Bachelor of International Economics (BIE)

University of British Columbia

Welcome to the BIE space! This page is meant as a helpful guide for current BIE students to get the most out of their degree. The advice you will find here reflects the experience and opinion of upper-year students and should be viewed as a relatively subjective portrayal of the program. Recommend reading through at least once in your four years of the program.

This Wiki page is not meant to substitute the official BIE page which you should definitely visit first. The official page should be a primary reference for the main questions you may have about the program.

Overview of the program

This Wiki page is not designed to substitute the official BIE page which you should definitely visit. It should be a primary reference for the main questions you may have about the program. The information found there is also frequently updated. This is the one of the pages you will visit numerous times because it shows the required courses you have to take. As you get accustomed to the website, you will find the pages that interest you most.

However, this Wiki page is meant to give a more informal overview of the program. So let's begin with a few characteristics of life as a BIE student:

• Community identity : There is one main factor that makes BIE students have a certain community identity. This factor is being in a cohort and spending so many hours studying for the same courses and seeing each other all the time. Many connections are created with the people sitting around you. In some sense, it's high school all over again.

Map shows the contries of origin of all BIE students since the inception of the program.

• International environment : UBC is an international university, but some may say BIE's international aspect is even more pronounced. The cohort is split 50:50 between international and domestic students. This is just a statistic and seems too cold and bare. But wait till you discover all the stories behind your classmates, their intricate narratives that combine multiple nationalities, cosmopolitan lifestyles, the languages they picked up along the way. They are cool people, so getting to know them is an experience in itself. The diverse backgrounds of BIE students will become apparent during class discussions (just wait for the Globalization class!).

• Demanding academic courses : It is fair to say that the BIE curriculum is quite intellectually challenging. The BIE courses are not as quantitatively intense as the Honours version, but they are meant to broaden your knowledge in more areas than the Honours courses do. So, for example, you will have to wrestle with Econometrics and Calculus and, at the same time, be good at more qualitative/argumentative courses such as Econ 255 (Globalization) and Econ 317 (Wages and Inequality). Additionally, some students say that the BIE program is demanding because it demands full attention of the student without leaving him too much space for electives and other interests. This is more the case in your first two years than in the last two (more on this later).

• Profs are awesome : One of the perks of being part of the BIE program, and it’s cohort nature, is that you get access to some of the best professors VSE has to offer and they are always available to talk to you. You get to learn so much from them and you can also befriend them, to a certain extent. Just email them and schedule a meeting. For instance, if you have an idea about improving the program, talk to the BIE director and they will heed your advice. Most profs are always happy to talk if they don’t have anything urgent they need to complete.

• Iona is your temple : The Iona building used to belong to the Theology School, so comparing it to a temple is not too detached from reality. Iona is the place where most ECON and COEC classes will take place, and it is also the place where you will have tutorials, where you will study with your study buddies, and where you will spend some nights doing an assignment. It is perceived as a cold place by some, but trying to making it your home will make your life more comfortable. Some ways to do this are: taking one of the lockers in the basement (they are up for grabs), storing some tea and coffee in the BIE lounge, playing music on the speakers in Iona 301 while studying. One more word on Iona: there is this room at the second floor officially called the 'Chancel Room', but please, for the sake of tradition, call it the 'Jesus Room'.

General Resources and Programs

Arts Advising Office and BIE Academic Services Office

One crucial piece of advice: please, go to either Office early in your degree, or whenever you have doubts and questions about courses and requirements. What Office should you go to and for what? Here is a list of things that each Office can help you with:

Go to Arts Advising Office to:

• Understand how to work with Degree Navigator : This may seem like a trivial thing, but it's not! The Degree Navigator is a crappy looking website, accessible from your SSC, that makes your life easier! It will be your best friend when thinking about the courses your need to take, the requirements you must fulfill, and/or information about your Minor degree.
• Work towards fulfilling your Language and Literature requirements: These two requirements are a looming and ineluctable fact of life. Students generally don't pay attention to them early enough, postponing them for later in their degree, and ignoring the advantages of confronting them early on (this point will be reinforced later). The Arts Advising counsellor will give you a breakdown of what courses you could take and in what order. The Degree Navigator won't give you sufficient information, and won't give you a strategic perspective either, so that's why you need to go to the counsellors. They will walk you through this process until you get the whole thing and are able to make your own strategic choices.
• Be directed to other staff/faculty: The Arts Advising counsellors know the professors and instructors in the Faculty of Arts. Many times they even have the professors' business cards in their drawers, at the tip of their fingers, ready to serve them to you. Why is this an asset? The counsellors may have some information about the courses you could be taking as your language, literature and elective courses, but it is always best to consult the professors and heads of departments themselves to know what courses are best for you! For instance, you may be wondering what French or Italian courses you should be taking, so going to someone within the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies can give you a lot of insight. And the counsellors can direct you to the right people!
  

Visit their website to make an appointment or go to their drop-in sessions.

Go to BIE Academic Services Office to:

• Understand the BIE requirements : Sometimes the BIE requirements are hard to understand, especially when it comes to third and fourth year requirements. Sometimes, these requirements change, and at times, courses which used to fulfill the requirements will become unavailable. Checking your understanding of these requirements will allow you to stay on top of these changes and will enable you to change your course selection accordingly.
• Extend your credit limit : You may want to extend your credit limit from 30 credits per year to 33 or 36. The reasons for this may vary from being an overly workaholic student to being someone who really needs those credits to complete their degree in four years to registering for more courses than you need just because you cannot make up your mind just yet (and don't want to run the risk of having no seats left in those classes). Caveat: you do need to have an 80+ average and a convincing argument to have your credit limit extended.
• Sort out difficult and personal situations : For some reason, your plans change and they are in conflict with the BIE required courses, and/or you need to restructure your whole undergraduate plans. This may mean taking some courses at different times than your cohort. Or, this may mean that you want to take a leave and work before coming back to school. Or, this may mean leaving the BIE program altogether and transitioning to another program and degree at UBC. For all these situations and many others, talk to Triny (and most probably to the BIE director too). The BIE Academic Services Office is led by Triny Shen, her assistant Sarah Gregory and two student Peer-Advisors. Both Triny and the Assistants can advise you on academic-related questions, and you can find their offices on the 2nd floor of the Iona building. Here are some of the academic-related issues:

For in-person questions, go to the Academic Services office on the 2nd floor of the Iona building (right next to the Jesus room): the peer-advisors will most probably help you out. In case you need to sort out a difficult situation like the ones mentioned above, email Triny to schedule a meeting as soon as you can. You can find her contact information on the BIE page.

Oh, and one more thing: If you are experiencing difficult personal or academic situations, getting bad grades and failing to meet continuation requirements as a result, do talk to Triny, the BIE director and/or the Arts Advising Office. It is really important to get advice early in the semester before writing the final exams. I stress the before because once you have received a bad grade in a core course, you will most probably be expelled from the program.

BIE Career Centre

Nancy Clarke is the director of the Centre and she will personally assist you by means of one-to-one professional coaching sessions. She will offer advice on career choices, resources to explore and use, and other useful advice. Moreover, she organizes career events at the VSE and is connected to the growing network of BIE Alumni.

Mission Statement:
The VSE takes a holistic approach as a career resource centre that helps BIE students think critically while developing themselves professionally and personally in order to network and connect with career-related opportunities.

Resources:

The Career Centre believes in helping students help themselves, as they develop both personally and professionally by assisting them in exploring the diverse avenues their BIE degree can take them down. The aim of the Career Centre is to help BIE students discover and connect with leading companies and organizations in their areas of interest. They work in cooperation with these businesses to develop the most helpful resources for these efforts. As these students develop into an intellectually dynamic and highly adaptable workforce, the Career Centre builds long-lasting relationships with employers and businesses to make BIE students their top choice when recruiting. To assist you in your personal and professional development there are a number of resources offered by the Career Centre such as career workshops, employer Information sessions, peer coaches and personal assessments & tools available online. Always remember to check their website to ensure you don't miss any exciting events!

