doublemeteor

How about Colby? Does it have a very good economics program compared with Amherst and Williams's ones.

Alexandre

Amherst, Colgate and Williams have awesome Econ departments.

But if you want to mix entertainment and quality, you cannot beat Michigan. Check this out. A word of caution, this is not for the faint of heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Udg...elated&search=

Untilted

alexandre, that video made my day!

Alexandre

Glad to hear it Untilted.

doublemeteor

Add to the list-Bates College. I heard it had a decent Eco Dep. More than half of student body majors in Econ. Pretty impressive!!!

redhare317

I don't think % majoring says much about the quality of the program.

Alexandre

Besides, fewer than 20% of Bates students major in Econ, not over 50%.

ilikeoranges

What exactly makes one econ dept better than another?

Alexandre

1) Quality of the faculty
2) Course selection/Curriculum
3) Intensity and faculty expectations
4) Faculty connections to top graduate programs
5) Professional placement

ilikeoranges

thanks Alexandre

FBI_34

I asked my boss at JP Morgan, where I intern, about these rankings in relation to how he viewed them and how he used them when recruiting students for full-time positions. He said he doesn't use rankings but rather recruits from certain target schools, but in his experience he would group the following programs as follows (he was an economics major at Georgetown):

GROUP I:

Harvard University
Masachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Chicago
Northwestern University

GROUP II:

University of California-Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Columbia University

GROUP III:

University of California-Los Angeles
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Cornell University
New York University
Duke University

GROUP IV:
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Georgetown University
Johns Hopkins University
University of Rochester
University of Wisconsin-Madison

GROUP V:
Boston University
University of California-San Diego
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Minnesota
University of Texas-Austin

doctorb

a friend from W&M got his PhD at Yale and is now teaching at Davidson. Said he was very well prepared.

theghostofsnappy

but in his experience he would group the following programs as follows (he was an economics major at Georgetown):

To say the least, those are pretty intersting rankings, but that's OK.

a friend from W&M got his PhD at Yale and is now teaching at Davidson. Said he was very well prepared.

I'll Echo MF's comments. The dept is decent for prep.

FBI_34

"To say the least, those are pretty intersting rankings, but that's OK."

You mind elaborating? What do you see as not correct? I believe they are quite accurate.

theghostofsnappy

Its not not incorrect, but, I don't know. Its strange seeing some top programs low, and vice versa. For Example, I'd go with:

GROUP I:
Harvard University
Masachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Chicago
University of California-Berkeley

GROUP II:
Northwestern University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Columbia University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
New York University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of California-San Diego

Group III
University of Maryland-College Park
Cornell University
UT
University of Rochester
Boston University
University of Minnesota

Group IV:
UVA
Hopkins
Duke
CMU
Georgetown

This is how most people within the field would more or less group the schools, I think. Simply looking at undergrad may shake things up a bit, but I doubt it would to the extent of what your boss does. Remember, different people are looking for different things, and likely, the people your boss runs across likely aren't the best graduates these depts produce.