How much of calculus and statistics is used in finance or economics undergraduate classes? (2024)

You will need a base understand of both calculus and statistics for each finance and economics, but you will use them differently. The math in Finance is a bit more basic, with a focus more on understanding the concepts than doing any complicated math. Essentially, the most complicated parts of both aren't necessary for finance, but they will use the end result so they need to understand what is calculated but not always how. The math in economics is more complex and they will expect you to solve complicated statistics and calculus problems similar to what I had for my mathematics degree. Think of if this way: Finance focuses on the individual business and how it interacts the market, while economics focuses on the market while considering the impact on various individual businesses. The former takes more algebra while the latter requires a regression almost every time.

However! If you 're looking for math in business, your answer is actuarial science. Not to plug my own profession, but we work with finance and the do the complicated math necessary for forecasting. Plus actuaries are in pretty high demand, so if you get good grades and can pass the SOA exams you can likely get a job right of college.

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Calculus and statistics are both very important skill sets for finance and economics majors. They're also some of the few math related skills that will stay relevant even within the job field itself. Make sure that you also pick up some tech related skills as you'll often be working with more advanced calculations that are too time-consuming to work out by hand without computer help.

I used up to Calculus II in my undergraduate classes, and I have definitely needed statistics for classes, particularly higher-level analysis classes.

It is used a lot.
Consider that every decision and analysis in finance and economics is fundamentally made based on numbers, metrics and probability.

Thank you