The Career Centre also hires students for volunteer and WorkLearn positions. Keep that in mind every February/March and August/September when Work Learn positions are posted! Also, check this page which shows some Career Centre tools for your job search and professional development.

BIE Peer Tutors

The tutor's office is run by two BIE students who are there for you! They have experience with ECON, STAT and MATH so they can surely give you a hand when needed. Sometimes, they will be rusty because they haven't seen the problems you are dealing with in a while, but give them some time. Look at how they try to approach the question. Rather than just seeking the answer, try to find what methods they use.
Moreover, the BIE tutors should have many tips and rules of thumbs they could give you about the professors, their exams and homework, and where you should devote more time in studying for exams. Ask them for previous exams and homework they were assigned because, most probably, something similar will fall on your homework assignment and exams.
Lastly, ask them what courses they have taken, what paths they have created for themselves throughout the degree, what strategic choices they have made to get where they are. More important than the initial questions you may have on some topic are these interactions between senior and junior students. Go beyond the present, and think about the future together with your BIE tutor.

Check this website for their office hours and contact details!

BIE Peer Advisors

The academic advising office hires two top senior BIE students to help all BIE students navigate academic and student life. They are an invaluable resource as they can help with better understanding course requirements as well as walk students through the course selection process. More than that, they can impart knowledge of available UBC resources, co-op and exchange opportunities, and general tips to succeed and have a great undergraduate experience! Basically, you can consider peer advisors as mentors for junior BIE students.

Depending on their own experiences and abilities, you can also ask them to tutor you on a one-to-one basis for ECON or MATH courses. In the past, peer advisors have also helped BIE students do consulting case studies, run mock interviews and improve their resumes. This being said, peer advisors are not in the position to replace the Career Centre, and can only share their own knowledge to the best of their ability.

Check this website for their office hours and contact details!

This wiki page is mostly written by past & current BIE Peer Tutors and Advisors. If you have any questions about the content, or want to know more about something, don't hesitate to go talk to them! Any senior BIE students should also be fairly knowledgeable about the BIE program, and in fact, many of them will be more informed in topics such as grad schools, co-op, and minors.

BIE Mentorship Program

What has been said with respect to BIE Peer Advisors and their partial role as mentors is all the more applicable to the mentors you will have in the BIE Mentorship Program. All the details are on the VSEUS website, do check it first before reading the following:

The first advantage of the Mentorship Program is that it opens the doors to interact with upper-year BIE students, and thus it bridges the seemingly abysmal age and experience gap. It allows you to think of senior year students as your big brothers rather than some intimidating strangers.

Second, the Program is designed to go beyond the one-on-one interactions your assigned mentor. At the beginning of the year, there is a Kick Off event where all the mentors are invited to present their own stories and advice. This is a great opportunity to interact with them, learn from their experiences, and even befriend them; who knows, maybe these interactions will lead to some long lasting relationships!

Third, use these newly created relationships to meet more people in upper years. During your university life, never stop interacting with people and making connections. Contact your senior peers and ask them for advice, and once you have asked for a second opinion, proceed to the third. Hopefully, this process will continue until you graduate. 

BIE Academic Research Internship Program

Generally good grades open gates, and this is especially true for the BIE Academic Internship Program, which only admits the top 10-15% of the class, provided you have an 80+ average (requirements subject to change, so you need to stay on top of this by asking either the Triny or the BIE director). The people admitted in the Program will be matched with one VSE professor with whom they will work 20 hours per term throughout the year.

• How it works: Those who meet the above-mentioned requirements will be sent an email at the end of their second year. They will be asked to apply for the Program if interested and provide a reason why they want to join, a list of areas of interest of research in Economics and other details. After the application is evaluated, you will be assigned a professor and work with them for 20 hours per term in your third year. In case you work more than that, the professors should pay you for the extra-time.
  
• What you gain: You first get to meet and discuss with an academic about stuff unrelated to class material. You get to meet the professor and find out about their research. You get to do more or less interesting work which may or may not involve working with unfamiliar software (like Stata). You may run the risk of not getting good and interesting work, but this is not a reason not to join the Program. Worst case scenario, you understand that low-level research is not for you, or that academic research in general does not suit your taste. Best case scenario, you love it and you create a great working relationship with your professor, who later offers you a paid internship position next summer (or the following year) when you will work on much more interesting projects. You also get to keep Stata (which used to cost around $500 if you want to buy it yourself) for free. (Now Arts faculty gives it out for free)

Other External Resources:

• r/UBC - easiest lit courses?

Advice from the seniors

The pieces of advice you will find in the following subsections should be taken with a pinch of salt. They reflect the opinion of some BIE students, mentors (maybe even profs, who knows!), and such opinions may or may not have universal validity. In other words, choose what makes sense to you and what you think is right for yourself.

Courses

A first thought

Choosing courses can be one of the most exciting things about university, especially in the first year when it is all about exploring everything. Keep that enthusiasm and the urge to find interesting things that you are passionate about and may change your life and career. While this exploration and drive to find interesting courses is key for a good academic experience, it is not necessarily a successful way of completing your degree. A strategic way of selecting courses, underpinned by constant cost-benefit analysis, is more probable to yield the best outcome.

Getting rid of Language and Literature requirements

This may very well be one of the first strategic choices you can make. Many BIE students agree that finishing these requirements earlier rather than later gives you more freedom in choosing your courses and activities later in your degree. It decreases the stress of not being able to graduate within four years, and it avoids having to make some sacrifices. All of this is very abstract, so for more real-life examples, ask some of the senior students about their view on the completion of these requirements.
Nonetheless, some incoming students may be convinced that they don't need to deal with these requirements earlier (or at all). Here are some of these situations:

• Case 1: You may think that high school credits are covering the requirements. While this true for the Language requirement, the Literature requirement is almost never covered by high school literature courses. For more information on these requirements, check the Degree Navigator and Arts Advising Office (it is always better to consult with the Arts Advising Office).
  
• Case 2: There are the students who think that they should first focus on other priorities and deal with the Language and Literature requirements later. Some are driven by this urge to explore interesting courses from Psychology to Geography to Poli Sci and so on, and postpone these requirements. It is somewhat understandable, but at the same time, you should really consider the downside: from previous experience, some senior BIE students can tell you they have ex-post regrets about the prodigal expenditure of credits and time in their first and even second years. In a program such as BIE, you often do not have that much leeway because of the number of requirements. Also, you never realise how fast time passes by, and before you blink, you are in your third year wondering what happened to the previous two years.

Challenge yourself with harder but valuable courses

This advice may seem like something your parents and high school teacher may tell you. Yet, it doesn't make it any less true. Some enthusiastic students try to explore everything that sounds interesting and appealing. That's all well and good, but when choosing a course it is worth considering the following too: 'Have you taken this course because Reddit said it's an interesting course and an average booster?' 'Is this course just a mere extension of what you have done in high school, and as such, is it easy to 'kill' the exams without bothering to study too much?' 'Is the course just a way to fill your Arts credit requirements?' We could come up with more such questions to illustrate this point, the point being that you could choose courses you find interesting and struggle with a fair bit. Harder courses make your brain sweat more (and make your head spin), but they also make your brain smarter. These courses add value to your degree and may inform your post-graduation decisions too. Who knows? You may even find something so surprising and different that you will choose a Minor, or a different Major altogether.

Some great examples of challenging, interesting literature-requirement courses are PHIL375 (Philosophical Literature) and ENGL246 (Literature to Film Adaptations). Both are incredible courses taught by great professors, if you are looking for courses to fill your lit requirement definitely check these out.

• Exceptions: There are reasons for which you could take the easier courses. Among these reasons: boosting your average because it suffered from taking too many hard courses; having a balanced hard-to-easy ratio within the same term and year; allowing you to focus on extra-curriculars rather than on school, etc. In all these cases, however, you are being strategic about the choice of courses, rather than taking easy courses for the sake of an easy life.

