerce:        http://www.commerce.gov/jobs.html
     -Jobs with the Federal Reserve System:        http://www.federalreserve.gov/careers/default.cfm
          We have or have had grads with the Philly, Cleveland, and St. Louis
          Feds.
     -“All” U.S. government jobs: http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/
     -Jobs with Moody's/Economy.com:        http://www.economy.com/home/about/working.asp

Job Search

During their Junior year, students are STRONGLY ADVISED to take the job search course offered by the Career Development Center.

If you have any questions regarding scheduling, feel free to e-mail Dr. Kurre at k12@psu.edu or call him at (home: 725-6888 or office: 898-6266), or drop by his office in Room 284, REDC.