It is true that Swarthmore produces future Economics PhDs at a staggering rate. 1.6% of
all Swarthmore graduates over a recent 10 year period went on to complete a PhD in Economics. That is by far the highest percentage of any college or university in the country, more than double the rate of the next closest. See below.
Swarthmore is also the #1 producer of future Poli Sci PhDs. and #1 in all Social Science PhDs.
Code:
Number of PhDs per 1000 grads
Academic field: Economics
PhDs and Doctoral Degrees:
ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database
Number of Graduates:
ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database
Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000
graduates over the ten year period
1 Swarthmore College 16
2 Grinnell College 7
3 Williams College 7
4 Carleton College 7
5 Harvard University 6
6 Agnes Scott College 6
7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5
8 University of Chicago 5
9 Yale University 5
10 California Institute of Technology 5
11 Princeton University 5
12 Macalester College 5
13 Stanford University 4
14 Pomona College 4
15 Oberlin College 4
16 Wellesley College 4
17 Trinity University 4
18 Bowdoin College 3
19 Earlham College 3
20 Berea College 3
21 Amherst College 3
22 Wabash College 3
23 Bard College 3
24 Rocky Mountain College 3
25 Coe College 3
26 Wesleyan University 3
27 College of William and Mary 3
28 Colby College 3
29 Columbia University in the City of New York 3
30 Hillsdale College 3
31 Franklin and Marshall College 3