When a course is full but you really want to take it

You are adamant about taking a class. It's now or never, you won't be able to take that class in the future with a better prof. However, the course is full as it usually happens, especially for second years whose date of registration comes last. Do not despair! It is very common that after the first few days of class, people will drop out (this is especially true for hard courses, another reason for taking them over easy classes!). So you need to play the waiting game and do the following in the meantime: 1) go on Slacknotes and register the course you are interested in, because they will tell you when a seat is freed up 2) go to talk to the instructor in charge and ask them if there is any chance of adding you to the class 3) go to all the classes in the beginning of the year to show the professor you are still interested and to be able to easily follow the class once you get in (and you will!).

• Some caveats: Sometimes, bargaining with the instructor to let you in the course will not help because of strict policies from the department. This is best exemplified by the Computer Science department which will generally create Waitlists and will let you in based on the 'First come, first served' principle. The Arts departments have a more lax policy, but you need to talk to the right people. The same goes for Mathematics.

When you don't have the prerequisites for the course

You go on the SSC and you see a course you want to take but you do not meet the specified requirements. We have to break this problem down into multiple cases because the answer depends on which case you belong to.

• Case 1: You are doing a Minor that requires that course: Generally, minors have strict rules about what courses you have to take. Some Minors indicate that you need to take a series of courses in a certain order and you cannot skip any of the steps. So you would need to fulfill the prerequisite for the course so that the course you are taking is valid for the Minor. If in doubt, check with Arts Advising Office or Triny's Office.
• Case 2: The course is offered by a department that has strict policies about prerequisites : We can cite Computer Science department again. They have a zero tolerance policy towards skipping prerequisites. You need to take everything in the order they mention, otherwise the system will not allow you in the course. The instructor has little power to overrule the department's decisions. If we take the example of the Mathematics department (which is more lenient), prerequisites are also very important because they are a necessary stepping stone for next courses. It's in your best interest to follow the path indicated by them, but if you are good enough, you can convince profs and heads of the department to bend the rules for you.
• Case 3: SSC warns you about not meeting the right prerequisites, but you are in fact: Sometimes, the SSC does not always show the full array of courses that meet the prerequisites. For example, many Economics and Statistics courses are accessible by BIE students because of the ECON 308, 309, 327 and 328 courses, but these courses do not explicitly show up as acceptable prerequisites. As a result, you will get a warning from SSC when registering. Not to worry though, the system will still accept you because it implicitly acknowledged those BIE prerequisites.
• Case 4: None of the above: Sometimes, you want to take an upper-level language or philosophy or history course and you think you have enough background knowledge to take the class and do well in it. The SSC generally does not deny registration to such upper-level courses. The instructors do not reinforce these prerequisites either. So, it is best to apply a 'Don't ask, don't tell' rule, taking the course without asking whether you are really welcome in the course. The instructors want people who are interested in the class and are active. If you excel in the class, nobody is ever going to trouble you with prerequisites (unless in one of the first two cases).

When you are failing a course

There is no shame in admitting (at least to yourself) that things are going down for you. There may be a myriad of reasons why this happens, but instead of focusing on the reasons, this article is going to be about the solutions available to you.

• Ask for help from your peers: Getting good grades is not necessarily about how high your IQ is, it is also about how smart you are about studying efficiently and test-taking (a very important skill). So if you are not getting good grades, it might be because you don't yet have the best studying and test-taking techniques. Some of these techniques might show up on this page so look for them. If this is not sufficient, go to the peers you know perform well and also explain well (this is key!). Ask them for tips and tricks, or for a group-study session once you have gone through the material yourself. Your BIE tutors as well as instructors should be invaluable resources as well.
• Get help BEFORE writing the final exam: It is important to get help before taking the final exam because once you take the exam and fail it, there is no way going back. Failing to meet continuation requirements means you are out of the program, for real! Even if you appeal the decision, the BIE leadership will mostly likely reject your appeal. However, if you consult with the BIE director, or Triny or other administrative entities, they can help you sail through dire straits by arranging deferrals, leaves, exceptions to progress requirements, etc. As long as you ask for help BEFORE writing final exams, there is still a chance to stay in the program.
• Consider what is best for you: All of the above is predicated on the assumption that you still want to be a BIE student. Some BIE students have realised, sooner or later, that the program is not for them. And that is alright too. There is no point in struggling to stay in a program that does not advance your goals in life or is simply not worth the emotional and physical effort you make to finish the degree. Better come to this realization sooner than later so that you have enough time to steer in the direction you truly want.

Arts/Commerce Co-op Program

The Co-operative Education program is an opportunity for students to experience what it is like to work full-time. It's like a preview of post-graduation, Jobs can range from dishwashing (undergrad study required) to investment banking analyst. After a minimum of 3 co-op terms (4 x 3 = 12 months), you get a "co-op student" designation on your transcript.

In order to be admitted into the co-op program, you first need a GPA of 72%. You also need to fill out the application form, and they are quite similar to the ones you wrote when applying to UBC.

Just because you got in doesn't mean you're guaranteed a job... not even close! You need to apply to the jobs yourself. According to Statistics UBC Arts Co-op, the average number of jobs students need to apply before they get their first co-op job is 17, but I have yet to see any of my colleagues get their first co-op job before 30~40 applications. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED. Everything will be better after the first work term, because you have gained experience and built a reputation for yourself.

(Ex. One BIE student took ~50 applications & 6 interviews before landing the first co-op job. The next term, it took 10 applications & 1 interview.)

You can apply to the Sauder Co-op program after completing 1 Arts Co-op term. The Sauder co-op program has about 5 times as many job postings as Arts, and a lot more RELEVANT job postings (based on the courses we take, such as data analytics, economist, consulting... etc.)

Controversies

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Each co-op term costs about $900 for the student, and the money goes to the school. This does not include any relocation costs that the student bears unless the hiring organization gives financial assistance. Many students wonder: "is it worth it?"

Here are the benefits of the Arts Co-op Program that I could think of:

• Gaining experience and creating connections, which are basically what get you employed these days. The co-op website gathers job postings from different industries and organizations for convenience, and students are able to apply for jobs easily.
• Co-op advisors working to connect students with employers, editing resumes/cover letters
• Co-op seminars and workshops, where students learn how to write job applications and gain interview skills

Here are some of the comments regarding benefits:

• Students who are motivated can go a little out of their way to search for jobs themselves and make connections themselves. Not necessary.
• The co-op office is extremely understaffed relative to the number co-op students. No time for all students!
• Not very useful?

So... is it worth it? It's your call. It's really up to how you use this opportunity. Co-op is never a requirement, but job experience is a must-have in today's competitive world. Depending on the number of extra credits you earned from high school, you may have to graduate in 5+ years if you decide to work during school year.

Paving the way for Grad School

Since the current contributor has not yet graduated and has little authority in recommending what is best for graduate school, it is best that I leave it to the real authorities. In this section, you will find a series of documents from different scholars, mainly from the United States.

• The first step is to understand the different Grad School options that you have. In his Handbook for Preparing for Graduate School, Chris Ferguson lists some of these options:

1. PhD in Economics (4-5+ years, funding usually available for qualified candidates)
2. MA or a MS in Economics/Econometrics/Applied Econ (1-2 years, some funding usually available for top candidates)
3. PhD or MA in Public Policy (1-5+ years, limited funding)
4. JD Law Degree (3 years, generally rare to be funded)
5. MBA, MA, or PhD in Human Resources, Industrial Relations, Finance, Management, etc.

For more info on the difference between a Masters and a PhD (apart from the obvious length of the program), go to Ferguson's original paper: https://www.uwstout.edu/socsci/upload/Handbook-for-Preparing-for-Grad-School-in-Economics.pdf

• The moment of truth : In case you want to go for a PhD at one of the most prestigious universities, or you want to pursue a Masters degree at any high ranking institution, you should truly and genuinely ask yourself whether you are fit for a high-level intellectual challenge and whether this challenge, once beaten, will lead to your true goals in life. It is important to first shake your deepest beliefs in order to make them stronger and be confident that Grad School is truly what you want to pursue. To help you in this regard, you can read Tyler Cowen's blog post:
  

" Two core groups of people are well-suited to be economists:

1. Your math GRE score is 170, you are totally focused, you love working long hours on your own, and you have good enough letters of recommendation to get into a Top Six or perhaps Top Ten graduate school. Note that white Americans from this category have been partially preempted by competition from foreigners.
2. You could be happy as an academic without much of a research career. Working at a teaching school is a rewarding life, albeit a poor one relative to your investment in human capital.
3. You do not fit either #1 or #2. Yet you have climbed out of the cracks rather than falling into them. You do something different, and still have managed to make your way doing research, albeit of a different kind. You will always feel like an outsider in the profession and perhaps you will be under rewarded. But you will have a great deal of fun and in the long run perhaps a great deal of influence. Sadly, the chance of achieving #3 is fairly low. You need some luck and perhaps one or two special skills other than math. Did I mention that if you have a clearly defined "Plan B" your chance of succeeding at #3 diminishes? It is important to be fully committed.

