bigjay71

I'm posting in order to elicit input as to what types of differences I would have in being recruited out of college with an Economics degree, specifically into consulting.

Tufts University
Columbia University
Brown University
Northwestern University
Cornell University
New York University

bjomountsi09

As for being recruited:
1. Columbia
2. Cornell/Northwestern/NYU
3. Brown
4. Tufts

bigjay71

Is Tufts that bad/not as recognized or are the other five that good?

Alexandre

Northwestern is at least as good as Columbia in Econ. Here's how I would rate the schools for undergraduate Economics:

Columbia and Northwestern

small gap

Cornell and Brown

small gap

NYU

larger gap

Tufts

Snarf

What are you guys basing that off of?

Alexandre

Faculty, curriculum, breadth and depth of course offerings, research opportunities, research output by faculty, intellectual energy, professional and graduate school placement etc...

Snarf

Sorry, I meant what are your sources of information? It seems unlikely that you would be able to personally evaluate the faculty, depth of courses, intellectual energy, and other purely qualitative factors at six different universities. Even research opportunities and professional/grad school placement are typically difficult numbers to come by, as the first rarely has statistics compiled on it at all and the second requires tracking down grads who may pursue their education or career years after graduation and not report it to their undergrad school.


There seems to be a lot of rankings thrown out on this site that are said in words as hard as cannonballs and yet have nothing but personal opinion behind them. This seems a disservice to prospective students.

Alexandre

I personally mix the rankings (only graduate rankings availlable) to determine quality of faculty and research output. Those rankings are readily availlable to all. Generally speaking, NU and Columbia are ranked between #7 and #13, Brown, Cornel and NYU are ranked between #10 and #20 and Tufts isn't usually ranked in the top 40.

I generally know where major companies recruit the most, so I mix that knowledge with the rankings.

Large research universities typically have larger faculties and offer more depth and breadth of courses. Those that have larger endowments typically have the resources to offer more undergraduate research opportunities.

Of course, no system is perfect, but generallt speaking, if one does their homework and has access to sufficient information, it is possible to evaluate the quality of certain programs.

NealJ2K

1. Claremont McKenna College
2. The Rest.

Seriously, look into CMC.

Snarf

Only graduate rankings available. For large research universities, the professors who teach grad classes are often not the same professors who teach undergrad. Some of the most prolific researchers don't even teach classes, so what relevance does that have for an undergraduate?
And in terms of research output, I know several rankings judge schools and departments in terms of total output, rather than in terms of output per professor, or quality of output judged by number of citations per publication. This skews the rankings towards a "bigger is better" mentality.

Sugar Magnolia

I know that you aren't asking for new suggestions, but why did you leave out the University of Chicago? That's arguable the strongest economics program in the country, or at the very least, the program richest in history...

Snarf

^ Seconded.

bjomountsi09

Keep in mind the OP is asking for the best recruited programs, not necessarily the "best academic" ones, just a minor formality

bjomountsi09

The best recruited ones are usually just the best overall universities

Snarf

I would disagree with the above. Geography and tradition come into play to a very considerable degree when discussing recruitment.