Why PPE?
Why PPE?
Our world is shaped by institutions and organizations that have a profound impact on our lives. Understanding how they work, appreciating their interactions, seeing their impact, and being able to assess their value is crucial.
The PPE Program’s mission is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of social, economic, political and moral problems. In doing this, PPE follows in the tradition of great thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, and David Ricardo. With this in mind, PPE students cross the borders of key academic disciplines, integrating the methods, tools, and insights into philosophy, politics, and economics.
UNC is one of the premier undergrad programs in each of the three areas and home to one of the largest PPE programs in the country. Throughout the year, the PPE Program hosts numerous events including speakers, colloquiums, seminars, working groups, and reading groups to help provide students the necessary background to succeed in the real world.
You can listen to our Director Geoff Sayre-McCord discuss the program on the radio program 97.9 The Hill.
Careers
Thanks to its stress on the development of transferable skills and its mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the PPE Program prepares students well for a great variety of careers in different fields. Possible career paths include:
- Private sector: management, consulting, business administration, law, journalism, finance, etc.
- Public sector and NGOs: government, public administration, political parties, public policy, health care, non-profit organizations, foundations, unions, etc.
- Academia: excellent preparation for law school, medical school, business school, and Masters and Ph.D. programs in the disciplines of philosophy, politics, and economics, as well as all other social sciences that demand rigorous analytical skills.
The PPE Program helps connect our students to relevant internship, fellowship, and career opportunities. Additionally, University Career Services offers a broad range of support for Carolina students looking into various careers as well as graduate programs.
Why Minor in PPE?
The PPE minor allows student the ability to gain a background in three distinct areas of study while allowing students to focus in a particular area of study, their major. For this reason, have a reputation as one of the most flexible and rewarding programs at UNC. Our graduates have gone onto medical school, law school, diverse industries, and Ph.D. Programs in numerous areas. Still not convinced? Jonathan Anomaly blogs about the numerous benefits of PPE here.
Ready to Declare?
To declare the PPE Minor, please make a virtual appointment with your academic advisor, details here. The process will not take more than 10-15 minutes! For general questions and advice, feel free to email ppeprogram@unc.edu or stop by our administrative office in 112B.
Welcome to PPE!
Related Programs
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Economics
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Environment and Ecology
The Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology is a multidisciplinary degree program that seeks to foster an understanding and appreciation of ecological systems and future environmental problems. The BA in Environmental Studies is offered to undergraduates. It is appropriate for students wanting rigorous preparation in the methods of the social sciences and humanities needed to understand how society affects the environment, how it organizes itself to respond to environmental problems and how understanding of the environment is created and transmitted through culture. The degree focuses on the social, political, economic and cultural forces that guide society’s role in both causing and solving environmental problems, and on the role of society in perturbing environmental systems.
Global Studies
The Curriculum in Global Studies offers undergraduates the opportunity to develop an appreciation for and fuller understanding of the global issues within the context of a diverse, flexible, interdisciplinary curriculum. Courses deal with topics as diverse as the global impact of nineteenth century European colonialism, globalization and economic change, migration and diasporas, environment and human rights, global health and human reproduction, global and local social movements, and technology and patterns of cultural transmission. Such an integrated learning environment includes courses in modern foreign languages, enabling the student to develop the ability to interact and learn in a foreign environment. Courses in a thematic concentration allowing the student a framework for developing critical questioning and reasoning skills, and courses with a regional focus, encouraging students to develop a fuller awareness of the ways in which global forces shape and transform regional political, economic and cultural change.
Journalism and Media
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Peace, War, and Defense
The Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense provides undergraduates with a range of approaches to the fundamental issues of human conflict and national and global security and defense. The curriculum prepares majors for graduate work in several of the humanities and social sciences, for a variety of professional schools, and for a range of employment. The strength of the curriculum is its broad interdisciplinary perspective combined with its depth of focus on topics that span the range of human experience across time and national boundaries, from science and technology to ethics and public policy.
Political Science
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Public Policy
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Social and Economic Justice
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