Another thing: Don’t expect any classes to be interesting. How should I put it? 'Most professors suck.' But a good professor can make almost any topic interesting. So your reaction to the courses is just a reaction to the instructors you have sampled. Treat that as noise, although I will ask why you are worse at picking teachers than at picking advice columnists. "

• Math matters, a lot: For both Masters and PhD (especially for a PhD program), the math component is really important. This math component refers to your ability to prove mathematical statements, which is a different ability than that of being good at computational mathematics course (e.g. calculus and linear algebra).

The University of California Berkeley ranks mathematical ability and training first in its Graduate Admissions profile. Check their website for more information.
The keyword you will find on most PhD program pages is Real Analysis. This is because Real Analysis is an Honours math course which tests your capacity to think in terms of theorems, proofs and theorems again. It requires creativity and brain power, rather than mere knowledge of the material.

• How to get there:
  Professor Jesse Perla has some really neat advice on how to achieve the Real Analysis goal (or Real Variables, as he calls it). Please go check it out his personal website!
  As a supplement to Professor Perla's advice, consider the following insight: Math 320 is a proof-based course like all Honours courses. To get there and excel in the course, you need to have trained in the same spirit, that is, of proving stuff. However, the calculus and linear algebra courses will not prepare you for that since they are mainly computational math courses. And Math 220 is a necessary course if you have only taken 200 and 221, but is it sufficient?
  Hence, the rational conclusion is that you should try the Honours stream from the very beginning, or the earliest possible. For example, choose Math 120 and Math 121 instead of Math 104 and Math 105. Even if you were good at calculus in high school, these courses may seem very hard and time-consuming. However, it is worth trying because they will be the best preparation for the next calculus course, Math 226, and the linear algebra course, Math 223. This series of Honours courses (120-121-223-226) will be enough to determine whether you want to pursue the Math 320 goal and whether you are good at it.
  Ideally, you would take this stream, but we live far from a perfect world. Many times, we do not know if we want a PhD, or we do not want to risk taking high-level math in the beginning. For whatever reason you have avoided the Honours stream, there is an alternative. Apart from taking Math 200, 220, and 221, you should take more 200 and 300 level courses before proceeding with Math 320 in the 4th year. For more details on the content and level of difficulty of each course, see the list of Math courses below.

• Do the cost-benefit analysis: It is true that 'ideally' you will take the Honours stream to get into the top graduate schools in the world. While the Honours Math stream is a great asset for getting into a Top 10 program (provided you do well in it!), it also carries a big risk of shutting you out of most Top 25 - or even Top 50 - programs if you do not do so well. There have been some cases where the Math Honours courses have lowered averages significantly enough to make prospective PhD student ineligible to these Top 50 graduate programs. The application committees for Grad Schools only look at the grade and not at the extenuating circumstances you might bring forth in your cover letter. All hope is not lost though! After all, there are brilliant, inquisitive minds beyond the Top 10. You may still want to do a PhD and your research might not be too mathematics-heavy either. So do not put all your eggs in one basket just yet, and consider the risks and rewards for each course of action.

Learning how to code

In today's world, knowing how to code is a big bonus, and not knowing it may be a handicap. Coding does not mean starting a new Facebook from scratch or creating one's own artificial intelligence algorithm; it can mean the most basic line of code, such as summing up two numbers in Excel. Understanding code and learning how to use a programming language is a great skill that can help you with being more productive in using software like Excel (although it can seem very basic) or writing useful programs that will supplement, and arguably improve, your Economics thesis and research. The field of Economics has become more data- and programming-intensive, so if you wish to go to Grad School, being at ease with picking up languages and implementing them for certain projects will be a great asset.
Here are a few guidelines to jump-start your programming career:

• Taking a Comp Sci class at UBC : UBC offers an introductory course to programming called CPSC 110 which offers a good foundation for thinking about algorithms and creating software. It is required if one wants to pursue a Comp Sci Minor or other degrees in Comp Sci. It may also be a very good starting point for self-learning too! Generally, upper-level computer science courses will not teach you a programming language, you need to pick it up yourself and work with it to solve problem sets and projects. So, whether you choose to continue with Comp Sci at UBC or learn by yourself, you will have to become an autodidact.
• Resources for self-learning: For all of you, autodidacts, here are some resources you will find useful. There are some great introductory courses and materials to programming all over the internet. First, you can audit Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) from websites such as Coursera (University of Michigan, John Hopkins University, Stanford University, etc.), edX (Harvard, MIT, UBC, etc.), Audacity, and others. Second, there are paid courses that can teach you a lot (Udemy and Code Academy are just two examples). Third, you have Stack Overflow which is definitely the most important website you will need in your programming life. Every question you may have is most probably already on Stack Overflow and it may be answered in more than one way. And there are many other resources out there, only one Google search away.
• Good programming languages to learn: By good, one should understand suitable for a certain purpose. If you plan to be a good coder for Android applications or website design, the information here will not serve you well. But if you plan to dedicate yourself to Economics, you may want to choose programming languages that are good for Data Science and Machine Learning. The most important ones are Python, R, Matlab, and we should also mention Julia, Java and Scala. Of course, we should never forget Stata since this is what most economists use in their research, and this is what you will be asked to use throughout your BIE degree. Every programming language has its advantages, but as a starter, you may want to consider Python because of its clean and easy syntax, and the plethora of online resources. Stata may initially seem harder to use, but as you learn Python and other languages, things will become intuitive and you will have a better grasp of it (the Stata documentation and online forum are great resources too!).
• AQM (Applied Quantitative Methods) Program: This program is supposed to give students a solid mathematical, statistical and programming foundation for data exploration, visualisation and modelling. One of the main features of this program is that it gives students access to large data sets (from firms such as Best Buy or Translink) and work in teams to submit a Capstone Project. As the website says, the Project 'allows student teams to demonstrate their knowledge as well as showcase their creative skills in tackling and overcoming real-world data analysis problems.' Such an experience may also give a nice touch to your resume, in case you want to apply to data-oriented companies who need data scientists and consultants. Check the AQM website for more information.

Information about Courses & Minors

Selecting a Minor

The BIE program is a sort of combined major between Economics and Business, but what if you spiced this up with a Minor too? Graduating with a Minor is a nice way to gain a certain specialization in another field than Economics. It allows you to discover in-depth another area of study and may help you figure what you want to do after graduation. If nothing else, having a Minor signals to peers, professors and employers that you are a curious, dedicated and knowledgeable person. So, you may want to give it a try!

• How to sign up: Signing up for a Minor is easy. You go on your SSC Course Schedule, browse for Specializations, and click on BIE. As you will see, there are lots of choices ranging from Anthropology to Visual Arts. Click Add Spec and you are done! Sometimes, you may not be able to do so. This is an exception and it occurs at certain times of the year (one month before graduation period) when the system does not allow students to change their minds anymore.
• Which Minor should you choose: If signing up for one is easy, making a choice is much harder. It very much depends on what you like, what sparks your interest, what you are good at. Below, you will find a few examples and certain guidelines to the courses that you can take to fulfill the Minor requirements.
• Meeting the requirements: Some Minors are harder to complete than others because of the number of requirements and prerequisites you have to meet. It can be deceitful to think that all Minors are the same just because the UBC policy is saying you need to take 18 credits at the 300- and 400-level courses. Some minors require an explicit number of courses to be taken at the lower-level (e.g. French). Some minors require a whole suite of courses before you can even accede to the 300-level (e.g. Computer Science and Mathematics). So make sure you check out all the requirements and all the courses that you are allowed to take and in what order.

