FBI_34

That makes sense - your groupings like quite good as well.

oddsmaker90

What about Georgetown's International Economics program? Is it any good?

kdanieli

How about Bates College?

Does anyone know of a ranking of Econ programs among LACs ?

redhare317

Georgetown has become synonymous with international studies. Anything international there is strong. Top LAC's usually mean top econ programs.

bananaphone

how about Tufts and economics?

kdanieli

Yes, and if my friend got into more than one LAC / Ivy, he is interested in figuring out which one to go to.

LACs:
Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Wesleyan, Williams
Ivies:
Brown, Dartmouth, Yale

So far, only Bates has decided, and he got in...so he's wondering if he got into others, how to rank them purely on strength of the Economics program.

kdanieli

Anyone have an opinion on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Economics programs at the following elite schools?

LACs:
Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Wesleyan, Williams

Ivies:
Brown, Dartmouth, Yale

C'est Moi

which ones better: LSE (in UK) or Carleton college or Brandeis University?

theghostofsnappy

Some info that some of you may find interesting


Top American Sources of Eventual Economics Ph.D.s, 1997-2003

Harvard University 86
University of California-Berkeley 69
Cornell University 51
Stanford University 51
University of Wisconsin-Madison 46
University of Michigan 40
Swarthmore College 39
Yale University 39
Princeton University 37
MIT 35
University of Pennsylvania 34
University of Maryland 30
Brigham Young University 28
University of Virginia 28
College of William and Mary 27
Columbia University 27
Texas A&M University 27
University of Illinois 26
University of Texas 26
University of California-Davis 25
University of Massachusetts 25
Williams College 25
UCLA 24
Duke University 23
Miami University 23
Michigan State University 23
Northwestern University 23


Institution Size Normalized Top American Sources of Eventual Economics
Ph.D.s, 1997-2003

Name|PhD's Generated| Undergrad Degrees| Econ PhD's per 1000 degrees

Swarthmore College 39 2579 15.12
Agnes Scott College 7 771 9.08
Grinnell College 20 2212 9.04
Carleton College 22 3127 7.04
Williams College 25 3593 6.96
Harvard University 86 12500 6.88
Macalester College 17 2620 6.49
Princeton University 37 7742 4.78
Trinity University 16 3515 4.55
MIT 35 7849 4.46
Stanford University 51 11597 4.40
Yale University 39 9115 4.28
Wabash College 5 1274 3.92
Bowdoin College 10 2557 3.91
University of Chicago 21 5567 3.77
Oberlin College 19 5038 3.77
Wellesley College 15 4099 3.66
Earlham College 6 1700 3.53
Kalamazoo College 6 1726 3.48
Beloit College 5 1531 3.27
Pomona College 8 2491 3.21
Illinois Wesleyan University 8 2529 3.16
College of William and Mary 27 8737 3.09
Amherst College 9 2917 3.09
Columbia University 27 8932 3.02
Rice University 13 4434 2.93


http://www.econ.duke.edu/aeasp/semin...s_May_2006.pdf

C'est Moi

dont understand why people link PhDs to where you do your undergraduate degree... it should be related to grad-school not undergraduate...

redhare317

Having Ph.D. rankings are better than none for liberal arts subjects. And most of the time, Ph.D. programs "trickle down" to the undergraduate programs. Remember that your TAs are Ph.D. students, and many of your professors will teach graduate-level courses in addition to undergraduate. It's not a perfect measurement, but a pretty decent indicator nonetheless. I think there's definitely a correlation.

nauru

^ Quite right.

UCLAri

redhare317,

Yes, but keep in mind that good researchers aren't always good teachers. Let's be fair here: undergrads don't need people who are doing the most original research. They need people who can teach the basics. Even at the graduate level, I often get frustrated with professors who can't explain the basics.

rubin

i dont know why everyone is insulting Dartmouth by not including them in any of the groups/categories...from what i can tell, Dartmouth's program is not only rigorous and competitive with reknowned professors, with a small student to teacher ratio, but is also highly recruited from Banks. Right???any comments

redhare317

Dartmouth is definitely a target school. People forgot to put certain schools in groups. It's not necessarily intentional.

UCLAri, I agree with you. Some of the most brilliant professors might have the worst communication/teaching skills. But like I said, if there are no undergraduate rankings for liberal arts subjects, I think looking at Ph.D. rankings should help out a bit. It won't be that much different. Look at the economics Ph.D. rankings. UChicago and MIT at the top, closely followed by all of the ivy league. Chemistry: Berkeley at the top. Wouldn't you say that it's realistic enough to say the same for undergraduate programs? I think so. Rankings are flawed, but they are useful to a certain degree.