How to select the right SECTION for your courses

Sometimes you want to register for a course and there are four or six or eight sections out there each term. You may wonder what the difference is? Does it matter which one you choose? Well, it sometimes does.

• Find the instructor-in-charge: Many courses have multiple sections with different instructors. But there is only one to rule them all, and that is the instructor-in-charge. They have more to say about the structure of the course and they are the ones to make most of the midterm and final exams (although there seems to be a consultation process with the other instructors). Choose the section where this instructor is teaching because, chances are, they will prepare you much better for the midterm/final exams than the rest. They may also have more experience than the rest.
• Finding a super-star: Super-stars are instructors/professors who are great pedagogues, everyone talks about them and they also have great Rate my Prof reviews. Such a prof might not be an instructor-in-charge. In this case, it is up to you to decide which section to go for. You should attend both classes in the beginning of the term to get a sense of the teaching styles.
• M-W-F or Tu-Th?: There is always a debate on whether one should choose the M-W-F section (three 50-min classes) or the Tu-Th section (two 80-min classes), provided you even have that choice. There is no objective answer, but from this writer's point of view, there are many benefits to choosing the M-W-F one.

1. The first being that it allows you to digest the information a bit better. A 50-min math class demands one to absorb as much information as quickly as you can. After the 50-min mark, one can grow weary, less attentive, and less engaged with the material.
2. The second reason is that it allows you to study more often. If you receive little information every day, it's easier to go over it. On the other hand, if information clutters in your notebook after just one lecture, you will be less inclined to review it and more inclined to postpone it. It's all about tricking your mind into working more frequently.
3. In many cases, the instructor-in-charge will take the M-W-F section rather than the other one. There are many curious reasons why an instructor would choose the three 50-min lectures (say, it's easier to divide the material into three short lectures; or, in case the instructor forgets something in one lecture, they have more chances to go back to it in the second or even third lectures; or, it just fits nicer into their schedule)

Another student will try to convince people why Tu-Th could be better:

1. If you do the math, M-W-F has total class time of 50 x 3 = 150 minutes. Tu-Th has 80 x 2 = 160, so extra 10 minutes, but in the end all sections know the same amount of information. So it's just extra time for the professor to explain deeper into things or answer any questions that students have.
2. You get to go to class only twice instead of three times.
3. Friday is open for fun stuff.
4. I don't think I did a good job of convincing, probably because I also prefer M-W-F.

ECONOMICS

ECON101: Intro to Microeconomics (core)

For many ECON 101 will be their first formal introduction to university-level Economics, and one of the first courses one takes in university. This means it is important to go into it with a strategy for how to succeed. The following are general tips for ECON 101 courses. Although there may be some other specific tips that are only relevant to some professors, we try to keep the following as general as possible, in case future ECON 101 professors change. So here’s a few tips:

• This isn’t some breeze course: Many BIE students come into the program already having good knowledge in economics. Some of you might think this is going to be easy peasy. Well, the course is relatively harder than the standard UBC ECON 101 course, so you will need to make sure you keep on top of the content, and review at home to succeed.
• Attend office hours: Your professor will most likely only teach the BIE section of ECON 101. This means when they hold office hours they are fully dedicated to your class. If you have any concerns about content you’re learning, are confused about something, or have any other question related to the course make sure to go to your professor’s office hours and clarify! It is very important to do so as soon as possible, and avoid leaving everything to the last office hours before an exam, because everyone will be there at that point and it’ll be harder to get everything clarified. TA's are also very helpful. It may not seem like it, but the TA's know who you are. They may not remember you by name, but if they do, it'll probably do more good than bad.
• Complete all coursework (including optional): Most professors give you plenty of resources to study for exams and to ensure you correctly understand all the material. Because professors and TAs can’t spend their whole days grading, completion of a lot this material is actually optional but you should definitely still be completing it. Not only will it give you extra material to practice and to fully understand the concepts covered, but some professors may want to reward student who go the extra mile and complete optional material and may make their exams very similar to the optional material they provided.
• Weekly review is essential: This is related to the above points, but you should make sure to review content constantly, and not leaving everything until the week or day before the exam. Doing this allows you to detect potential confusion points earlier, and clarify them with your professor ahead of time. In addition, you’ll have a good base of knowledge before you ever start studying for the exam and so you will be able to target your studies specifically on what you struggle with the most, rather than having to learn everything from scratch.
• Take iClicker questions seriously (if any): Many professors use iClickers as a way of tracking attendance more than anything else, and explicitly state that you don’t need to answer correctly to earn marks. Even then though, you should make sure to always try to get the right answer and follow attentively so that if you don’t understand a concept you detect that immediately. Moreover, many ECON 101 professors have a multiple-choice section on their exams. The iClicker questions will give you a feel for what type of MC questions you can expect on an exam.

ECON102: Intro to Macroeconomics (core)

This section will be similar to the ECON 101 section, and will try to give general tips for ECON 102 that aren’t professor-specific.

• Don’t skip class: This is important for all classes regardless of the subject, but it is even more important for a class like ECON 102. The reason for this is that, while a course like ECON 101 is fairly evenly distributed between concepts and calculations, ECON 102 is very very concept heavy. This means it is key that you attend class to hear how the professor explains a concept - it is a lot harder to learn a concept off of someone’s class notes than it is to learn how to calculate something like consumer surplus or producer surplus.
• Discussions are just as important as lectures: For the same reason as the one above, it is key that one attend the ECON 102 weekly discussions as well as the lectures. In the discussions you may be covering a whole new concept that isn’t touched on in class but that the professor will expect you to know. And again, just like for skipping lecture, it is very hard to learn a concept off someone’s notes if you miss a lecture. And a professor or TA may teach a concept slightly differently than it is explained in the book, with the difference being very important.
• Make sure you understand all the implications of the concepts: Because as mentioned before ECON 102 doesn’t have as much computation as ECON 101, it is harder for professors to come up with good exam questions to test concepts. What happens is that many professors will be testing whether you understand all the implications of the concepts, and so it is key that you fully understand the concepts and not only in the scenarios discussed in class.

ECON255: Globalization (core)

This commentary applies to the sections taught by Ashok Kotwal.

For some students, the Econ 255 is one of those courses that students remember quite fondly. The course is quite different than any other Economics course you may take, both in terms of content and the format of the class.

• Let's first talk about the content. You will be introduced, at first, to some simple models that are slightly more involved than the supply-demand graphs you see in Econ 101. They try to capture some important dynamics of trade and development. However, the beauty of Econ 255 comes after this part: it's when these models break down as they clash with the complexity of the real world. You will learn, study and discuss about the most pressing issues of our times (inequality, nationalism, automation), and you are even encouraged to share your opinions about these issues during lectures and tutorials.

• Second, let's focus on the format. The class is divided in normal lectures, and tutorials. Tutorials are a space where the whole class is engaged in discussion. The class will be split in teams, and for each tutorial, one team has to present a given topic. The team will be engaging with fellow classmates on the topic you are presenting, and you will be graded by your TAs based on the quality of the presentation and the ensuing discussion. But don't worry about the grading, what matters is that you have fun and learn about these exciting issues of our day and age. Everything flows from there.

To succeed in this class, one should engage with the material and actively think about it. This class is less of a traditional academic setting, and more of a public forum for informed discussion. So as long as you are informed and have some ideas, you should do well. The assignments, midterms and exams are based on class material, and they are straightforward. No tricks there!

ECON308: Intermediate Micro (core)

This commentary applies to the Econ 308 classes taught by Clive Chapple <3.

• Take iClicker questions very seriously: Do not be dismayed and disheartened if you can't figure the clicker questions right off the bat! Go back home, take a look, try to solve it, bang your head against a wall, come back to the question; at the end of this assiduous process, go to a peer and ask them how they approached the question, or go to Clive's office hours and ask him as well.
• Best practice for the exams: You should do and redo (and redo) the Practice Exercises and the Tutorial Problem Sets. It happens that the exact types of problems which figure on the problem sets will show up on the exams. I stress redoing them because you may forget them on the day of the exam. I strongly urge you to review the trickier ones in the morning of the examination because this will drastically improve your speed on that particular type of exercise
• Are end-of-chapter questions worth doing?: They do add some marginal value, but it is not the first practice material to consider. Clive sometimes takes inspiration in these end-of-chapter questions, but quite seldom. In case you have a lot of time to spare, try them out because it increases your speed of solving problems.
• Speed is key: Once you understand a concept, and then you also understand the solution to a problem, train for gaining speed in solving that problem. It's really not worth pondering over new ways of solving something when you already have one or two straightforward ways of getting to an answer. In case you have multiple ways, choose the one you feel most comfortable with and only keep that one in mind. This increases the speed and decreases the chance of getting confused.
• Leave hard questions at the end: I cannot emphasize this enough! During exams, do not waste your time on one tricky multiple choice question you may know if you don't have the certainty of being able to solve it fast and without errors. Skip it and return to it in the end. Generally, the hard questions tend to be multiple choice questions. So, by this logic, you should start with the Long-Answer questions first and move to Multiple Choice Question later. This is not necessarily a good idea for everyone, but you should consider it at least once.

ECON309: Intermediate Macro (core)

Taught by Dr. Henry Siu, excellent professor and very knowledgeable but the midterm content can be very challenging/application-based. Make sure to attend classes and take notes.

ECON317 - Poverty and Inequality (core)

Professors have changed a couple times over the years since the BIE program launched, and we have received feedback from both ends of the spectrum, from being the best course in BIE to the worst.

ECON327 - Stats 1 (core)

(not the real name, just an intro stats course)

This commentary refers to the Econ 327 taught by Prof. Hiro Kasahara.

• Self-studying is important: Second year is the year when you realise that self-studying is a necessary technique to get ready for the exam. You will rarely be able to absorb the information and skill sin class only. Ideally, you will study a certain chapter even before it is even taught (it's very doable and allows you to ask questions in class). Since we live in the real world, which is rarely ideal, it is advisable to study every week. You WILL fall behind very soon if you don't do it. This class is proof heavy, and the techniques of solving proof-heavy problems are gained only by frequently practicing these techniques.
• Materials for self-studying: Most of the times, the notes are the best source. They are well put together, self-explanatory, detailed and neatly formatted (long live LaTex!). Second source of information is the book which is a decent manual. The theory tends to go beyond what you are expected to know for the course, and as such, you may inefficiently spend your time on it. Thirdly, the slides are an abbreviated version of the notes and the book. It is best to view them last to make sure you know everything that is in them. Trying to explain their contents to others is a good way to double-check your true understanding.
• Why you should go to class: Class time is probably a good time to answer some of the questions and clarify the ambiguities you may have about the course content. The professor will follow the slides quite faithfully, so if you have questions on them, this is the perfect moment to ask. Class time is also a good way to keep track of how fast the professor is moving as well as what parts of the material he puts emphasis on. Sometimes you may hear that some exercise will show up on the exam...with a certain probability.
• TA help is really important: Class-time will not help in getting all your questions asked. The TA is very helpful in these situations because they can give you undivided attention and tailor their explanation to your understanding. The TA will also help with Stata questions (although you will not be using Stata very much in the 327 course).

This commentary refers to the Econ 327 taught by Prof. Michael Vaney.

• Why you should go to class: He doesn't post lecture notes.

ECON328 - Stats 2 (core)

Taught by new BIE director, Dr. Florian Hoffmann.

ECON370 - Cost-Benefit Analysis (core)

• Refer to what is written on Econ 308 section. For some reason there seems to be very similar learning styles ;)
• Divided opinions on the relevancy of the course content.
• One of the most practical courses you will take in your undergrad. You won't realize it in the beginning of the course, but the methods and skills you learn is basically what they use in consulting/budgeting firms.

ECON441

Notes for class taught by Professor Jamie McCasland.

Overall fascinating and easy course! Jamie takes you through a variety of developmental economics research papers, specifically going through the methodology and econometric strategies used by these papers. She also covers basic econometric principals (amazingly) and how to use Stata.

• Study tip: Keep notes on each paper and the points Jamie mentions as you go. The assignments and exams are very fair as long as you keep up with the readings and listen in class. Jamie talks pretty fast so try to keep up!
• Workload: Weekly reading (about 30-50 pages a week). 4 assignments through the semester, 1 midterm and a final.

If you are interested in research or the development field this is a great course!

ECON442

Notes for class taught by Professor Matthew Lowe.

Course covers more behavioral economics (Matt is a behavioral economist so) than development economics. Very similar to ECON 441, breaks down economic research paper with an overall theme of basic psychological foundations. Matt is an engaging and enthusiastic prof, very easy to listen in class and examinations are fair.

ECON455

ECON451

ECON475

ECON493

Taught by Dr. Munir Squires

Pay attention if you want to write your thesis properly.

ECON494

You get to choose from 4-5 different themes of economic research: economic development, finance, trade, environment, etc., each with a different instructor.

You are writing a research paper. As scary as this may sound, my prof always told us that we're not expected to write one at a PhD level. Nor do we have enough knowledge to write similarly to one. Use what you learned from 493, and write clearly, and you will be fine.

MATHEMATICS

Math 104 - Calc 1 (core)

Your first math course: it might be a breeze, or it might be a tough challenge. So let's consider both scenarios:

• Easy peasy, lemon squeezy: There are many students who take this Calculus I class, skip class, and still ace all the exams. If Math 104 seems too easy, you should consider one of the following things:

1. You may be exempt from taking this course if you have Math credits from high school. So why waste 3 valuable credits on Math 104 when you can take other courses that can satisfy your curiosity, language & literature requirements, and your career aspirations?
2. You may go into Math 120 which is the Honours version of Math 104. Really recommended if you think you are good at math, or want to train to be better at math. Also check the discussion on Grad School Advice in the previous sections to see the benefits of starting early on with the Math Honours stream.

• Math is hard: Although Math can be a bit hard to wrap our head around, there are many ways to improve the skills that we are tested on.

1. It is all about practice: the more practice you get, the faster you become. That may be no secret, but really, practice a lot. Exam problems are generally taken from the end-of-chapter problems, and if not, they don't tend to be much harder than those. So going through the textbook problems (more than once) is good prep-ing. Additionally, there are some Prep 101 and Beat Your Course booklet exercises you may want to work through (the author of this article does not endorse or advertise these tutoring programs, but in case you do get your hands on such booklets, they could be quite helpful).
2. Webwork : These online problem sets are hard and they require a lot of thought, attention and dedication. The best thing is to give it a shot at home and then work with other people in groups. Sometimes (or many times) you will just get the answer from a peer, but make sure that at the end of the week or month, you understand the solution. You may wonder whether Webwork problems are worth the time to study in depth for your exams. Probably not. The type of problems on exams differ from the Webwork questions because they are easier, more straightforward and require less time to solve. Yet, in the off chance you get a hard final exam (and it happens), you may want to mobilize those Webwork skills.
3. Know who to ask for help: Your instructors should have plenty of office hours, use them. The BIE tutors have office hours and they hold 104/105 review sessions throughout the term. But quite frankly, find that one person in your class who explains the course better than your instructor. Your own classmates may be much more helpful in helping you stay on track with the material than other people, including your instructors and tutors.

• A third scenario..?: Let's say you are super confident that you can get a high grade in Math 104 without studying too hard. You are also willing to take higher-level math courses. Then it is not a bad idea to sit in the class, enjoy it, get used to the university math environment, get an insane grade, watch everyone else around you struggle, get a scholarship through high GPA, and prepare yourself mentally for Math 200 and 221. Perhaps you will be surprised by the things you didn't really know from high school calculus courses. The same applies to Math 105.

Math 105 - Calc 2 (core)

Math 105 is more of Math 104, just harder. However, the advice is just the same. Excelling in 105 is a function of time spent solving problems through different integration techniques and neat trigonometry tricks. Take a look at the end of the textbook chapters, solve them multiple times, and go through the previous quizzes. They are generally easy, but should they pose any difficulties, do not hesitate reviewing them. Webwork is harder than the exams themselves, but they are a good way to test yourself to the limit (pun intended) and ensure that you are confident in your calculations.
For those who felt that Math 104 was a breeze, do consider the Honours alternative, Math 121.

Math 200 - Calc 3

This class is a harder version of Math 105, as it requires an understanding of the 3D space and a lot of mental juggling. This class is very useful in the future, so it's worth discussing its merits, how it's going to help you in the longer term, and how to succeed in it.

The first question that may pop up in your head is: Why would I take more Math than what is required? Well, Math 200 is a very useful class to better understand regressions, probability spaces, and general statistics. This class is a requirement for anyone who wants to study higher level Economics, Statistics and Computer Science. Basically, any type of quantitative studies rely on this foundational class.

Math 200 is a computational type of class, meaning that students learn a few types of problems and they are tested on their ability to apply techniques and do some calculations. To succeed in this class, you need to stay on top of the material, and practice end of chapter problems. The most important thing in this class is not to lag behind the material because later in the term everything speeds up very fast, and sooner than you expect, you have to chug tons of new material with three days left until the final. So, do use the prof's office hours and the Math Learning Centre to get help with the stuff that is unclear.

One minor point on choosing Math 200 classes: in the recent past, the Math department has used PhD students to teach these classes. Their pedagogical techniques are not very polished yet, to say the least, and it may actually be harder to score well in their quizzes. In my opinion, it is useful to take the classes taught by the instructor in charge, who will also prepare the final exam. This is important since the instructor in charge will prepare you best for the kind of exercises that will be on the final exam.

Minor in Mathematics

The minor in Math is a journey of learning, not just about some mathematical concepts, but also about the limits of your intellect. Despite what some people believe (or fear), Math can be learnt and your limits can be pushed further and further. It requires a sufficient amount of dedication and practice, but you can believe in the fact that your brain is a muscle you can exercise and improve.

There is one caveat to this: Math can be learnt to a certain extent. To better understand this point, we need to divide the Math courses into two fundamentally different types: computational and proof-based. It is my personal belief that most people can learn computational Math, but fewer people are endowed with the creative abilities to succeed in proof-based courses. Let me dive deeper into this categorization, which will prove extremely useful!

• Computational classes: These classes teach you certain techniques that can be learnt and applied in certain types of clearly-defined problems. For instance, calculus classes (MATH 104, 105, 200) are the epitome of computational classes. Students need to learn the textbook material, practice end of chapter problems and quizzes in order to get 80+ averages. The exams will rarely require to go beyond the in-class material and techniques. They are very standardized and they are meant to test your understanding of previously seen material.
• Proof-based classes: These classes teach you certain notions and techniques with the expectation that students will use them creatively to prove certain theorems and problems. For instance, Honours classes are proof-based classes (MATH 120/121, 223, 226, and many 300-400 level classes). Simply understanding basic techniques will rarely allow you to get a 80+, and most of the times, the only way of getting that A is to apply some trick you come up with on the spot. "How do you that?", you may ask, and the answer is "You have to be smart". That does not imply that students who cannot do that are "stupid", it implies that those who can are endowed with the ability for mathematical abstraction and creativity.

So now, the question you may have is "How does this categorization help me in pursuing a Math Minor?" This binary categorization allows you to understand what you want out of the Math Minor. If you wish to improve your Math skill set to better understand Economics, or programming, then enrolling in computational classes is enough. Should you wish to challenge yourself and test your preparedness for higher level graduate studies (should they be in Economics or Statistics or other highly quantitative subjects), I suggest pursuing proof-based classes.

For an Economics Major, the ultimate test to knowing if they are ready for proof-based classes is MATH 320 (Real Analysis). This is the biggest jump from computational classes to proof-based ones. You can also try easier classes such as MATH 120, 223, and 226, which will prepare you for MATH 320 much better than the computational classes.

COMMERCE

Coec 293 (core)

This will provide some general tips on COEC 293. This will largely hold for most COEC courses, as Sauder’s courses are fairly standardized in assessment methodology.

• Strategize based on the assessment criteria: As you will have learnt by now, everything one does has an opportunity cost, and it is important to keep this in mind when one strategizes how to study for courses. For example, if you have a quiz and it’s worth only 5% of your grade you probably don’t need to spend a week studying for it. Similarly, if a quiz is worth 20% or 30% of your grade you should probably study harder. This is important for COEC because Sauder courses vary a lot in assessment criteria, and so it is important to keep in mind.
• Use your resources: Sauder courses provide a lot of resources for studying, and most can usually be found in the course textbook. Most professors say the course textbook isn’t actually required, but it will provide a lot of extra resources to study so it is worth it trying to find a cheap used copy from the upper-years! Most professors are happy to share the solutions to the textbook questions, so you should definitely be using them to study.
• The final tends to sting: Depending on your assessment criteria, you may have a series of (few) midterms or (many) quizzes throughout the year that form part of your assessment. However for Sauder courses finals tend to always be worth a substantial portion of your grade, usually 50%. Not only that, but they also tend to be considerably more challenging than the midterms. This mean you should prepare thoroughly for them, and try to use past finals as a proxy for the level of understanding required to do well in your course.

Coec 365 - Market Research

If Econ 327 and 328 made you hate Statistics, this course will make you relatively love Statistics. It shows you how powerful quantitative analysis is in our current world where data is so valuable.

The course will teach you how to use Tableau - a very useful data visualization program - and R - arguably one of the most useful statistical languages to know along with Stata.

Coec 370 - Corp. Finance

Very informative course, will learn a lot.

Very standardized course, strict rules, almost no deviation. May be a pain in the butt.

Coec 371 - Investment Theory (core)

Very informative course, will learn a lot.

Don't give your iclickers to someone else.

Minor in Commerce

BIE students are not allowed to minor in Commerce. Even if we could, I see no point in doing so since our program already consists of a variety of commerce (COEC) courses. If you, for some reason, got interested in Commerce, just get an MBA lol.

STATISTICS

STAT 300 Intermediate Statistics for Applications

Basically a continuation of STAT 200 (in your case it would be ECON 327), introducing students to more advanced topics in statistical inference. STAT 300 is not a very mathematical course; it focuses on applications, as its name implies, which makes this course really suitable for non-MATH or even non-STAT majors. This course covers a very broad range of topics and gives a much better exposure to statistics than ECON 327, mainly because most lectures involve realistic scenarios and data. Highly recommend it.

• Prerequisites: Any introductory statistics course. ECON 327 in your second year STT will do.

STAT 302 Introduction to Probability

Not exactly a very original name, but at least it's self-explanatory. Being the equivalent of MATH 302 (Introduction to Probability), this is not your typical statistics course; it is more focused on typical mathematics such as proofs and derivations, though some students have argued that in STAT 302 the emphasis is more on applying what you learnt, instead of showing derivations of how you got to what you learnt.

• Prerequisites: One of MATH 200, MATH 226, MATH 217, MATH 253, MATH 263; basically one of the third-term calculus courses. Naturally, these courses have their own prerequisites which include single-variable calculus (the likes of MATH 104 & 105), so students are expected to be completely familiar with all the material covered in these prerequisites. In fact, in STAT 302 you will need to apply techniques from calculus such as integration-by-substitution and integration-by-part.

STAT 305 Introduction to Statistical Inference

An introduction to likelihood and Bayesian principles for statistical models and inference. Computing in R is an integral part of STAT 305; familiarity with R will be tested on quizzes, labs and the final.

• Prerequisites: One of STAT 200, BIOL 300 and one of STAT 302, MATH 302.

STAT 306 Finding Relationships in Data

DO NOT take this course. Your second-year BIE STT includes a course called ECON 328 Methods of Empirical Research in Economics. The material taught in ECON 328 somewhat overlaps with STAT 306, so you are not allowed to take both courses. You are supposed to take all the STT courses without question, so you really have no choice but to take ECON 328 unless you want to quit BIE. Now pay attention to this:

1. The prerequisites for STAT 306 are: One of MATH 152, MATH 221, MATH 223 and one of STAT 200, STAT 241, STAT 251, BIOL 300 and one of MATH 302, STAT 302.
2. The prerequisite for ECON 328 is: ECON 327. That's it. Sounds weird, doesn't it?

The problem here is that you don't need MATH 221 (or its honours counterparts) for ECON 328, but you need it for STAT 306. In fact, STAT 306 requires the use of matrix algebra while ECON 328 does not. You also need STAT 302 to get into STAT 306 while this is not the case for ECON 328. This essentially means that STAT 306 covers something not covered in ECON 328 (and I assume that the inverse is also true), but STAT 306 is actually a prerequisite for STAT 404, 406 and 450, assuming you still haven't given up on minoring in statistics. It's a trap. This may be a loophole in the course registration system; you can technically get into STAT 404, 406 and 450 knowing nothing about MATH 221, which is obviously bad. But the solution is simple. Just take MATH 221.

STAT 321 Stochastic Signals and Systems

This is a 4-credit course. It is the equivalent of ELEC 321.

• Prerequisite: One of EECE 269, ELEC 221, STAT 305

STAT 344 Sample Surveys

Introduction to sampling from large finite populations, including various sampling schemes, estimation methods and more. The course basically covers survey sampling techniques and using sample statistics to estimate population parameters. Again, as its name implies, STAT 344 is rather focused on applications, so having a class in "sample surveys" is a good way to get your foot in the door for jobs requiring such skills.

• Prerequisite: One of STAT 200, BIOL 300.
• Corequisite: One of STAT 302, MATH 302.

STAT 404 Design and Analysis of Experiments

• Prerequisite: STAT 305
• Corequisite: STAT 306

STAT 406 Methods for Statistical Learning

• Prerequisite: One of STAT 306, CPSC 340

STAT 443 Time Series and Forecasting

• Prerequisites: One of MATH 302, MATH 318, STAT 302 and one of STAT 200, ECON 325.
• Corequisite: STAT 305

STAT 450 Case Studies in Statistics

• Prerequisite: STAT 306

Minor in Statistics

This is mostly personal advice, so here's the link to the official FAQ page of the Department of Statistics, in case you don't feel like reading what's below.

For BIE students who want to minor in statistics, you need 18 credits of STAT courses numbered 300 and above; this essentially means

• STAT/MATH 302, STAT 305 (CAUTION: BIE students are not allowed to take STAT 306 due to credit exclusion. Click here to find out why.)
• 12 credits from STAT 300, 321, 344, 404, 406, 443, 450
• As prerequisites: STAT 200, MATH 200, MATH 221

Some key points:

1. Before taking upper-level STAT courses, you need to take an introductory STAT course first, and most students take STAT 200 as a starting point; ECON 327 Introduction to Empirical Economics in your second year STT (Standard Timetable) serves as the equivalent of any introductory statistics course.
2. For BIE students, it is technically possible to minor in statistics without taking MATH 221, depending on your choice of courses. Here's how. You'll thank me later.
3. Ideally, before you start taking upper-level STAT courses, you should have already taken MATH 200 Calculus III and MATH 221 Matrix Algebra, because you will need at least this much background in mathematics to do well in statistics. Of course, you can instead take the honours versions of these 2 MATH courses, namely MATH 226 Advanced Calculus I and MATH 223 Linear Algebra, which are of course more challenging than their mainstream counterparts. In any case, by the time you finish first year, you will have completed all the prerequisites for MATH 200 and MATH 221, so don't worry too much about this.
4. STAT courses at UBC involve extensive use of the R data-analysis environment. R is an open source programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics that is supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. Here's a detailed list of all the above upper-level STAT courses.
5. http://www.stat.ubc.ca/undergraduate-faqs
6. https://f1000research.com/articles/5-2802/v1

COMPUTER SCIENCE

Forty years ago, economists could thrive without being able to code. However, in an age marked by rapid technological advancements, the ability to code is strongly preferred for many jobs. Never coded before? That is fine; now is a great time to start.

Here are some great CPSC courses to take as you get started on your journey:

• CPSC 103 Introduction to Systematic Program Design: A strong introduction to program design and coding. If you take one CPSC course, take this one.
• CPSC 110 Computation, Programs, and Programming: A faster way to fulfill your upper-year CPSC courses' prerequisites. This course uses a program called Dr Racket, which is most often used in introductory CPSC courses. The starting language in the program is literally called BSL (Beginning Student Language). Although this course is the prerequisite to CPSC 121 and 210, which are the main prerequisites to higher-level courses (see below), Dr Racket uses a completely different language structure from other languages you will use in the future. Personally it wasn't an easy transition, but the course is very enjoyable if you like problem-solving.
• CPSC 121 Models of Computation (or Math 220): A discrete mathematics courses which proves foundational for most upper-level CPSC courses. Expect lots of fun proofs.
• CPSC 210 Software Construction: Your first (unless you took CPSC 103) interaction with Object-Oriented Programming (You will learn what it means). Basically the same stuff as CPSC 110, with a language that is actually useful in the real world (Java).
• CPSC 221 Basic Algorithms and Data Structures: My prof said students that students who understand the CPSC 221 concepts can get coding internships paying over $4k a month. From what I have seen, my prof was right.
• CPSC 340 Machine Learning and Data Mining: Machine Learning is quickly becoming a top skill employers look for. With the rise of big [economic] data, who can blame them?

Demand for CPSC courses has increased rapidly while supply of those classes has not increased as rapidly. Thus, the market for UBC CPSC courses doesn't always clear (hello waitlists!). There are two types of seats in CPSC classes: general seats and restricted seats. The general seats are open to all UBC students while the restricted seats are typically reserved for those majoring in a CPSC program. When registering for a CPSC class, if there are general seats available, you will typically have no problems registering. However, if no general seats remain, you can typically register for a waitlisted section of that class. Don't let waitlists deter you from registering for a class; I was past the 90th person on waitlists for two different classes and made it into both classes. The CPSC faculty tries hard to accommodate the strong demand for CPSC courses and added entirely new sections for my waitlisted classes.

Minor in Computer Science

There are three other important things to note here:

1. To enroll in a CPSC minor (sometimes called a specialization), you must gain approval from both the CPSC Faculty and from the BIE program. Information about CPSC Faculty applications may be found here. Once you have been accepted to by the CPSC Faculty, chat with Triny to confirm approval from the BIE program.
2. A minor in CPSC does not give you access to restricted CPSC seats. Instead, it highly prioritizes you on the waitlist so you will most likely be accepted into any class.
3. As noted above, the CPSC Faculty is strict about prerequisites. If you do not have the necessary prerequisites, you will not get credit for that class. Note that credit exclusions apply. For example, ECON 327 fulfills the statistics prerequisite for CPSC 340.

One more thing: From personal experience, CPSC courses are extremely time-consuming. If this is your first time programming, and you are motivated to complete the assignments, I can confidently say that you will spend the most of your day typing away on your laptop instead of making an X-shape with your arms. That being said, know your priorities (we are econ majors), and manage your time wisely. OR ELSE

PSYCHOLOGY

TBE

Minor in Psychology

To minor in psychology you have to take 101 and 102 as a basis, and if you take them in first year you can get a good grasp at whether this minor is of interest to you. However, don't be discouraged if you don't like one of the two and still think Psych is for you because apart from two 200 level courses (the recommended 207 and 208 are very interesting and definitely worth taking, but you might find that you enjoy others better) you get to pick and choose the 300 level courses you want to take (18 credits worth = aprox 6 courses), thus allowing you to take a more social path or a more scientific path depending on your interests. It is important to note however that 400 level psych courses will likely require MANY pre-reqs that you either won't have time/ability(because you are not in science) to take or won't want to, so don't look at those for your minor unless you're willing to put in the extra time into courses that might not benefit your degree.

A recommendation: do as many psych courses as you can in your first 3 years and get the minor complete by then if you can, but of course only put the effort to finish it early if you know you want to. It is okay to take longer with your minor if you are uncertain if it's right for you, but from someone who took their time to decide, I do wish I had it over and done with before my fourth year so I could have other electives or take less courses and have more time to work on the essential 4th year BIE projects